Magnus Carlsen

World Champion

Name: Magnus Carlsen
Country: Norway
Age: 24
World Ranking: 1
FIDE Rating: 2850 (as of November 2015)
Peak Rating: 2882 (May 2014)

- The Highest Rated Player of All Time
- The current World Champion
- World Ranked # 1 for the last 5 years

World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the face of world chess and the game’s most recognisable figure since Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Not only did Carlsen become the youngest ever no.1, thanks to his triumph at the inaugural London Chess Classic back in 2009, but the 24-year-old Norwegian is arguably as well known off the board as on it. Carlsen has modelled alongside Liv Tyler and Lily Cole for G-Star Raw, not to mention appearing on several American chat shows.

Magnus has always enjoyed his visits to Olympia, claiming outright success in the Classic in 2009, 2010 and 2012, on that last occasion winning all but two of his games. World Championship matches kept him away from the last two Classics, but his return in 2015 has already led to unheralded ticket sales. Quite simply, Magnus is box-office chess.

Carlsen can slowly outmanoeuvre all his peers at the top of the game, and without needing to rely on the vast amounts of opening theory which tend to dominate modern chess, but is equally adept at dealing with the media and his millions of fans. And no wonder when we consider that Carlsen has played chess with the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, is a major celebrity in Norway, and once took the honorary kick-off for Real Madrid.

Magnus Carlsen has a much higher profile compared to previous world champions and has made a successful cross over into the mainstream by virtue of his spokes-model role with G-Star Raw and his numerous TV appearances in the US (Colbert Report & Letterman) and Europe.