Norwegian, 18, Is Youngest to Be Ranked No. 1 at Chess

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: November 14, 2009
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The chess world has a new No. 1 player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, and he is only 18 years old — the youngest player ever to hold the rank.

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On Saturday, Mr. Carlsen beat Peter Leko, a Hungarian player now ranked No. 11, in the final round of a tournament in Moscow. Though Mr. Carlsen only tied for second in the tournament, his performance was good enough for him to edge out Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria for the top world ranking. Mr. Topalov, 34, did not compete in the tournament.

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Mr. Carlsen, who turns 19 on Nov. 30, is only the seventh No. 1-ranked player since the ranking system began in 1970. Garry Kasparov, the Russian former world champion, became No. 1 in January 1984, when he was 20 years and 9 months old. He held the spot for 18 months, lost it, and then regained it and held it for 20 consecutive years before retiring in March 2005.

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The other players to be No. 1 are all former world champions, including Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand.

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Rankings are based on cumulative performances, measured by something called a rating. Mr. Carlsen’s rating is now 2,806, and Mr. Topalov’s is 2,805. Mr. Anand, 39, the current world champion, finished in a tie for fourth in Moscow and is now No. 3, with a rating of 2,790.

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Last year, during a tournament in Bilbao, Spain, Mr. Carlsen briefly took over the top spot, but he lost the following the day and slipped back to No. 4. In an e-mail message just after the tournament ended in Moscow, Mr. Carlsen said of his current No. 1 status that he “hopes it lasts much longer than the short stay during Bilbao last year.”

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Mr. Kasparov is now training Mr. Carlsen. They began working together in December 2008, though Mr. Carlsen said the training sessions became more intensive over the summer.

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Though Mr. Carlsen is No. 1, he cannot become world champion yet. World champions have historically been determined in a match of many games between two players, and Mr. Anand and Mr. Topalov have already signed to play a title match next April in Bulgaria.

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The World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, has also not settled on a format for selecting a challenger after next year’s match, so Mr. Carlsen will have to wait until at least 2011 and possibly 2012 to even have a shot at the title. But he still has a few years to become the youngest world champion, as Mr. Kasparov did not do it until he was 22. -NY Times