Behind the Avatar - carlsen

Interview conducted on August 12-13, 2025.

Me: Hello and welcome to Episode 11 of Behind the Avatar (hehehe Elijah's interview is getting released first). Today we're interviewing @carlsen (finally). How are you doing?

Carlsen: I’m doing well, thanks for asking.

Me: Before we go into the more complicated questions (because usernames are 100% complicated), tell us a bit about yourself!

Carlsen: My name is Youssef, I’m 13 years old and turning 14 in a couple of months. I currently live in Egypt. I usually go on Chess.com by the username “carlsen”, which is a rare username I’ve claimed and obtained.

Me: Speaking of usernames, I have a question. I'm sure everyone knows the answer already, but for documentation purposes please answer. Why did you choose the username you did, and have you had any previous usernames?

Carlsen: When I choose any username on any platform, I would always prefer it to be unique, and represent my identity. But I have changed this ideology lately, with my Chess.com username. See, back when I started this account and my Social journey, I always went by the username “KingOfBrilliancy”, but soon, I felt like I need to stand out among the other people who had rare usernames. At first, back in January of this year, I have thought of claiming the username “Champion”, but I decided to give it to one of my friends (previously named pl122), and I still couldn’t figure out the best username. And then I found this account: @carlsen-inactive, who was previously named carlsen, my current username…it met the requirements: An inactive account, with such rarity, like just imagine a username named after the GOAT. I did the process on Mar 18-19, and got the username on Mar 21, and the rest is history.

Me: I remember those days. I'm pretty sure I was mad at you because I would have to change my quotes (especially after Silent King took @KingOfBrilliancy so it would look like he said things that you did). Anyways, why did you choose your current pfp?

Carlsen: I change my profile picture a lot these days. At the current date I'm writing this (Aug 13 2025), I have this one: [posts his pfp, seen in the thumbnail]

Carlsen: The memorial of the great and glorious CEO Steve Jobs, who founded Apple (along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne).

Me: Yeah, I noticed you change your pfp a lot lol. I'd say that music video one suits you. IDK why. Do you own or have a staff position in any clubs?

Carlsen: Yeah, I'd also say the music one was fire. Anyways, I own the iCHESS club, but it's currently inactive due to the extreme success of CVC so no one really cares about other clubs these days from what I see. I'm currently Super Admin in Republic of Noobistan, it's an active club, but not really enforcing rules and can sometimes get out of hand. I'm Admin in Chess.com vs. ChessKid, my favorite club ever, and is the major reason why I'm even still on this site! I just hope I won't lose my position as Admin-

Carlsen: I'm also Admin in EGYPT CHESS CLUB, my national club. The rest clubs are just either extensions to big clubs like CVC. Back in my glory days in...for example... October 2024, or really just any other month that I didn't try to leave the site, I was a massive club Admin, I had so many more clubs to moderate, but now, it's not really my point anymore to moderate and get Admin in as many clubs as possible.

Me: *demotes you in CVC* (jk) Also, thank you for taking the time to give these long answers! How did you find Chess.com social and what is your opinion on it?

Carlsen: That's a really good question, I've been asked this question several times, but I'll talk about it again.

Carlsen: It all started back in May 2024, when I was obsessed with User Interfaces (and I'm still obsessed with them to this day), I was looking at old videos from 2017 about Chess.com, and the interfaces looked absolutely beautiful and...old! 

Carlsen: So, I knew about forums, I knew they existed, and I actually commented on a forum back in 2023! I was just not aware of the "social" chaos, I was on Chess.com just to play chess, and that's why I actually have been offline for over 3 months straight, from Nov 2023 all the way to January 2024. I did come back on January, but I left for the second time, and returned on April 2024, and I got back a Diamond Membership, that I paid yearly (and I'm still paying yearly to this day), on May 10, 2025. I then saw some GM games live, and the social chat was absolute nonsense. Spam, politics, religion, violence, everything you can imagine. That's not the main point though. I joined a club called Chess.com Community, in May 2024, and made my first forum ever there (back when you could do forums in Community), here's the forum link, yes I still remember it: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/old-chess-com-style

Carlsen: I then started to meet other people, joined a lot of clubs, started a lot of fiascos, but at the end, I gained trust, and popularity, and the rest is history, as I always say.

Me: That was an interesting read. I'd say now's a good time to ask: Do you prefer clubs or OTF, and why?

Carlsen: I can't say I "prefer" one over the other, because, yes, I have over 15 months of experience in clubs, but very minimal experience in OTF, I usually don't post OTF forums, I believe I only posted like 1 or 2 OTF forums in 2025. So I would say I'm more comfortable in clubs, that's where my experience is in. OTF...yeah not so much.

Me: Yeah I'm kind of the same with the OTF forums. What would you say is your greatest achievement on Chess.com?

Carlsen: I could flex about my achievement of 25K views (almost a quarter of 100K which is absolutely ridiculous), or getting to 1800 Rapid... but my greatest achievement is that I have become a well-known figure, and people respect me and thank me for what I'm doing. Whenever someone thanks me, it genuinely means the world to me and I am not exaggerating.

Me: I'd say that's a good achievement. Much better than becoming famous because you're a troll. Well then, are there any blogs/clubs/people you would like to shoutout, and if so what/who are they?

Carlsen: I'd give a shoutout to the active people of CVC, I can't name all of them, but I'll name the best of them. @Caleb341, @F1-24, @TheAuthorOfChickens (you), @Qoiuoiuoiuoiu, @NoahdeAlwis, @ToastBread_1, @Forsaken, @ChessBeteigeuze, @TheCosmic_Horizon, @Champion, @sailsword, @Car-Geek, @SandyDanger, @FreeFriendlyDove, and so many more, I just couldn't name all of them (:

Me: Excellent shoutout (only because I'm in it- jk)

Me: Thank for your time! Do you have anything else to say?

Carlsen: Nah, that's it for today. Thank you for your time and have a great week ahead.

Me: You too (:

Me: Remember to eat food, breathe, and watch Top Gun. Cya!