The white knight: Carlsen taking chess to new heights

World champion’s young age and good looks have attracted many towards the sport

OSLO: Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen is hoping to prove that “smart is the new sexy”, as he prepares to defend his title against Russia’s Sergei Karyakin.

Interest in chess in the Nordic country has skyrocketed since the photogenic 25-year-old international grandmaster took the game’s global throne in 2013.

International chess master Atle Gronn described enthusiasm among Norwegians for the game as ‘completely crazy’. “Chess is associated with intelligence, or a narrower activity. Thanks to Magnus Carlsen, it has gained a popular image as well,” Gronn told AFP. “He has a style that appeals very broadly.”





Carlsen faces Karyakin in New York from November 11-30, in a $660,000 match some are hyping as a clash between East and West that echoes the Cold War.

Carlsen has his homeland right behind him as the world championship will be broadcast primetime on Norwegian national television.

But he wasn’t always so popular: Carlsen has told of how he was bullied by other students in the ninth grade at school. “It is difficult to be cool when I play chess.”

Carlsen played in his first tournament at the age of eight and burst onto the chess scene in 2004, at the age of 13.



That was the year Carlsen first defeated former world champion Anatoli Karpov, and pushed legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov to a draw in March, becoming grandmaster the next month.

Kasparov described Carlsen as a Harry Potter-type “super talent” long before the Norwegian became the first Westerner to hold the world title since America’s Fischer in 1975.

Carlsen quickly became a ruffled-looking regular of the chess circuit, his shirt untucked and at times yawning and stretching during games, while reading Donald Duck to relax between sessions.

A fashion model in his spare time, Carlsen made it to the Time magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013.

The same year Carlsen’s long-held dream came true when he dethroned his Indian rival Viswanathan Anand as world champion.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2016.

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