Magnus Carlsen (b. 1990): playing style, games and openings

16th World Champion, 2013–2023. Universal and relentless: happy in any position, he grinds out tiny endgame edges that others would have agreed drawn.

b. 1990 · Known for: Universal endgame grinding · 7,818 games in the collection

Explore Magnus Carlsen's games in the analyzer Compare with your own games

Playing style: Positional player

Prefers trading down into favorable endgames and winning them slowly over attacking directly.

Aggression 36 / 100

Risk-taking 35 / 100

Endgame bias 96 / 100

Solidity 60 / 100

Simplification 49 / 100

These scores come from the 3,179 games used for the style profile (classical-length games), measured the same way the analyzer measures your own games.

Results

Magnus Carlsen scored 1395 wins, 1336 draws and 448 losses (65% score) in 3179 games.

With White: 839 wins, 585 draws and 196 losses (70% score) in 1620 games.
With Black: 556 wins, 751 draws and 252 losses (60% score) in 1559 games.

Favourite openings

As White

Sicilian Defense: 306 games, 68% score
Ruy Lopez: 190 games, 71% score
Queen's Gambit Declined: 150 games, 72% score
English Opening: 139 games, 67% score
Queen's Pawn Game: 99 games, 74% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 68 games, 65% score

As Black

Sicilian Defense: 322 games, 61% score
Ruy Lopez: 204 games, 53% score
Queen's Gambit Declined: 125 games, 54% score
English Opening: 96 games, 61% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 73 games, 64% score
Queen's Pawn Game: 67 games, 65% score

A famous game

Beating Anand for the title (Carlsen,M vs Anand,V, 1-0, 2013) — replay it move by move and see Stockfish's verdict.