Carlsen's Chessboard

                                            Introduction

   Welcome to my first blog! Today, I will be discussing the Carlsen family. We all know Magnus, but did you know that several other members of his family play chess? In this blog, I will share some of their best games!

                                             The Queen

   Ella Carlsen is Magnus’s wife. She was born in Hong Kong in 1998, making her 26 years old. She married Magnus on January 4, 2025. She does not have a FIDE rating, but has a chess.com account with a rapid rating of 1138.

   Here is Ella’s most recent win. She beat a 1028 from Norway in a 15+10 rapid game. She took advantage of her opponent’s mistake on move 16 to win a pawn, and converted the rest of the game very well for an 1100. I especially liked the move 23… Qxd4!

                                         The Knight

   Ingrid Oen Carlsen is Magnus’s younger sister. She was born in 1994, making her 31 years old. She works as an associate for a consulting group. She has a FIDE rating of 1759.

   Here is a game Ingrid played in 2010 at the Gibraltar Masters. She found the nice move 11. f5 which gave her a space advantage. She then pushed her pawns down the kingside to attack. At the end of the game, her opponent was about to lose a knight to a pawn fork, so they resigned.

                                              The Bishop

   Ellen Carlsen is Magnus’s older sister. She was born in 1989, making her 36 years old. She works as a doctor at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. She has a FIDE rating of 1963.

   Here is a game Ellen won at the Knut Bockman cup in 2009. She obtained a space advantage out of the opening and used her opponent’s weak squares to bring her knight into the attack. I find it instructive how an innocuous move like 19…g6 could cause Black to lose the game on the dark squares so quickly.

                                           The Rook

   Henrik Carlsen is Magnus’s father. He works as an IT consultant, and was the one to teach Magnus the rules of chess. He was born in 1959, making him 65 years old. He has a FIDE rating of 2063 and a peak of 2095. 

   Here is a fantastic game Henrik won against a 2300 at the Reykjavik Open in 2017. He destroyed his opponent in the Dutch defense. Stockfish rated his play at 97.1 accuracy overall, which is near the level of his son. Henrik was given a brilliant for playing 14. Nd5 as well as 17. Qa3, both of which take advantage of a king and queen pin.

                                                The King

   Ellen and Ingrid also have a brother. He is decent at chess as well. In all seriousness, Magnus Carlsen was the World Chess Champion for 10 years until choosing not to defend his title in 2023. He is currently the highest rated player in the world at 2839 FIDE, and peaked at 2882 in August 2019, which was the highest classical rating ever recorded.

   Here is a game Magnus won against Fabiano Caruana at Norway Chess in June 2025. Magnus sacrificed a pawn in the opening, but his space advantage forced Fabiano to give the pawn back. As he is known to do, Magnus played on for a long time in a slightly better position, until Fabiano blundered with 47… Qxh5. After Magnus played 48. c6, Fabiano’s queen was too far out of play to deal with Magnus’s passed pawns, and he resigned four moves later.

                                                The Pawn

   Magnus and Ella recently had a baby! He was born on September 27, 2025. He is still too young to play chess. However, he has a family of strong players to help him if he pursues the game in the future!

                                         Conclusion

   Thank you for reading my first blog! I hope you learned a few things about the various Carlsens. I will be making more blogs in the future. Please leave any tips or suggestions in the comments!