Published on November 5th, 2013 | by jsweber

60 Minutes Feature on Magnus Carlsen

I was talking to one of the chess club parents about the chess world and the topic of Magnus Carlsen inevitably came up. I mentioned to him that there is a very good 60 Minutes feature on this 22 years old chess prodigy aired back in 2011. I decided to provide it here for anyone who are interested.

Magnus Carlsen has taken the chess world by storm in the last few years. He is currently the world’s #1 ranked chess player and is a celebrity in countries where chess are popular. Why? Here are some of his amazing accomplishments:

Became the 2nd younger grandmaster at the age of 13 at that time (2006)
Fifth player to ever achieve a 2,800 rating and the youngest (18) to do so (2009)
The youngest (19) to become the world #1 ranked player (2010)
Reached the highest rating ever (2,861) surpassing Garry Kasparov’s record of 2,851 (2013)
His current rating is 69 points higher than the 2nd ranked player. That’s pretty big difference in the chess world

The big news right now (which you won’t hear about in the US) is he will be playing against the defending world champion, Viswanathan Anand, for the title starting this Saturday. This is the most anticipated chess match in a long time. Many chess aficionados have been waiting for this moment – where the child prodigy is finally playing against the five time current world champion Anand.

For more on Magnus, check out this article. I will also post another interesting video on a later date.

Tags: chess, FIDE, Mangus Carlsen, tournament, Viswanathan Anand, world champion