New Chess World Champion Celebrates with Poker Session

Magnus Carlsen is the new world champion of chess. The 22 years old Norwegian celebrated his victory over Viswanathan Anand with a poker session lasting all night long.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen won the World Chess Championship finale in Chennai, India. While planned for 12 games, the Norwegian grand master dethroned Viswanathan Anand in the 10th game, achieving a draw with white for 6.5 points in total for a victory, two games before schedule. Carlsen is the 20th world champion of men’s chess.

22-year-old Carlsen is the third youngest champion ever, runner-up only to Garry Kasparov (also 22 but a couple of months younger) and Ruslan Ponomariov (18). Carlsen won €1.1 million, in addition to the respect of players like aforementioned Kasparov, who called him the next king of chess.

The Norwegian ace had plenty of reasons to celebrate and so he did – although his means of choice surprised some. According to his manager Espen Agdestein, he engaged into a poker session that lasted until 6 a.m. the next day.

Carlsen has since long been known to be a fan of the game. For the first time, he mentioned his interest in poker to the Der Spiegel magazine in 2010.

“SPIEGEL: Do you go out for a drink at night too sometimes?
Carlsen: Rarely. I prefer to chat with friends on the Internet or play poker online.

SPIEGEL: For money?
Carlsen: Of course. For what else?

SPIEGEL: Do you win?
Carlsen: If I take a game seriously, I do. If not, I sometimes lose. But that doesn’t matter. What is important is that I have a life beyond chess.”

Even though it is not known how well the chess master fares at the poker tables, his friends claim him to be a winning player of higher stakes NLHE. Still, the party night is unlikely to have brought about serious action; it must have rather been a means of recreation, as Carlsen was seen visiting the pool as well in the meantime.