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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.
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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.
