Magnus Carlsen - The Chess Prodigy

Magnus Carlsen was born 30th of november 1990 in Tonsberg and is a norwegian chess grandmaster. He became grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 3 months, 27 days and is the third youngest grandmaster ever in chess history after Serhij Karjakin (Ukraine) and Parimarjan Negi (India). He learned chess from his father at the age of five and progressed as he had outstanding memory abilities.

He played his first tournament in july 1999 and became one year later Champion of Norway in his category for players under 11 years. In October 2000 he played his first international Open in Bad Wiessee with 4,5 / 9 points. At the world championship U12 in Iraklio 2002 he came second place with 9 / 11 points. In January 2003 he made his first norm for the title of International Master in a tournament in Gausdal.

Very remarkable is that he achieved all three norms for the title of grandmaster within a period of just 4 months in 2004, when he played some excellent tournaments. First GM-Norm with first place 10,5/13 in the C group of the tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The next two GM-Norms at the Aeroflot-Open in Moskow and the Dubai-Open.

In August 2007 he won the GM Tournament in Biel and December 2007 he reached Semi Finals of FIDE-world-Pokal and qualified for the Grand-Prix 2008/2009. In January 2008 Carlsen wins the Corus Tournament in Wijk aan Zee with Lewon Aronjan with 8/13 points and with an Elo performance of 2742 Elo (Categorie 20). In Linares 2008 Carlsen came second place with an incredible Elo-Performance of more than 2800 behind world champion Anand. In June 2008 Carlsen wins Aerosvit-Tounament in Foros, one point ahead of the other competitors. In Chess Masters Bilbao 2008 in Spain (2. bis 13. September) he finished it with 3 wins, 2 losses and 4 draws and came second place after Wesselin Topalow.

It is widely assumed that Carlsen will become the future world champion. Carlsen lives near Norway's capital, Oslo.

His Elo-Rating is 2810 Elo and he is placed in the list of the FIDE TOP 100 Players as Nr.1 (on January 2010). He is the youngest player ever to be world #1.