Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen claimed the world chess title on Friday in emphatic style, dethroning India’s Viswanathan Anand after a one-sided series and becoming the first Western champion since 1975.
The 22-year-old, the current world number one, won three games and forced a seventh draw on Friday to achieve the victory mark of 6.5 points in Anand’s home city of Chennai.
Admitting to some early nerves which settled after the fourth game, Carlsen told reporters he had sensed vulnerability in his far more experienced opponent and had forced a series of errors.
“Vish has been the world champion for so long, he’s one of the greatest of all time. I’m of course very, very happy to have got the better of him,” Carlsen told a post-match press conference.
“I am really honoured and happy to have won it,” he added.
Anand, who at 43 is 21 years older than his rival, lost the title he has held since 2007 despite a last-gasp fight in an attritional 130-move game on Friday that lasted four hours and 45 minutes.
With Carlsen having sealed the championship, the last two contests in the 12-game match scheduled on Sunday and Monday have been cancelled.
Both players signed the chess board before heading to a joint press conference where Anand admitted he had “blundered” again in the final game and said sorry to his fans.
“As for the match in general it’s clear that he dominated. At the start of the match I thought my chances depended on my ability to last long games without making a lot of mistakes,” said Anand.
“This year I’ve had a lot of problems with mistakes creeping into my play.”
Carlsen will win 60 percent of the total prize fund of $2.24 million, while Anand takes home the rest.
Carlsen, hailed by Russian legend Garry Kasparov as a Harry Potter-type “super-talent” and considered the pre-match favourite, was in supreme form during the fortnight’s contest.
“Congratulations to Magnus for his victory! He continues to shatter the highest expectations with his skill and tenacity. Three cheers!” Kasparov wrote on Twitter after the match.
Norwegian Prime minister Erna Solberg also extended her congratulations to Carlsen. “Thank you for putting Norway on the world map,” she said. “This is an exceptional feat.”
Carlsen missed by a few weeks becoming the youngest world champion, a record set by his one-time coach Kasparov in 1985.
The last Westerner to hold the world champion title was American legend Bobby Fischer who relinquished it in 1975.
Woman grandmaster Susan Polgar told AFP that Carlsen’s approach had been “refreshingly new” and aggressive, which had bamboozled his far more experienced opponent.
“In the first eight games of this championship match, he forced his game plan onto Anand,” Polgar said.
“In chess, positioning and strategy is crucial and unless the development of one’s pieces is going according to one’s plan, experience will count for little,” she added.
Carlsen has dominated the World Chess Federation’s list of top players in the last three years, with a top rating of 2,870 points that broke Kasparov’s best of 2,851 points achieved in 1999.
Introduced to chess by his father, Carlsen showed off his genius as a toddler.
At the age of two, the self-taught prodigy knew by heart all the major car brands and later memorised the long list of Norway’s municipalities, with their flags and administrative centres.
Sibling rivalry with one of his older sisters sparked his interest in chess, which soon led to his first competition at the age of eight.
The breakthrough came in 2004 when the 13-year-old defeated Russian former world champion Anatoly Karpov.
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.
He also won the Chess Oscars, awarded by Russian chess magazine ’64′ to the world’s best player, for four consecutive years from 2009 to 2012.
Carlsen revealed his single-minded approach in August when he and his team visited Chennai to check out the facilities in the southern coastal metropolis.
Worried he may fall sick in India during the title bout, Carlsen’s team forced organisers to insert an “illness” clause in the contract by which a player can take a two-day break if he becomes sick.
All India Chess Federation secretary V. Hariharan said it was the first time an illness clause had been included for a world championship match.
Norwegian prodigy Carlsen claims world chess title
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