2008

Playing for the second time in the top group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen showed big improvement over his 2007 performance. His final score was 8 points in 13 rounds, an Elo performance of 2830. Carlsen scored five wins (including beating former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik with the black pieces), two losses and six draws. He shared first place with Levon Aronian, becoming the youngest person ever to win a category 20 tournament. At the 2008 Linares chess tournament, Carlsen had another 2800+ Elo performance, scoring 8 out of 14 (five wins, three losses and six draws). He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner, world champion Viswanathan Anand. In March 2008, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament, which was held in Nice for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, six draws and two losses in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared fifth place in the blindfold, shared third place in the rapid and a shared second place in the overall tournament.
Carlsen is one of 21 players in the six-tournament FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009, a qualifier for the World Chess Championship 2011. In the first tournament, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in April-May 2008, he finished in a three-way tie for first place, with another 2800 Elo performance. Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko held at Miskolc, Hungary, scoring 5:3 (two wins, six draws). In June, Carlsen won an annual Aerosvit event.In his strongest tournament performance to date, he finished undefeated with 8 out of 11 (five wins, six draws) in a category 19 field. His Elo performance was 2878. Playing in a category 18 Biel tournament, Carlsen finished third with 6 points out of 10 (three wins, one loss, six draws), with Elo performance of 2741, his first sub-2800 performance of 2008. Playing in Mainz Rapid Chess world championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to world classic and rapid champion Vishy Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws). To reach the final Magnus played against Judit Polgar scoring 1.5 point out of two (one win, one draw), against Vishy Anand scording one point out of two (two draws) and against Morozevich scording 1 point out of two (two draws). Playing in the category 21 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen finished in second place with a 2768 performance rating (three wins, three loses, four draws). World Chess Championship 2009 In the World Chess Championship 2009, the current world champion, Viswanathan Anand, will be challenged for the World Chess Championship title by either Veselin Topalov or Gata Kamsky. The match is scheduled for the first half of 2009.