Do you recognise the young man above? He is someone who has already been recognised in the world of postage stamps for his achievements.
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, still only 26 years old, is a three-time World Champion of chess. He won his first world title in 2013, becoming the second-youngest ever to win that competition.
The 2016 World Championship final was the first where both players (the opponent he defeated was Russian Sergey Karjakin, also aged 26) were of the “computer era”, whereby both players used computers as a key part of their training. Before the match, Carlsen was the highest-rated player in the world. His winning move in one of the games drew instant praise as one of the great last moves and, to devotees of the game, showed why he has been dubbed the “Mozart of chess.”
Naturally his country of birth, Norway, has commemorated Carlsen’s achievements with a postage stamp, issued in August 2014 to mark the Norwegian Chess Association’s centenary.
