Magnus Carlsen

**Magnus Carlsen** (born Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen, 30 November 1990) was the World Chess Champion, from years 2013 to 2023. He became World Champion on 22 November 2013, by defeating Viswanathan Anand by 6½ to 3½. Carlsen also won the return match in 2014 by 6½4½.  He also won  the match against Sergey Karjakin in 2016, against Fabiano Caruana in 2018, and against Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021.

A Norwegian chess grandmaster and chess prodigy, Carlsen is the highest rated player in the world, and the highest rated player in the history of chess. His peak rating of 2882 is higher than even Garry Kasparov achieved. Kasparov's highest rating was 2851.

## History

On 26 April 2004, Carlsen became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 148 days. This made him the third-youngest grandmaster in history. He played at the Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament in September–October 2009. This lifted him to an Elo rating of 2801. This made him second in the world. He is the fifth player to have a rating over 2800. He was 18 years old when he got this rating. This made him the youngest person to have a rating above 2800.

On 1 January 2010, the new FIDE rating list was published. He was 19 years and 32 days old when he became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world number one. He broke the previous record held by Vladimir Kramnik.

In London, March 2013, Carlsen won the 2013 Candidates tournament and qualified to challenge Anand for the World Chess Championship.

Carlsen has won the World Championship matches in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021. In 2023, Magnus announced, that he would not take part in World chess Championship 2023. Ding Liren won. The coming of chess databases and strong chess-playing engines makes it difficult to compare his achievements with previous world champions. However, he is thought to be one of the best.

In 2024, he won a set of matches against Hans Niemann.

## Case that was rejected by civil court (USA)

A lawsuit against Carlsen, was rejected (2023) by the U.S. federal court system. Hans Niemann was the plaintiff.

## Sponsorship

When Carlsen became the fourth-best player in the world he reached an agreement with a public relations (PR) expert in early 2009. This arrangement has borne fruit. Carlsen now has two sponsors, each of which provides 100,000 Euros a year. One is a stockbroker, the other a law firm. With this money, Carlsen is able to travel, and spend time on training. His coach is Garry Kasparov, a former World chess champion.

In return for the sponsorship, Carlsen wears the names of the sponsors on his jackets. This is called 'logo exposure'. He attends meetings, and gives talks. His image helps the companies to hire 'high achievers' to their staff. Put simply, companies of that type are keen to hire intelligent people. Carlsen's overall business manager is his father, Henrik.

Norway held the 2014 Chess Olympiad, and the Norwegian Government gave 70 million kroner (~8.5 million euros) in support of the event.

## Infobox (chess player)

- **name**: Magnus Carlsen
- **image**: MagnusCarlsen24.jpg
- **caption**: Carlsen at the 2024
- **birthname**: Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen
- **country**: Norway
- **birth place**: Tønsberg, Norway
- **title**: Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (2004)
- **worldchampion**: 2013–2023
- rating
- **peakrating**: 2882 (May 2014)
- **ranking**: No. 1 (July 2011)
- **peakranking**: No. 1 (January 2010)
- **fideid**: 1503014
- **website**: https://magnuscarlsen.com/en/