With an astonishing IQ of 190, chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has clinched the World Chess Champion title five times. The reigning champ is a six-time World Blitz Chess Champion and a four-time World Rapid Chess Champion. His mastery of chess is the main source of his wealth. As of 2023, Magnus Carlsen has a net worth of $8 million.
Early Life
Hailing from Tønsberg, Norway, Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen was born on November 30, 1990. His mother Sigrun is a chemical engineer and his father Henrik is an IT consultant. In addition, he has three sisters.
Carlsen had a natural affinity for puzzles from an early age. His father taught him chess at five years old, and he played in his debut tournament at the Norwegian Chess Championship when he turned eight.
He attended the Norwegian College of Elite Sport. There, he was tutored by Grandmaster Simen Agdestein. the top chess player in Norway at the time. Carlsen competed in almost 300 rated tournament matches between 2000 and 2002.
International Recognition
The Norwegian prodigy made waves at 13 years old for winning his group at the Netherlands’ 2004 Corus Chess Tournament. With this win, he earned his first grandmaster norm (GM).
Magnus later participated in events in Russia and the UAE. He won his first Norwegian championship in 2006. Three years later, he won the London Chess Classic and was rated number one on FIDE’s rating list.
In 2011, he triumphed in tourneys, including Bazna Kings, Tal Memorial, and Biel Grandmaster. The next year, he prevailed in the Grand Slam Chess Final to boost his rating to 2861.
Becoming World Champion
Magnus Carlsen won the World Chess Championship for the first time in 2013, defeating Viswanathan Anand. He scored the World Blitz Championship and the FIDE World Rapid Championship a year later.
In 2015, he dominated other tournaments, such as Shamkir Chess, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, and the Grenke Chess Classic. He defended most of these titles in the following years. The person who beat Magnus during this time is Nihal Sarin, who won against the world champ twice.
As for his World Chess Championship title, he continued to defend it for five consecutive tournaments. Most notably, in 2021, he beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in the longest game of the tournament’s entire history.
Net Worth and Earnings
Magnus earns lucrative prize money from playing chess online and at in-person events. In 2021 he earned $303,946.64 and in 2020 he made $510,586.52.
A player of his caliber attracts many sponsorship deals from high profile companies. Magnus has partnered with brands such as G-Star RAW and Unibet. Unibet is the company that helped the chess genius show off his card skills in the Norwegian Poker Championship.
Carlsen also has other business ventures; he owns the tech company Play Magnus, which started off developing apps for chess players but now has a dozen subsidiaries. They own many chess-related subsidiaries such as Chess24.com, iChess and Aimchess. With this, his net worth is around $8 million.
Personal Life
In 2017, Magnus Carlsen announced his relationship with Synne Christin Larsen, but they broke up a year later. Currently, the chess legend is dating Elisabet Lorentzen Djonne. It is reported that they’ve been together for three years now.
