At the age of two, he was already solving 50-piece puzzles, and at four, he enjoyed assembling Lego bricks intended for ages 10. His father taught him chess when he was five, although he initially showed little interest in the ancient game.
His first chess literature was the book “Implement the Plan” by the famous Dane Bent Larsen. With this book, he played for hours, “alone”, dragging pieces around the board and looking for hidden combinations. His first official competition was the Norwegian championship for the youngest group of nine-year-olds, where he won 6,5 points from 11 games.
Magnus Carlsen - of course, we are talking about him - was at the time coached by Grandmaster Simon Agdenstein, who introduced him to Intermaster Hansen, the Norwegian Junior Champion, in 2000. They began training sessions in May of that year.
With Hansen's help, Carlsen made tremendous progress - in just over a year he earned over 1.000 rating points. In addition to chess, which Carlsen studied for three to four hours a day, his favorite pastimes were football, skiing, and reading Donald Duck comics. He won the title of International Master in a relatively short period of time - in 2003, at the age of 13.
He attracted the attention of the international chess public after winning the "C" group of the Korus tournament in Vajkan Zeu in 2004, with a score of 10,5 points from 13 games (performance 2.702), losing only one game to the tournament's top favorite, grandmaster Dušan Pavasović.
With that result, he achieved his first grandmaster norm and qualified for the "B" group in Wei kan Ze the following year.
After Carlsen's success, Grandmaster Ljubomil Kavalek, writing for the prestigious Washington Post, called Carlsen the Mozart of chess. Flattering assessments were also made by Grandmaster Agnestein, his coach. Carlsen's successes attracted the attention of the powerful company Microsoft, which would become his sponsor. A brilliant chess career was already in sight.
...From the tournament Wei Kan ze - Korus 2004 - we report the impressive victory of 14-year-old Carlsen over Ernst.
Karo-kan odbrana
Karlsen - Ernst
Vaj Kan Ze - Korus - C, 2004.
Comments by E. Lukacs
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4. Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6. 6. h4h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3. 10.Qxd3 e6. 11. Nf4 Ngf6 12. 0-0-0 Be7 13. Se4 Qa5 14.B1 0-0. 15. Nxf6+ Nxf6. 16. Se5 Tad8. 17. Qe2
Or 17. Qb3 Qb6 18. Qxb6 axb6 - this ending is slightly better for White, but against a good technician it cannot turn into a victory. Today 17. Qg3 is the main theoretical line.
17. c5 (diagram)
Black falls on a well-known motif. Better is 17…Qb6; or 17… Nd5 18. Bc1 c5
19. c4 Nf6 20. dxc5, draw, Bastida - Badals, Mondariz 2002.
18. Sq6
This breaks the opponent's kingside.
18….. fxg6?
Accepting the sacrifice is a forced loss. 18…..Rfe8 is humiliating, but a better choice: 19Nxe7+ Rxe7 20. dxc5 Rd7 21. Rxd7 Rxd7 (21…Nxd7! White should be able to take back the c5 pawn) 22. Bd6 b6 23 g4! bxc5 24. Rxe5 and White is better.
19. Dxe6+ Kh8 20.hxg6! Sg8 21. Lxh6! gxh6 22.Txhg+! Sxh6 23.Dxe7
Up until this moment, everything had been forced.
23…Sf7. 24. ghf7!
This powerful move directly decides the game! It is also possible 24. Qf6+ Kg8 25. Th1 Sh6 26. Qe7 Nf7 27. Th3! (27. Qf6 leads only to a draw after 27….Sh6, 28.Qe7 Nf7, draw, Almagro and Lanos - Gustafson, 2003). 27…Ng5 28. Th7+ -
24. …Kg7
or 24…. Qb6, 25. Qe5 + Kh7 26. Th1+ and checkmate is inevitable
25. Td3 Td6
or 25 …Qb6, 26. Rg3+ Qg6 27. Rxg6+ Kxg6. 28.d5+- with a hopeless ending.
26. Tg3 + Tg6 27. De5+ Kxf7 28. Df5+ Tf6
Na 28…Ke7 slijedi 29 Te3+
29. Rd7 food!
Prepared by: N. KNEŽEVIĆ
Bonus video:
