The Prince turned King

Magnus Carlsen, the prince of chess turned king
By Pierre-Henry Deshayes (AFP) – 7 hours ago

OSLO — He recently completed high school without huge success, but 19-year-old Magnus Carlsen is now already at the top of the chess world, following the footsteps of his mentor, legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov.

On New Year’s Day, the mop-haired, sulky-looking Norwegian teen became the youngest player to ever top the rankings of best players published by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Now he is setting his sights on the title of world champion.

“It’s been one of my goals for many years to become the number one player and that’s about as far as you can reach in chess without winning the world championship. Obviously it’s a big thing,” Carlsen said.

“The downside, of course, is that you have to answer questions like this a lot,” he added, matter-of-factly.

Initiated into chess early on by his father, as a boy Magnus nevertheless preferred other pastimes which he explored on his own.

Aged two, he could recite all car brands; as a five-year-old, he built monumental creations out of lego; then he moved on to memorising the world’s countries, their flags, capitals, and areas…

But he was soon brought back to chess by the desire to beat his older sister at the game.

He played in his first tournament at the age of eight and burst onto the chess scene when in 2004, at 13, he beat former world champion Anatoli Karpov, pushed Kasparov to a draw and became a chess grandmaster.

“The Mozart of Chess” was born, as the Washington Post put it.

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