CREDIT DOCUMENTARY "MAGNUS"

Before Magnus Carlsen amazed the world with his prodigious chess talent, he was just a kid lost in deep thoughts.

Early Years

Magnus was born in Tønsberg, Norway on November 30, 1990. During his early years, he moved between Finland and Belgium with his family before returning to Norway in 1998, growing up in the suburban area of Haslum just outside Oslo.

From a young age, it was clear that he was a very gifted child with an impressive intellectual ability. At 2 years old, Magnus could solve 50-piece jigsaw puzzles and at 4, he skilfully made constructions out of Lego pieces intended for 10-14-year-olds. By the age of 5, his father (Henrik Carlsen) introduced him to chess, though he showed little interest at the time. Instead, he chose to apply himself to memorizing the areas, population, flags and capital cities of all the countries in the world.

CREDIT DOCUMENTARY "MAGNUS"

Twenties to Present Day

In 2011, Magnus’ FIDE rating closed in on Kasparov’s historical record of 2851 (year 1999). In 2012, Magnus won the London Chess Championship for the third time. His rating increased from 2848 to 2861 and surpassed Kasparov’s “unbeatable” record. 2012 was spent qualifying for the 2013 WCC.

In May of 2014, Magnus reached a peak rating of 2882. Later the same year he won both the Rapid and the Bitz World Championships.

In 2014, Magnus defended his World Champion title and became the first player to simultaneously hold the title in all three FIDE rated time controls (Standard, Rapid and Blitz). In October 2015, Magnus successfully defended his title in the FIDE World Rapid Championships held in Berlin — the first World Rapid Champion in history to do so. He reached the highest live rapid rating in history after the tournament and was at that point ranked No. 1 in all three disciplines simultaneously. He ended the year finishing joint first in the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour, the London Chess Classic.

Magnus started 2016 with his fifth win at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and his first at the Norway Chess Tournament. He later went on to take out the Bilbao Masters Final in July. He finished the year with a win against Sergey Karjakin at the 2016 World Chess Championship in New York.

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After a slow start to 2017, Magnus took out the rapid portion of the tournament at the Paris leg of the Grand Chess Tour in June, and won in both rapid and blitz at the Leuven leg in July. After placing second at the Sinquefield Cup and fifth at the London Chess Classics, Magnus had accrued enough points to take out the 2017 Grand Chess Tour. He ended the year by (REMOVE: winning) taking out the title of World Blitz Champion in Riyadh – his third World Blitz Championship victory.

Magnus went into 2018 ranked No. 1 in the FIDE rapid and blitz rating lists, with Elo ratings of 2880 and 2965, respectively. In January, he took out his sixth Tata Steel Chess Tournament victory – a record for the tournament, and the unofficial Fischer Random World Championship in February. After receiving minor placings at the Grenke Chess Classic, Shamkir Chess and Norway Chess, Magnus tied for first at the 6th Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in August. In November, Magnus successfully defended his title against Fabiano Caruana at the 2018 World Chess Championship in London. In December, he also defended his World Blitz Championship title, with an impressive unbeaten result. This was Magnus’ tenth World Title and fourth World Blitz Title.

CREDIT ERIC ROSEN | ST. LOUIS CHESS CLUB