Looking Back On Magnus Carlsen's Dominant Decade As World Champion

GM Magnus Carlsen won't be the official world champion of classical chess for much longer, but he has proven again and again in events outside of the FIDE-managed classical world championship that he is the best player in the world.

Carlsen's reign has included a 125-game unbeaten streak, five of his six World Blitz Championship wins, all four of his World Rapid Championships, the all-time records for live rating (2889) and official FIDE rating (2882), five of his eight tournament victories at Wijk aan Zee, all five of his victories at Norway Chess (including four in a row during 2019-22), and 114 consecutive months (out of a possible 114) as the world's highest-rated player.

This article is a look back at all those accomplishments and more as the FIDE World Championship enters its post-Carlsen era. And make no mistake—it's not the other way around (Carlsen entering his post-FIDE-championship era). You'll see why.

• The Title
• The Ratings
• The Classical Tournaments
• The Streaks
• The Rapid And Blitz
• The Title Defenses
• Conclusion

The Title

Carlsen officially became the 16th world champion on November 26, 2013, defeating defending champion GM Viswanathan Anand three wins to zero in their match, with six draws.

Soundly defeating an all-time great like Anand confirmed what everyone had known for years: This guy Carlsen was pretty damn good at chess.

The Ratings

In fact, Carlsen's 2872 rating when he became champion was already the record. The big question was, How high could his rating climb? He answered the question almost immediately.

Carlsen won the inaugural Vugar Gashimov Memorial (Shamkir Chess) in 2014, an event he'd also win in 2015, 2018, and 2019. In the second game of the 2014 tournament, Carlsen defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura and reached a live rating of 2889.2, the highest ever.

By the end of the tournament on April 30, Carlsen had scored five wins against two losses and three draws. That put him at an official rating of 2882 on the May 2014 FIDE rating list, the highest ever recorded in more than 50 years to that point of FIDE ratings.

Of course, Carlsen has never fallen below a 2800 rating after reaching the mark in November 2009. No previous champion, even GM Garry Kasparov, has been above 2800 for the entire duration of his time with the title. (Kasparov did become the first player to reach a 2800 rating, in 1990, then set a new career high of 2820 in 1997, after which he never fell below 2800 again. And to be fair, with rating inflation Kasparov could probably have pulled it off too.)

Nor is Shamkir Chess, which became a rapid and blitz event in 2021, the only tournament Carlsen has made a habit of winning while he has been champion.

The Classical Tournaments

The best player at slow time controls doesn't just prove it in matches. As rapid and blitz have become more popular (see the above about Shamkir), the number of high-profile classical tournaments has declined somewhat. However, three super prestigious annual standalone classical tournaments remain: Tata Steel, the only remaining holdover from the glory days of classical, and two events that debuted in 2013: Norway Chess and Sinquefield Cup. 

Carlsen has won Sinquefield twice, once as champion (2018 co-winner), but he has dominated the other two. He had already won Tata Steel in 2008, '10, and '13 by the time he became champion, and then added 2015, '16, '18, '19, and '22 as world champ.

Norway Chess, held in Carlsen's home country, took a little extra time. He finally won in its fourth iteration in 2016, then repeated in 2019. He has not lost the tournament since then, adding victories in 2020, '21, and '22. The 2023 edition of Norway will be Carlsen's first major tournament after giving up the title.

All that consistent domination has led to some impressive streaks.

The Streaks

Previous records for undefeated streaks belonged to GM Jose Capablanca (63 games), GM Mikhail Tal (95 games), and GM Ding Liren (100 games). GM Sergei Tiviakov also went 110 games without a loss once—against weaker competition—and Carlsen broke that record regardless.

Carlsen crushed all of them with a 125-game streak. One hesitates to say it will never be broken against top-level competition, but it sure looks tough to beat.

After losing in the ninth round to GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov at Biel 2018, Carlsen went nearly two years without losing again before GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda won in the fifth round at Norway 2020.

There is also Carlsen's streak as the number-one rated player in the world, which began before he became champion and will continue after he is no longer the FIDE world champion. The chart below includes only his months as the champ.

Not only has he been the highest-rated player this whole time—which is rarer than you might think—the margin has often been significant. He has had an edge of 50 or more rating points on the number-two player for 40 of these months (35 percent) and 25 or more points for 89 of the months (78 percent).

And no fewer than 12 GMs have held the number-two spot: Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Anand, Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, Vladimir Kramnik, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedyarov, Ding, Alireza Firouzja, and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Not one of them has caught Carlsen yet, and with his current 58-point edge on number two, no one at the moment is close to doing so.

The Rapid And Blitz

Carlsen has readily noted in interviews that he will still be the world champion after the 2023 FIDE World Championship, just not the classical champion. Having won both the World Rapid and the World Blitz Championships in 2022, Carlsen is still atop the other two major time controls as his classical reign ends.

MAGNUS DOES IT AGAIN! 🏆🏆

Congratulations to @MagnusCarlsen for winning his SIXTH World Blitz Championship, and completing the #RapidBlitz double! 👏🔥 pic.twitter.com/wugr79B7d9

— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 30, 2022

In fact, 2022 was the third time during his reign as classical champion that Carlsen also claimed both the rapid championship and the blitz championship in the same year, previously achieving the feat in 2014 and 2019. Carlsen also won one of the events four times in five years during 2014-18. The year he did not, 2016, he tied for first place in both the rapid and the blitz but lost out on tiebreaks.

With five blitz championships during 2014-22 (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022), Carlsen has won more than half of the blitz championships held during his time as world champion—the event not held in 2020. For rapid (2014, 2015, 2019, 2022), it's merely almost half.

The Title Defenses

And yes, there are the four additional world championship matches Carlsen won to retain the title for nearly 10 years. While certainly significant, Carlsen clearly felt the returns diminish over time.

Anand In 2014

Unlike their first match, Anand won a game in this one, but that just meant he lost 3–1 instead of 3–0. The match wrapped up Carlsen's dominant first full year as champion (that year's Rapid and Blitz Championships were held in June) and confirmed that it was up to the next generation of players to try and stop him. Spoiler: They could not.

Karjakin In 2016

The only times Carlsen ever trailed a world championship match were after the eighth and ninth games in 2016, but he won game 10 to tie the match which he won in rapid tiebreaks. And how, with an astounding queen sacrifice for checkmate.

Caruana In 2018

Carlsen and Caruana were separated on the classical rating lists by just three points for this match, the closest Carlsen has ever come to losing his grip on first place during his time as champion. Carlsen held him off for 12 games and then wiped the board in rapid tiebreaks. Carlsen was so confident in his fast playing ability vs. Caruana that he took a draw when most experts believed he had a large advantage in the final slow game.

Nepomniachtchi In 2021

Characterized by Nepomniachtchi's blunders in games eight, nine, and 11, the 2021 match was an easy win for Carlsen. So easy that when Nepomniachtchi earned the right to a rematch, Carlsen's time as world champ was probably sealed.

Conclusion

The decision to leave the world championship is entirely his. Carlsen has nothing left to prove by winning yet another match, so the months of work that go into preparing for such matches outweigh the reward for winning them.

Carlsen no longer needs the official designation of FIDE for his validation. Arguably, that happened a long time ago. 

What is your favorite Magnus Carlsen moment from his time as world champion? Let us know in the comments!