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Sunday, 13 April 2008 |
 When news broke of the FIDE Grand Prix Series, who could have guessed that wonderboy Magnus Carlsen (17) from Norway would be seeded first? To be honest, we should call him neither wonderboy nor super talent by now, since Carlsen simply belongs to the world elite now, occupying a splendid 5th spot on the April 2008 FIDE rating list.
Magnus Carlsen was born on November 30, 1990 in Tønsberg, Norway. He was coached at the Norwegian high school for top athletes (by the GM Simen Agdestein), which he still visits regularly.
The result that brought him to the attention of the international chess world was his victory in the C group at the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 2004 – his first GM norm. Only three months later Carlsen became an international Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months and 27 days, the third youngest GM in history.
In May-June 2007, Carlsen participated in the Candidates Tournament to qualify for the FIDE World Championship Tournament in September in Mexico. Carlsen drew his match with top seed Levon Aronian and after the 4-game rapid playoff was drawn as well, Aronian won both tiebreaker (blitz) games.
In December last year, Carlsen reached the semi-finals of the World Cup tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), being eliminated by the eventual winner Gata Kamsky.
Carlsen's results in 2008 have been excellent, winning the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee together with Levon Aronian, and finishing second in Linares.
Carlsen is a modest and calm young man, known for using his tournament rest days playing tennis, football or squash. His playing style has matured rapidly. He readily combines sharp attacks with difficult endings, resulting from a wide range of openings
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