Why Magnus Carlsen Is The GOAT of Chess
Magnus Carlsen has recently obtained the World Championship title for the fourth time, beating Ian Nepomniatchi with an astounding 6.5-3.5 score! Many aspiring challengers such as Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, and of course Ian Nepomniatchi have tried to take down the chess king but failed. He's currently #1 in the world by the rating-leaderboard, and likely will be for quite a while. Today we will be discussing why Magnus Carlsen is the GOAT of chess, and what makes him so good at the game. Enjoy!
How it Started
Magnus Carlsen was born in the small town of Tønsberg, Norway. He took up potential in chess at a very young age and was already playing in serious international tournaments by the age of 10! At the age of 13, Magnus earned his first GM norm at the Corus Chess Tournament (now known as Tata Steel) and made national headlines. Magnus Carlsen broke 2800 FIDE barrier at just 18 years and 11 months. He was the second-youngest person to achieve this milestone (GM Alireza Firouzja recently set the record by breaking it at only 18 years and 5 months)! Let's analyze one of his great games where he drew GM Garry Kasparov at the age of 13!
The GOAT of Chess
Magnus Carlsen is currently the highest rated player in chess history, with a peak-rating of 2882! He also spent a long time as the world rapid & blitz champion. Magnus became a chess grandmaster at the age of 13, which at the time was the youngest age to achieve this title. Here is his FIDE rating graph:
So far, people couldn't come close to him in their level of chess (at his peak level), but this could change in the near future, as young grandmasters like Alireza Firouzja are taking the chess world by storm. I'll be analyzing one of his recent games, where he crushed GM Hikaru Nakamura. Take a look!
World Champion
As all of you probably know, Magnus Carlsen recently obtained his world championship title, beating Ian Nepomniatchi in the classical portion. He did this with 2 people already, GM Sergey Karjakin and GM Fabiano Caruana. This all started back in 2013, when Carlsen overtook the Indian grandmaster, Vishy Anand (short for Viswanathan Anand), in his home city! The ending score was 6.5-4.5. This was the start of his 4-championship win streak. Unfortunately, Magnus stated that "Unless his challenger isn't Alireza Firouzja, he likely won't be playing another world championship match." This is partially because, as he stated, "he doesn't feel that motivated to win anymore." We'll be taking a look at one of his world championship games against Vishy Anand, and how he managed to win. Enjoy!
Conclusion
Magnus Carlsen is a phenomenon in the chess world, and many people consider him the GOAT. These were some reasons why so many people think that Magnus Carlsen is the greatest of all time. I know that this might spark a lot of debate, but I personally think that Magnus is by far the best chess player. What do you think? Do you think someone else is the GOAT? If you want to see what other people think on this topic, check out these chess.com surveys:
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