Carlsen, Magnus (1990-…), became the first Norwegian to win the world chess championship. He won the title in 2013 by defeating the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand of India. At the age of 22 years and 11 months, Carlsen was the second-youngest person to win the championship. Garry Kasparov of Russia was the youngest. Kasparov won the championship in 1985 at the age of 22 years and 6 months. Carlsen retained the championship in 2014, after defeating Anand for the second time. He then remained world champion after defeating Sergey Karjakin of Russia in 2016, Fabiano Caruana of the United States in 2018, and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in 2021. In 2022, Carlsen announced that he would not defend his title in the next world championship, which was held in 2023.
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen was born on Nov. 30, 1990, in Tønsberg, Norway. At the age of 5, he learned to play chess from his father. In 2004, at the age of 13, Carlsen became one of the youngest international grandmasters in chess history up until that time. He became the youngest world chess championship candidate in 2005, when he was 15 years old. In 2010, at the age of 19, Carlsen became the youngest chess player to be ranked number one by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), also called the World Chess Federation. In 2014, he received the highest standard FIDE rating ever posted.
