When Magnus Carlsen Proved He’s The Best Player

Magnus Carlsen is one of the best players in the world. Being the world champion for over 10 years while achieving a peak rating of 2882, Magnus has dominated the competition. But what were the most important games in Magnus Carlsen's career? His reign began with the fifth game of the 2013 World Championship against none other than the Indian superstar Vishy Anand. The players are tied with the first four games being drawn. Magnus has the white pieces, and although he started all his previous match games with knight to f3, he decides to switch things up by playing c4 on the first move. Vishy Anand responds with e6, and the game quickly turns into the queen's gambit declined opening. Vishy gives a check with bishop to b4, and Magnus decides to retreat with his knight to c3. After c5 by black, white invites black to capture the knight by playing a3. Vishy decides to keep the bishop pair and develops his knights, while Magnus plays queen to d3, clearly indicating that he wants to castle queenside. After the trade of pawns, Vishy jumps into g4 with his knight, looking to get rid of white's dark square bishop. Magnus soon castles, and Vishy makes an inaccuracy by retreating his bishop to c7. This allows Magnus to trade the knights, and later, the queens, and enter into an endgame where black has the bishop pair. But white has a significant space advantage and more activity. The players start maneuvering their pieces to more active squares, and Magnus plays c5, hoping to kick away the black bishop and put his knight on the amazing outpost on d6. However, Vishy counterattacks by playing f5, which forces more trades. Before capturing the pawn on e4, white plays a brilliant in-between move, b7. This way, black is forced to keep his pawns separated, making them easier targets for white. Although the material is temporarily equal, white's rooks are much more active, and black has more potential weaknesses. Vishy pushes g5 and later h5, gaining space but making his pawns even more vulnerable. Meanwhile, Magnus is very careful with pushing his own pawns, instead waiting for Vishy to make a mistake. The players continue maneuvering their pieces until white manages to get rid of black's g5 pawn and enter into a rook and bishop endgame with an extra pawn. Although the game had remained balanced so far, Vishy makes a huge blunder by playing rook to c1. This leads to a forced variation where Magnus ends up two pawns up on the opposite sides of the board. While the position may be drawable against some players, Magnus Carlsen is a beast when it comes to converting a small advantage into a winning advantage. Unable to stop both of the pawns, Vishy Anand resigns after h4, losing the first game of the match. With the brilliant endgame play by Magnus, this is how he became known as the endgame god, being able to squeeze water out of a rock. But here's the most impressive game of the match against Anand, this one which made Magnus Carlsen known to the entire world. Magnus is up 5 points to Vishy's 3, and with another win, he could be inches away from becoming the next world champion. Vishy has the white pieces this time and starts the game with d4, while Magnus responds with knight f6. After knight c3 and bishop b4, the game turns into the Nimzo India defense. Vishy plays f3, as he is 2 points down in the championship, he desperately needs a win. Magnus plays d4, and Vishy forces some trades with pawn to a3. Magnus pushes c4, closing down the queenside. While black is left with a clear space advantage and a safer king, white still has the bishop pair and a potentially deadly attack on the kingside. After knight c6 by Magnus, Vishy lashes out with g4, hoping to dissuade Magnus from castling, as he would be met with a devastating pawn storm. Magnus takes some time to think and decides to castle anyway, completely ignoring white's attack. Vishy continues developing his pieces and castles, while Magnus is looking to cause trouble on the other side of the board by establishing a monster knight on b3 and later pushing his b and a pawns, gaining a huge advantage on the queenside. Meanwhile, Vishy plays g5, looking to checkmate Magnus as quickly as possible. Magnus retreats with a knight and decides to get rid of one of white's attackers by taking the bishop on c1. Rook a6 played by Magnus, potentially looking to swing it to the other side. Brilliant is hands down the best place to harness your intelligence and hunger for learning. And I know what you're thinking, Classical, I only care about my chess rating. Well, Brilliant has the perfect solution for you. Brilliant includes a logic and decision making course, having puzzles that have been proven to increase critical thinking skills. In fact, after using Brilliant's logic course, it actually helped me think clearer during my chess matches. To try everything Brilliant has to offer free for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org or click the link in the description. The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant's annual premium subscription. After f4 by white, black thinks he's ready to create a passed pawn by playing b4. What Vishy should do in this position is play f5, prepare to double his rooks on the f-file and continue with his attack on the kingside. However, white makes an inaccuracy by capturing the pawn on b4 and deciding to exchange a pair of rooks. After b5 by black, Vishy takes a long time to think and plays queen to f4, hoping to checkmate Magnus before he manages to make a new queen. Magnus brings his knight back to help with the defense. White finally plays f6 and Magnus responds with g6, confident that he will be able to survive white's incoming threats. Knight e8 played by Magnus prevents the white queen from checkmating on g7, but permanently removes black's knight and rook from the game. After queen h6, Magnus plays b2, threatening to promote a new queen and hoping to stop white's attack. However, that does not scare Vishy, as he plays the incredible rook to f4, which allows Magnus to make a queen with check. Magnus immediately queens the pawn, confident that he has out-calculated the chess legend. There is only one move for white that keeps this game alive, and that is bishop to f1. After which, black is forced to play queen to d1, and after rook to h4, sacrifices queen with queen to h5. The position would still be very unclear with both players having chances to win. Unfortunately, Vishy Anand miscalculates and makes a huge blunder by playing knight to f1. What Vishy was anticipating is for Magnus to still play queen to d1, after which white would take the queen with the rook and play knight to e3, preparing to checkmate the black king or force Magnus to give up another queen. However, Vishy completely overlooked Magnus' next move, queen to e1, which would be impossible if the knight was on g3. This just ends the game on the spot, as after rook h4, Magnus would simply take the rook with his queen, stopping white's entire attack while being up a full piece. After realizing this, Vishy Anand resigns, and the players shake hands, and Magnus wins in just 28 moves. But the next game is going to determine everything. If Magnus wins or draws this game, he will be the new chess world champion. Magnus is playing with the white pieces, and he opens with e4, while Vishy responds with c5, the Sicilian defense. Vishy needs to get three wins in a row to not lose his world championship title, and the Sicilian defense is one of the best openings to fight for a win. After some moves, white is left with great control of the center and is already ready to castle, while black slightly lacks in development but still has the bishop pair. Instead of playing e5, which would lead to a very sharp variation, Vishy chooses a more calm approach by playing knight f6 and then e6, which resembles the hedgehog formation and often leads to slow positional gains. Black castles, and white puts his knight on the center of the board. Magnus decides to take the bishop on c6 with his knight, and the players begin maneuvering their pieces to more active squares. Vishy decides to trade white's powerful dark square bishop, but the more pieces get off the board, the closer the game heads to a draw. After rook e3, black has the option to play g5 and begin an attack on the kingside. However, Vishy decides to play more passively with rook to b7. But things only get worse for black, as Vishy plays queen to g5, which is a huge blunder, as it allows white to play e5 and win the pawn on d6. Although Vishy manages to win the pawn back, he does so at the expense of trading all the heavy pieces, and as more pieces get off the board, the harder it will be for Vishy to win, especially against such a strong endgame master like Magnus Carlsen. The players bring their kings closer and start shuffling their knights. Although the material is equal, it is white who has a pawn majority on the queenside, allowing him to play for a win. Magnus spends 30 minutes calculating and decides to go into a variation, where he gives up his knight, but is just in time to make a new queen. While black makes his own queen, white has three pawns for the knight, which is more than enough to draw the game. Magnus soon finds a way to trade the queens, which ends the game immediately, as black no longer has enough material to checkmate the white king. Vishy grabs the last pawn, and the game ends in a 65-move draw. The players shake hands, and Magnus Carlsen becomes the new world champion at just 22 years old.