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The chess games of Magnus Carlsen

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http://www.chessgames.com/player/magnus_carlsen.html

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Magnus Carlsen
Number of games in database: 2,448
Years covered: 1999 to 2017
Last FIDE rating: 2840 (2896 rapid, 2914 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2882
Overall record: +643 -262 =640 (62.3%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 903 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are
excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS


With the White pieces:
Sicilian

B90 B30 B40 B33 B46

Ruy Lopez

Queen's Pawn Game


A45 E10 D02 A40 A46

(158)

C67 C78 C95 C65 C69


(71)

Queen's Indian

(64)

E32 E21 E20 E54 E36

French Defense

(57)

C00 C11 C18 C03 C02

(88)

E15 E12 E17 E16 E14

Nimzo Indian

(69)

D15 D17 D12 D10 D11

Nimzo Indian

(232)

B33 B30 B22 B31 B90

Ruy Lopez

(154)

C65 C78 C67 C80 C77

Slav

With the Black pieces:


Sicilian

(236)

(59)

E32 E34 E20 E21 E55

Queen's Gambit Declined

(58)

D37 D38 D30 D31 D39

Queen's Pawn Game

(57)

A45 A46 E00 E10 A40

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]


Carlsen vs S Ernst, 2004 1-0
Carlsen vs H Harestad, 2003 1-0
J L Hammer vs Carlsen, 2003 0-1
Kramnik vs Carlsen, 2008 0-1
Anand vs Carlsen, 2013 0-1
Carlsen vs G Tallaksen Ostmoe, 2005 1-0
Carlsen vs A Groenn, 2005 1-0
Carlsen vs Aronian, 2008 1-0
Nakamura vs Carlsen, 2014 0-1
Carlsen vs M Vachier-Lagrave, 2015 1-0
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: [what is this?]
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004)
Anand - Carlsen World Championship (2013)
Carlsen - Anand World Championship (2014)

Photo courtesy of Magnus Carlsen's Official Facebook Page.

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]


Corus Group C (2004)
Norwegian Championship (2006)
Gausdal Classics GM-group A (2007)
Pearl Spring Chess Tournament (2009)
Norwegian Championship (2004)
Aerosvit (2008)
Tata Steel (2013)
Tata Steel (2015)
Norwegian Championship (2005)
Midnight Sun Chess Challenge (2006)
Corus Group B (2006)
Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2010)
FIDE World Cup (2005)
World Chess Cup (2007)
XXII Reykjavik Open (2006)
GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
Fighting Chess with Magnus Carlsen by jakaiden
rodmalone's favorite games carlsen by rodmalone
HiperKing Magnus by Gottschalk
MAGNUS CARLSEN'S BEST GAMES by notyetagm
The Carlsen Chronicles by MoonlitKnight
Carlsen Cranks by fredthebear
Wonderboy - Magnus Carlsen, 2000-2004 by Resignation Trap
Match Carlsen! by amadeus
Magnus Carlsen by akatombo
Move by Move - Carlsen (Lakdawala) by Qindarka
Power Chess - Carlsen by Anatoly21
Chess Network Videos: Part 2 by Penguincw
carlsen games by nadvil
Mozart of chess by zarg
RECENT GAMES:
Carlsen vs Wei Yi (Jan-17-17) 1-0
D Andreikin vs Carlsen (Jan-16-17) 1/2-1/2
Carlsen vs R Wojtaszek (Jan-15-17) 1-0
W So vs Carlsen (Jan-14-17) 1/2-1/2
M Vachier-Lagrave vs Carlsen (Dec-30-16)

0-1, blitz

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FIDE player card for Magnus Carlsen

18/1/2017 10:45 AM

The chess games of Magnus Carlsen

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http://www.chessgames.com/player/magnus_carlsen.html

MAGNUS CARLSEN
(born Nov-30-1990, 26 years old) Norway

[what is this?]

Magnus Carlsen is the 16th undisputed World Champion. He won the crown from Viswanathan Anand in November 2013 and successfully defended it in a return contest with the
former title holder in November 2014. In November 2016, he retained his crown when he defeated the Challenger, Sergey Karjakin, in the rapid game tiebreaker after the
12-game classical match was tied.
Landmarks
FM (2002); IM (2003); GM (2004); vice-World U12 World Champion (2002); Norwegian Champion (2006); Candidate (2007 & 2013); World Champion (2013 & 2014); World
Rapid Champion (2014 & 2015) and World Blitz Champion (2009 & 2014), winner of the Grand Chess Tour (2015), five-time winner at Wijk aan Zee (2008 (jointly with Levon
Aronian), 2010, 2013, 2015 & 2016).
Carlsen has been the world's top ranked player since January 2010, apart from six months between November 2010 and June 2011 when he was #2, and possesses the highest
standard FIDE rating ever posted, as well as the highest ever live rating. In January 2016, he became the first person to be the world #1 in standard, rapid and blitz chess.
Master Norms
<IM norms> Carlsen earned his first IM norm in January 2003 at the Gausdal Troll Masters when he scored 7/10. His second IM norm came in June 2003 at the Salongernas
IM-tournament in Stockholm where he scored 6/9 and his third IM norm came in the following month at the 2003 Politiken Cup in Copenhagen where he scored 8/11.
<GM norms> In early 2004, Carlsen made a major international impact when he won Corus C with 10.5/13, easily winning his first grandmaster norm and earning his entry to
the Corus B in 2005. Carlsen obtained his second grandmaster norm in the 3rd Aeroflot Festival (2004) in February and his third grandmaster norm at the sixth 6th Dubai Open
(2004), held between 18th and 28th April.
Background:
He was born in Tnsberg, Vestfold. His parents are Sigrun en and Henrik Carlsen, both of whom are engineers. His father taught him chess at the age of eight after which he
soon played his first tournament, a junior (Miniputt) Norwegian championship. He was coached by seven-time Norwegian Champion Simen Agdestein and by Torbjorn Ringdal
Hansen. He won the title of International Master in 2003 at the age of 12 years 7 months and 25 days. In 2004, after having gained over 300 rating points in little over a year, he
became the second-youngest grandmaster in chess history at the time, behind only Sergey Karjakin, at the age of 13 years 4 months and 27 days. Parimarjan Negi later pipped
his record by five days to become the second youngest grandmaster ever.
Championships:
<Age>: Carlsen won the Norwegian U11 Championship in 2000 and the U10 Nordic Championship in 2001. In 2002, he placed =1st in the Open Norwegian Junior Championship
with 5.5/7, but easily won the same event the following year with 6/6. Carlsen started with 4/4 at the 2002 U12 European Championship but faded to finish sixth. In the 2002
U12 World Championship a few weeks later, Carlsen was sole leader coming into the last round, but was held to a draw by David Howell, enabling Ian Nepomniachtchi to equal
his score and to win on tiebreak. He placed =3rd at the 2003 U14 European Championship, half a point behind Sergei Zhigalko and Tornike Sanikidze, a short time later placing
=9th with 7.5/11 at the World U14 Championship in Halkidiki.
<National and Continental>: A couple of weeks after being eliminated from the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004) (see below), he placed =1st in the 2004
Norwegian Championship. However, after a two-game play-off match with co-leader and until then, six-time Norwegian champion, Berge Ostenstad was drawn, stenstad was
declared winner on tiebreak. In the 2005 Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen again finished in a shared first place, this time with his mentor Simen Agdestein. A rapid game
playoff between them resulted in Agdesteins victory by 3.5-2.5 (+2 -1 =3). Carlsen finally won the Norwegian Championship in 2006, after defeating Simen Agdestein in a
tie-break match.
Carlsens first and and so far only participation in the continental championship provided a solid 22-point boost to his rating when he scored 8/13 in the 6th European Individual
Championship (2005).
<World>: Carlsen qualified for the FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004), but was eliminated in the first round tiebreaker by Levon Aronian. His hopes to
become a contender for the World Championship in the future took a big step forward by placing tenth at the FIDE World Cup (2005), becoming the youngest player ever to
qualify for the Candidates. In his first Candidates match in Elista in May, he drew 3-3 in the six slow games of the Candidates Match: Aronian - Carlsen (2007) before losing in
rapid-play tie-breaks. He reached the final four in the World Chess Cup (2007) before being defeated in the semi-finals by the eventual winner, Gata Kamsky. Carlsen's final
placing in the 2007 World Cup qualified him for participation in the FIDE Grand Prix for 2008-09. Soon afterwards he tied for first place in the Baku Grand Prix (2008), the first
round of FIDE's inaugural Grand Prix series. Carlsen later withdrew from the Grand Prix cycle despite his excellent result in Baku, complaining about "dramatic changes to ...
regulations." and that changing the rules dramatically in the middle of a cycle is simply unacceptable.
On the basis of his rating, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament that would determine the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand in 2012. In November
2010, however, Carlsen announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates tournament. Carlsen described the 200812 cycle as not "...sufficiently modern and fair", and added
that "Reigning champion privileges, the long (five year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had
to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion." Carlsen qualified
for the World Championship Candidates (2013) that was played in London, again on the basis of his rating. He placed =1st with Vladimir Kramnik on 8.5/14 after both players lost
their last round games, but as the first tiebreaker (score against each other in the tournament which was 1-1) failed to break the tie, he won on the second tiebreak which
stipulated that the player with the greater number of wins takes first place; he had scored five wins to Kramnik's four. During the tournament, Carlsen set a new live rating record
of 2878.9 after he defeated Gelfand in round 10.
In November 2013, Carlsen won the Anand - Carlsen World Championship (2013) that was staged in Chennai. The first four games were drawn before Carlsen won the fifth and
sixth games. The seventh and eighth games were drawn, with Carlsen then winning the ninth game and drawing the tenth and last game to win by 6.5-3.5 (+3 =7).
World Championship Defence 2014
Carlsen defended his World Championship title against Anand - who won the right to challenge for the title by winning the World Chess Championship Candidates (2014) that was
held in March 2014 - in Sochi in Russia in November 2014.
The first game of the Carlsen - Anand World Championship (2014) was a fighting draw with Carlsen playing Black and successfully defending a Grunfeld. He drew first blood in
game two playing the White side of a quiet Ruy Lopez, breaking down Black's defences before the first time control. After the first rest day, Anand struck back strongly playing
the White side of a Queen's Gambit Declined (D37), and overcame Carlsen before the first time control. In game 4, Anand played the Sicilian but Carlsen steered the opening into
a quiet positional struggle that ended in a draw. Game 5 featured a Queen's Indian Defence by Carlsen which also ended in a draw. Game 6 may have been the turning point in
the match. Anand missed a simple tactical stroke as Black that would have given him a very strong, if not winning position and the lead in the match. After missing this
continuation, Anand's game weakened and Carlsen brought home the point to take the lead in the match for the second time.
Game 7 was another Berlin Defence by Anand who encountered difficulties and surrendered a piece for two pawns. However, his defence kept Carlsen at bay for 122 moves
before the game was finally drawn due to insufficient mating material on the board. Game 8 in the match was another QGD, with Carlsen playing Black introducing an innovation
from his home preparation that guaranteed him a relatively easy draw. After another rest day, play resumed with Carlsen playing the White side of a Ruy Lopez that turned into a
Berlin Defence by Anand. The game quickly came to an end through a draw by repetition, with Carlsen content to maintain his one-point lead. In Game 10, Carlsen again
defended a Grunfeld, albeit not as convincingly as in Game 1. However, he defended a long initiative by Anand to secure a drew to continue to maintain his one point lead. Game
11 was another Berlin Defence by Anand which turned into a complex and hard fought middle game following an innovation by Anand on the queenside, which was followed by an
exchange sacrifice. Carlsen successfully defended to bring home the final point needed to secure his title for another two years.
Match result: Carlsen won by 6.5-4.5 (+3 -1 =7).
World Championship Defence 2016
Carlsen's next defence of his classical world title was in November 2016, starting November 11th, in New York City. Sergey Karjakin won the right to challenge him by finishing
clear first in the World Championship Candidates (2016). Carlsen retained his title when he drew the classical games 6-6 (+1 -1 =10) and won the rapiad game tiebreaker 3-1
(+2 =2). See Carlsen - Karjakin World Championship (2016) for more information.
Classical Tournaments:
<2004-2007> Carlsen placed 3rd at the 12th Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament (2004) followed later that month with a solid =3rd place at the Politiken Cup 2004, a half point
behind the leaders Darmen Sadvakasov and compatriot Leif Erlend Johannessen. In October 2005, he won the Gausdal Bygger'n Masters in Norway with 8/9 ahead of 9 other
grandmasters. He continued to improve in 2006, tying Alexander Motylev for first place in Corus Group B (2006). After several more strong performances during the year,
including 6.5/9 at the XXII Reykjavik Open (2006), =2nd at Bosna Sarajevo Tournament (2006), =2nd behind Sergei Shipov at the Midnight Sun Challenge at Breivika
videregaende skole in Norway, =2nd at Biel Int'l Festival (2006) (after beating the winner Alexander Morozevich twice), first at the Gausdal Classics GM-A and a joint
second-place finish at Linares - Morelia (2007), he crossed the 2700-mark, the youngest player ever to do so. A relatively poor result at Dortmund (2007) (3/7) was followed by a
win at Biel Chess Festival (2007) (His score was equaled by Alexander Onischuk and so they played a tie-breaker match to determine the winner. After drawing two rapid and two
blitz games, Carlsen won the Armageddon game) and a par for rating =2nd at the Arctic Chess Challenge (2007) where he scored 7/9, a half point behind the leader Alexander
Moiseenko, and 3rd at the Tal Memorial (2007) in November 2007.

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The chess games of Magnus Carlsen

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<2008-2009> In 2008 Carlsen was the joint winner of Corus (2008) A-Group together with Levon Aronian, and placed second in Morelia-Linares (2008) behind Anand. He won
clear first place at Aerosvit (2008) with a dominant 8/11 score. His "disappointing" third placement at 41st Biel International Chess Festival (2008) with 6/10, a half point behind
joint winners Leinier Dominguez Perez and Evgeny Alekseev, was nevertheless still a 2740 performance, whilst his equal second in the Bilbao Grand Slam Chess Final (2008) with
5.0/10 was a 2768 performance. His relatively meagre 7/13 at Corus (2009) was followed by equal second placement behind Kramnik at Dortmund (2009) with a 2773
performance and 2nd with 5/9 at the M-Tel Masters (2009). The arrival of Garry Kasparov in 2009 as his coach enabled Carlsen's finest tournament performance to date, and one
of the best tournament results in the history of chess. Carlsen eclipsed a stellar field consisting of Topalov, Peter Leko, Dmitry Jakovenko, Teimour Radjabov and Wang Yue to win
clear first prize with 8/10 at the category XXI Pearl Spring Chess Tournament (2009). Carlsen's performance rating for the tournament was a record 3002 and lifted his FIDE
rating in the November 2009 list to 2801, which made him only the fifth player to surpass 2800, and easily the youngest. After a slow start, Carlsen placed equal second with
Vassily Ivanchuk behind Vladimir Kramnik in the Category XXI Tal Memorial (2009), which fielded ten of the world's top thirteen rated players. He saw out 2009 with a win at the
London Chess Classic (2009), a point ahead of Kramnik, a result which pushed him to the top of the world ratings in January 2010.
<2010-2012> In 2010, Carlsen's success continued, winning Corus (2010) outright with 8.5/13, half a point ahead of joint second place finishers Kramnik and Alexey Shirov. In
June, he won the category XXI King's Tournament (2010) in Bazna in Romania by a clear two points with 7.5/10 and a 2918 performance. Following mediocre performances at
the 2010 Olympiad and the category XXII Bilbao Masters (2010), Carlsen returned to form by winning the category XXI Nanjing Pearl Spring Tournament (2010) outright with
7/10 (+4 -0 =6) and a 2901 rating performance, a full point ahead of World Champion Anand who took outright second with 6/10, and finishing the year by winning the London
Chess Classic (2010) for the second time in succession. After a slow start in the Tata Steel (2011) super tournament, Carlsen finished =3rd with Levon Aronian behind Hikaru
Nakamura and Anand with 8/13 and a performance rating of 2821. He followed up in June by winning the Bazna King's Tournament (2011) on tiebreak ahead of Karjakin, both
finishing with 6.5/10, and by winning Biel Chess Festival (2011) in July with a round to spare and with a final score of 7/10 (TPR 2835). After another characteristically slow start,
Carlsen placed =1st with Ivanchuk at the 4th Bilbao Masters (2011) with 15 points under the Bilbao scoring system (+3 -1 =6) and a 2842 performance rating, ultimately
winning the tournament in a blitz tiebreaker. Then in November 2011, Carlsen won the Tal Memorial (2011) on tiebreak with 5.5/9 (+2 =7 -0 and a TPR of 2850) over Aronian.
Carlsen finished 2011 with 3rd place at the category 20 London Chess Classic (2011) behind Kramnik and Nakamura, scoring +3 =5 (TPR of 2879). 2012 started with =2nd (+4
-1 =8; TPR 2830) behind Aronian and alongside Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana at the Category 21 Tata Steel (2012). He won the category 22 Tal Memorial (2012) outright with
5.5/9 (+2 =7) and a TPR of 2849. The month after his strong results in the World Blitz he finished outright second behind Wang Hao in the Grandmaster Tournament of the Biel
Chess Festival (2012). In October 2012, Carlsen repeated his 2011 feat at Bilbao by winning the Bilbao Masters (2012) in a tiebreaker, this time against Caruana. He finished up
2012 by winning the London Chess Classic (2012), the third time he has done so, with a score of 6.5/8 (+5 =3 -0) and a TPR of 2994 (only fractionally below his record effort at
Pearl Springs in 2009). London 2012 was also made historic for the fact that Carlsen's result lifted his January 2013 rating to a new record, exceeding Kasparov's record 2851 by
10 points.
<2013> Building on his achievements of 2012, Carlsen won the category 20 Tata Steel (2013) tournament with a round to spare, his final score being 10/13. He also set a new
live rating record of 2874 after his round 12 win over Nakamura, although this was superseded at the Candidates in March. In May 2013 he played in the category 21 Norway
Chess Tournament (2013) held in the Stavanger Region of Norway and came 2nd with 5.5/9, half a point behind the winner Sergey Karjakin; in the preliminary Norway Chess
Tournament (Blitz) (2013) held to determine the draw, he came 2nd with 6/9 behind Karjakin, thereby earning 5 games as White out of the 9 to be played. In June he again
came outright 2nd, this time at the category 22 Tal Memorial (2013), half a point behind the winner Boris Gelfand. His last hit out before the World Championship match against
Anand in November 2013 was the category 22 double round robin Sinquefield Cup (2013), which he won outright with 4.5/6 (+3 =3; TPR of 2966).
<2014> Carlsen's first tournament as World Champion was the Zurich Chess Challenge (2014), the first ever category 23 tournament (average rating 2801). He came from
behind to take equal first with Aronian in the Zurich Chess Challenge (Blitz) (2014), which determined the colors in the main event (Carlsen has 4 whites and 1 black). By round 4
of the standard time event, he extended his live rating to 2882.6, breaking the record he established in round 3. His round 5 draw with Anand enabled him to finish the standard
time event in first place, 2 scoring points ahead of Aronian. He needed 3.5/5 in the Zurich Chess Challenge (Rapid) (2014) played on the final day to guarantee his win in the
event, however his 2/5 result was sufficient to win the combined event by one point under the scoring system used. His next event was the category 22 Gashimov Memorial
(2014), a new event in honor of the late Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov, which he won outright with a score of 6.5/10, defeating Fabiano Caruana, his rival for first prize, in the last
round. Although he was the only undefeated player at the Norway Chess Tournament (2014), he won insufficient games to win the event, which was successfully defended by last
year's winner, Sergei Karjakin. In August 2014, he played in the category 23 (only the second such strength event) Sinquefield Cup (2014) and came outright second with
5.5/10, 3 points behind Caruana, the runaway leader of the tournament.
<2015> Following his successful defence of his title against Anand in November 2014, Carlsen won the Tata Steel (2015) outright with a score of 9/13 (+6 -1 =6), his six wins
scored in succession after starting the event poorly with two draws and a loss. In April 2015, Carlsen won the category 21 Gashimov Memorial (2015) outright for the second year
in succession with a powerful score of 7/9 (+5 =4), a full point clear of a resurgent Viswanathan Anand, who was outright runner up with 6/9. This high was followed by a low at
the category 22 Norway Chess (2015) in Stavanger in June 2015, when he crashed and burned to his worst tournament result in almost a decade. After losing his first round
game on time to Topalov in a won position, Carlsen never recovered and registered a 3.5/9 (+2-4=3) result that slashed 23 points from his rating. A slow start in the category 22
Sinquefield Cup (2015) following an early loss to Topalov, was followed by three successive wins which enabled Carlsen to draw level with the leader by round 5, before the rest
day. However, a crucial loss to Grischuk from an advantageous position and missed opportunities to win against Nakamura relegated him to equal second in the event, a point
behind the outright winner Levon Aronian. This result also caused him to shed a few ratings points.
Still struggling with his form, Carlsen began his campaign at the category 23 London Chess Classic (2015) with his characteristic slow start, but was able to finish equal first in
the ninth and final round with a win over Alexander Grischuk, scoring 5.5/9 alongside Anish Giri and a surging Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. A three way rapid game tiebreak resulted
in Carlsen winning the tournament as well as the Grand Chess Tour of 2015. He finished 2015 with a flourish when he won the powerful Qatar Masters (2015) by sharing first with
an undefeated 7/9, then winning 2-0 in the blitz playoff against Yu Yangyi. His tiebreak wins against Yu Yangyi also elevated him back to world #1 in blitz.
<2016> The year started in the best possible way for Carlsen when he scored 9/13 to win outright at the category 20 Tata Steel (2016) event, a point ahead of Caruana and Ding
Liren. This was his fifth win at Wijk aan Zee, tying with Anand for the record number of wins at this event, which has been running since 1938. In April, he won the Norway Chess
(2016) event for the first time, scoring 6/9 to finish outright first, a half point ahead of outright second placed Aronian who won their individual game; Carlsen also won the
preliminary Norway Blitz (2016) with 7.5/9, a point ahead of outright second placed Giri, to win the right to five starts as white in the nine round principal tournament. In July,
Carlsen emerged as the outright winner of the Bilbao (2016), well ahead of the runner up Nakamura.
Rapid:
Carlsen won the Glitnir Blitz Tournament in 2006 in Iceland. In September 2006 Carlsen placed 8th out of 16 participants at the World Blitz Championship (2006) in Rishon
LeZion, Israel. In the blitz tournament associated with the Tal Memorial 2006, namely the Tal Blitz Cup, Carlsen scored 17/34 points and placed 9th in a group of 18
participants. In March 2007, Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo. In the 11 rounds of the 16th Amber
Tournament (Blindfold) (2007), he achieved eight draws and three losses (placing =9th) then scored three wins, seven draws and one loss in the 16th Amber Tournament (Rapid)
(2007) (=2nd), for an overall 8th place in the combined tournament. In March 2008, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament,
which was held in Nice for the first time. Carlsen achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2008), and three wins, two losses, and six
draws in the Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2008), resulting in a shared second place in the overall tournament.
In the Chess Classic Mainz (2008), Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to defending champion Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws). 2009 saw Carlsen score equal
first in the Amber Tournament (Blindfold) (2009) with 7/11 alongside Kramnik and Aronian, and equal second with Veselin Topalov at M-Tel Masters (2009) behind Shirov with a
2822 performance. He also won the XXII Magistral Ciudad de Leon (2009), a rapid knockout tournament, ahead of Morozevich, Ivanchuk, and Wang Yue. Just a few days after his
2nd placement at the Tal Memorial (2009), he won the World Blitz Championship (2009) with 31/42, a full three points ahead of runner-up Anand. He shared first place at the
2010 Amber Rapid and Blindfold Tournament with Ivanchuk; scoring 6 points in the blindfold and 8 points in the rapid, Carlsen accumulated 14 from a possible 22 points.
After a slow start in the Arctic Securities Chess Stars (2010) rapid tournament, he continued his success by defeating Anand in the two-game playoff for gold. In the World Blitz
Championship (2010), held in Moscow on 1618 November, Carlsen attempted to defend his 2009 title. With a score of 23/38, he finished in third place behind Radjabov and
the winner Aronian. After the tournament, Carlsen played a private 40-game blitz match against Hikaru Nakamura, winning with a score of 2316. A phenomenal 9.5/11, 2.5
points clear of the field, in 20th Amber Tournament (Rapid) (2011) was insufficient for him to win the overall contest, as his results in the 20th Amber Tournament (Blindfold)
(2011) were poor, resulting in a 2nd overall to 2008 and 2009 overall winner Aronian. In July 2012 he came clear 2nd in the World Rapid Championship (2012) behind Karjakin
with 10.5/15, and clear 2nd in the World Blitz Championship (2012) with 19.5/30, half a point behind Alexander Grischuk.
In June 2014, he realized his ambition to be the triple champion (of standard, rapid and blitz chess) when he won the FIDE World Rapid Championship (2014) with 11/15, half a
point ahead of runner-up Caruana, and the FIDE World Blitz Championship (2014) with 17/21, one point clear of Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura. In October 2015, he successfully
backed up to defend his title at the World Rapid Championship (2015), scoring 11.5/15, a point clear of runners-up Leinier Dominguez Perez, Teimour Radjabov and Ian
Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen was second in the Paris Grand Chess Tour, placing second to Nakamura in the Grand Chess Tour Paris Rapid (2016) and equal first in the Grand Chess
Tour Paris Blitz (2016) alongside Nakamura to take second place behind the US grandmaster. Soon afterward, he was overall first in the Leuven legs of the Grand Chess Tour,
having won both the YourNextMove Rapid (2016) and the YourNextMove Blitz (2016). Carlsen won his final event before the upcoming Carlsen - Karjakin World Championship
(2016) in New York, when he won the final of the Carlsen-Nakamura Chess.com Blitz Battle (2016) against Hikaru Nakamura. Carlsen obtained a large lead after the 5m+2spm
and 3m+2spm sections and narrowly lost the bullet 1m+1spm with a final score of 14.5-10.5.
Matches:
The DSB Bank match between Loek van Wely and Magnus Carlsen took place 28th April - 1st May 2006. The four game classical time limit match was tied 2-2. Carlsen won the
blitz portion of the match 3.5-0.5. He won a rapid match against Peter Leko held in Miskolc, Hungary, scoring 5:3 (+2 =6). Carlsen played in a curtain raiser to the Norwegian
Championship, winning the Carlsen - Predojevic Rapid Match (2013) by 2.5-1.5 (+1 =3); the match was organized by the "Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue" to celebrate
the long-standing relationship between Lillehammer and Sarajevo. (1)
Team:
<Olympiad>: Carlsen represented Norway on board one in the 36th Olympiad (2004), the 37th Chess Olympiad (2006), the Olympiad (2008), the Chess Olympiad (2010), the
Chess Olympiad (2014) and in the Chess Olympiad (2016). His best result was in the 2006 Olympiad, where he scored 6 points from 8 games and came 5th for board one. In

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http://www.chessgames.com/player/magnus_carlsen.html

2016, he scored 7.5/10 placing 6th on board one, assisting his twelfth seeded Norwegian team to place 5th.
<National> He played board 1 for Norway at the European Team Chess Championships (2007) and won an individual silver medal. He again played board 1 for Norway at the
European Team Championship (2015), but returned a very poor result with 3.5/7, losing another 16 rating points to bring him down to his lowest rating (2834) since January
2012.
<Club> Carlsen played four seasons in the European Club Cup. In 2001 and 2003 he played for Asker Norway on board 6 and board 1 (after he had gained his FM title)
respectively, while his father Henrik was reserve on both occasions. In 2007 he played board 3 for OS Baden Baden, and in 2008 he played top board for MIKA Yerevan. His total
game result from these 4 seasons was 15.5/27 (+11 -7 =9). He also played in the Norwegian Team Championship in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006, in the Bundesliga in the
2004-05, 2006-07, 2007/08, 2008-09 seasons, and in the Dutch Team Championship 2007.
<Other Team> In August 2006, he played in the NH Hotels event featuring the older Experience Team vs Youth team (easily won by the Youth team 2822), and was equal top
scorer with Alexander Beliavsky with 6.5/10.
Rating:
The highest official rating achieved by Carlsen to date was 2882 in May 2014. His highest live rating was 2889.2 on 21 April 2014. Both are the highest ratings ever achieved.
Carlsen's 1 December 2016 FIDE ratings are:
<Standard>: 2840, making him the world #1 ranked player. By the end of the December 2016 rating period, he will have been world number one for a total of 77 months. He
holds the record for the longest period as the world's top ranked Junior (U20) - 36 months - from 1 January 2008 until 31 December 2010. He was also both world number one
junior and world number one player for the first 10 months of 2010. Furthermore, he holds the record for the highest rating acquired by any player aged 13, and 17 through to
24 inclusive.
<Rapid>: 2894 (world #1); and
<Blitz>: 2873 (world #2).
Other:
Carlsen won the Chess Oscars for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and he was also awarded Norway's annual Peer Gynt Prize for 2011 for being "a person or institution that
has achieved distinction in society". (2) After he won the World Championship he was awarded Norway's "Name of the Year" award for 2013. (3) He has two sisters, Ellen Oen
Carlsen and Ingrid Oen Carlsen. Carlsen helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championships in 2007 and 2008 and 2010. Carlsen has modeled for G-Star Raw, starting
with its Autumn/Winter 2010 advertising campaign.
At the Sohn Conference held in New York in May 2015, Carlsen demonstrated his skill by playing three players in a blindfold clock simul. Carlsen and each of the three players
were given nine minutes. Carlsen won 3-0. A video of the event can be seen at the link in footnote (4). On September 22, 2016 he was in New York City to play a simul against 11
users of the Play Magnus mobile app. Everybody had 30 minutes on their clocks. Magnus won 11 to 0 (Carlsen Play Live Simul (2016)).
General Sources:
Carlsen's FIDE player card; Wikipedia article: Magnus Carlsen; live rating: http://www.2700chess.com/; official website: http://www.magnuscarlsen.com/; blogs: http://www.arcticsec.no/index.php?b... (English language); http://simonsenlaw.no/
(Norwegian language); World Championship Index: http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc... and Olimpbase, the Encyclopedia of Team Chess: http://www.olimpbase.org/

Footnotes:
(1) Magnus Carlsen and Borki Predojevic play in Lillehammer - http://www.peace.no/index.php?optio...
(2) Chess star wins prestigious award - http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/03...
(3) Magnus Carlsen vant tre av tre priser p Idrettsgallaen - http://www.nrk.no/sport/videoklipp/...
(4) Carlsen blitzes blindfold clock simul - http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlse...

Last updated: 2016-11-30 21:20:42

page 1 of 98; games 1-25 of 2,445


Game
1. Carlsen vs S Randjelovic
2. Bendik Svendsen vs Carlsen

Result

Moves

0-1

53

Year Event/Locale

Opening

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

A40 Queen's Pawn Game

0-1

37

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

B20 Sicilian

35

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

C44 King's Pawn Game

4. Audun Brekke Flotten vs Carlsen

1-0

55

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

A30 English, Symmetrical

5. Christian A Elboth vs Carlsen

0-1

31

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

B50 Sicilian

6. Carlsen vs Daniel Thomassen

1-0

27

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

A40 Queen's Pawn Game

7. Carlsen vs Thobias Kolbu

0-1

26

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

C50 Giuoco Piano

8. Eldbjorg Blikra Vea vs Carlsen

0-1

31

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

B30 Sicilian

50

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

D02 Queen's Pawn Game

10. Haakon Oksnevad vs Carlsen

0-1

49

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

B30 Sicilian

11. Carlsen vs Havard Vederhus

0-1

29

1999

NOR Championships Group Miniputt

B18 Caro-Kann, Classical

12. Carlsen vs Kjell Tage Ohman

0-1

64

1999

Skei Grand Prix Group B

D48 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav, Meran

13. Carlsen vs L M Hansen

0-1

27

1999

Skei Grand Prix Group B

D02 Queen's Pawn Game

14. Odd Hansen vs Carlsen

41

1999

Skei Grand Prix Group B

A45 Queen's Pawn Game

15. Erling Flotten vs Carlsen

0-1

51

2000

Arnold Grand Prix

B22 Sicilian, Alapin

16. H Carlsen vs Carlsen

1-0

43

2000

Arnold Grand Prix

E12 Queen's Indian

17. Carlsen vs Jan Henrik Ytteborg

0-1

59

2000

Arnold Grand Prix

A40 Queen's Pawn Game

18. Carlsen vs Paula Rause

1-0

60

2000

Arnold Grand Prix

C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense

19. Carlsen vs O Normann

0-1

53

2000

NTG Grand Prix Group B

D18 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch

20. P Brantzeg vs Carlsen

1-0

60

2000

NTG Grand Prix Group B

A06 Reti Opening

21. Carlsen vs T Jacobsen

1-0

34

2000

NTG Grand Prix Group B

D02 Queen's Pawn Game

22. Carlsen vs Jo Vederhus

1-0

56

2000

NTG Grand Prix Group B

A46 Queen's Pawn Game

23. Carlsen vs J Svindahl

0-1

42

2000

XXXI Open NOR Championship

A36 English

24. Toan Thanh Pham vs Carlsen

1-0

32

2000

XXXI Open NOR Championship

B70 Sicilian, Dragon Variation

21

2000

XXXI Open NOR Championship

E04 Catalan, Open, 5.Nf3

3. Carlsen vs Thomas Lie

9. Carlsen vs Arne Selle

25. Carlsen vs T Solstad

Reviva Labs
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page 1 of 98; games 1-25 of 2,445


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Dec-31-16 chancho: It's nothing but trolling.
Any unbiased observer can see that Carlsen is a great player.
(You don't have the kind of success he's had if you weren't)
Besides, no one can win tournaments ad infinitum.

18/1/2017 10:45 AM

The chess games of Magnus Carlsen

5 of 7

http://www.chessgames.com/player/magnus_carlsen.html

(although Carlsen does make an effort of it)


Dec-31-16 perfidious: <KVB> barely merits mention and is not worth the time it would take
to send him to iggydumb.

Dec-31-16 Bureaucrat: Excellent result in the blitz, with 2958 performance. It would usually
win, but Karjakin was fantastic in this event.
Dec-31-16 Poulsen: Carlsen is very clearly frustrated by his performances in all of the 3 WCh
events.
He is no doubt a worthly WCh, but if this goes on others will catch much sooner
than expected.
Laugh if you have to, but to me Carlsen has the psyche, that could lead him to quit
it all and leave chess, maybe for good.
Dec-31-16 perfidious: The post by <Bureaucrat> points up Carlsen's tremendous
consistency at that august level; when someone equals or outstrips him, it
generally takes a performance well beyond that player's expectation.
Jan-01-17 pinoy king: And the pathetic pro Carlsen moderators of this site won't update
Carlsen's latest FIDE rating to reflect the 13 points he lost to Karjakin.
Jan-01-17 WorstPlayerEver: @pinoy pooper
Just check So page, you get more pages there.
Jan-01-17 perfidious: <WPE>, it is distinctly odds-on that <pinhead king> is barred from
that page and long has been; if I had those privileges for my games page, he
would get nowhere near it either.
Jan-01-17 WorstPlayerEver: <perfidious>
Some peculair people around here, do you have a refutation of the Bird? I don't.
Jan-01-17 perfidious: <WPE>, can't say that I have ever had one either; then again, I
played mostly 1.d4/c4 from my days as ~1600 US onwards.
Recall winning a miniature in the Boston Met League in 1989 from a specialist in
the Bird variation against the Spanish and always liked the From when facing 1.f4,
but would hardly claim it to be a refutation.
Jan-01-17 WorstPlayerEver: <perfidious>
Tried everything. I ended up playing 1. f4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 Be7 4. Be2 0-0
Jan-01-17 mrkaic: <Carlsen is very clearly frustrated by his performances in all of the 3 WCh
events. He is no doubt a worthly WCh, but if this goes on others will catch much
sooner than expected.
Laugh if you have to, but to me Carlsen has the psyche, that could lead him to quit
it all and leave chess, maybe for good.>
I hope for his sake that he retires when he is still more or less on top. 2017 is the
last year for him to retire with dignity. Others are catching up and he is risking his
legacy of near invincibility. If he does not quit he will lose the last world
championship title he holds in 2018. Better to quit when you are ahead than be a
washed up has been.
Jan-01-17 KnightVBishop: Magnus said he will play chess for ever pretty much
he isn't retiring anytime soon
Jan-01-17 mrkaic: <Magnus said he will play chess for ever pretty much he isn't retiring
anytime soon>
If he can handle being number 2 or even worse, then fine. But I would hate to see
him emotionally destroyed due to the loss of his titles and rankings.
Jan-01-17 The Boomerang: " hope for his sake that he retires when he is still more or less
on top. 2017 is the last year for him to retire with dignity. Others are catching up
and he is risking his legacy of near invincibility. If he does not quit he will lose the
last world championship title he holds in 2018. Better to quit when you are ahead
than be a washed up has been."
But who would beat him in a match?.
.And if he were to lose, how would that equate to a hasbeen? He's only 26...many
more years ahead of him to win back the title and win tournaments galore.
Losing the title would make things interesting....show us what he is really made of.
Jan-01-17 perfidious: All this talk of Carlsen being a hasbeenusetawas and calling it a
career, aged 26, is so much eyewash--he is one tough out and will be around a
long time.
Jan-01-17 1971: Yes it's nonsense talk. Karjakin was the best challenger the world had to
offer, winning both the World Cup and Candidates is extremely difficult, and we
saw he easily he was trounced in the rapid tie breaks. If Magnus doesn't go crazy
and lose game 8 it would have been a clean WC match for him.
He's the best player by a substantial margin, any hint otherwise is crazy.
Jan-01-17 Gregor Samsa Mendel: Just a cursory glance at <mrkaic> shows that he started
posting on Dec. 30, and has made nothing but anti-Carlsen posts. Are we
witnessing the birth of a baby crab sock puppet?
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.co...
Jan-02-17 nok: <he was trounced in the rapid tie breaks> He played one bad game, the
15th.
Jan-02-17 tuttifrutty: <I would hate to see him emotionally destroyed due to the loss of his
titles and rankings.>
Don't be hatin'. Just accept the fact that Wesley will overtake him within this year.
Give him a moment to study the habits of these goldfishes then he will unleash his
sharp barracuda teeth like he has never eaten before.
Hmmmmm....yummy.
<aged 26, is so much eyewash--he is one tough out and will be around a long
time.>
Not for long, Wesley's footstep can be heard not from a distance...just 32 steps
away...eventually passing Magnus very soon. When it happens, your pain will be
my gain.
Over and out.
Jan-02-17 dm1991: <tuttifrutty> Wait... are you really a premium member!?
Chessgames.com is basically the chess version of Steam. I guess each step equals
year. He might have a shot of overtaking Carlsen in Senior WCh, who knows.

18/1/2017 10:45 AM

The chess games of Magnus Carlsen

6 of 7

http://www.chessgames.com/player/magnus_carlsen.html

I'm probably channeling my inner Sally Simpson here but for me his best game
this year is not the miniature against Wes So Carlsen vs W So, 2016 but his first
win against Giri Carlsen vs A Giri, 2016. It's just how he easily handles the
middlegame from a nothing opening and how he plays with Giri's psyche. It's
always nice to see someone playing against the computer and opening prep with
such an efficiency. His worst game? I think this strategical disaster Carlsen vs
Nakamura, 2016. To this day i don't know why he was so agressive on the kingside
without a base or idea for an attack.
Jan-02-17 dm1991: I forgot about this noteworthy beauty Carlsen vs Kramnik, 2016 with an
amazing opening novelty (Carlsen outpreping Kramnik and not for the first time
either Carlsen vs Kramnik, 2015). I still think his game against Giri is slightly
better.
Jan-02-17 Sally Simpson: Hi Perfidious,
"All this talk of Carlsen being a hasbeenusetawas and calling it a career, aged 26,
is so much eyewash..."
I agree. He loves playing chess which is something some cannot seem to
understand.
It is his fans who will be 'emotionally destroyed' should he lose his title and slip
down the rankings and then they will drop him quicker than I drop pieces in the
opening and I have that down to fine art.
This years tip for 2017.
Always carry a Black Knight in your left pocket and a White Knight in your right
pocket.
During the game if White slip the Black Knight into the captured pieces pile.
Your opponent will think you are a piece up and resign.
What ever you do, do not get the colours mixed up else you will think you are a
piece down and resign.
--Tip Number two.
Take a spare Black pawn to an away league match and leave it on the table.
At the end of the night they will be opening up all their boxes to see which set it
belongs too.
Again Good Luck.
Tip 3 (this is fun)
Fool your club treasurer that one of the chess clocks is faulty by losing on time
every time you use it. They will buy a new one and you can keep the 'faulty' one.
Good Luck.
Tip 4 (I'm on a roll, I cannot stop).
Place a strong magnet under e5 and another under the e7 pawn. When your
opponent tries to play a French Defence the pawn will jump onto e5 then you
quickly play 2.f4.
Tip 5
Before the game fill your mouth with black dye powder. During the game take a
sip of water, swill it around your mouth and spit it back into the glass. The water
will turn jet black and you opponent will think you are an octopus.
Tip 6
Get a Ping-Pong ball, cut it in half and paint it pink, then stick it....
......that is enough of the 2017 tips (C.G. admin staff)
Jan-02-17 Appaz: <Sally> Marvelous tips, I will try each and every one of them during 2017.
I've already finished with number 6. I stuck the ping-pong ball to my nose and now
everyone I meet is giving me a warm smile.
Jan-03-17 tuttifrutty: <dm1991: <tuttifrutty> Wait... are you really a premium member!?>
But of course I am...courtesy of cg to their favorite kibutzer.....what would life be
like without me? You tell me.
Well, let me tell you what....You'll be stuck with geriatrics with the flavor of
perfijuices, <beggar fake journalist> and cry babies. It would not be fun at
all....that's for sure.....
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18/1/2017 10:45 AM

The chess games of Magnus Carlsen

7 of 7

http://www.chessgames.com/player/magnus_carlsen.html

18/1/2017 10:45 AM

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