Pontus Carlsson

Infobox chess player


playername = Pontus Carlsson
|caption=
birthname = Pontus Carlsson
country = SWE
datebirth = birth date and age|1982|12|18
placebirth = Cali, Colombia
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = Grandmaster (GM)
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2501 (January 2008)
peakrating = 2506 (April 2007)

Pontus Carlsson (born December 18 1982) [http://www.thechessdrum.net/drummajors/P_Carlsson.html GM Pontus Carlsson ] ] is a Swedish chess player and became the country's 16th grandmaster.

Early life

When Carlsson was a one year old his entire family died in tragic circumstances. He was subsequently adopted by a Swedish couple and it was his stepfather, Ingvar Carlsson (former president of swedish chess federation), [www.schack.se] who taught the game of chess to him when he was 4.

He has studied Spanish during the time he was based in Spain playing in the chess league. Now he is fluent in Spanish (having earned a certificate) as well as Swedish, English, German and French. Carlsson also plans to learn Russian since there is good chess literature that is only published in that language.

He is a dual citizen of Sweden and Colombia, and is hip-hop fan.

Chess career

Carlsson has represented his country since his school years and is now a member of the senior national team. He has spent most of his chess career traveling throughout Europe.

His first international tournament of record was the under-10 European Championships in Rimavská Sobota. Emanuel Berg also played in this tournament (under-16) and would become one of Carlsson's closest chess friends. Carlsson has spent most of his chess career traveling throughout Europe. Having a propensity for rapid chess he has won the Swedish Tusenmannaschacket Rapid tournament three times becoming the only player in its history to do so.

He had also won a number of youth championships at the national and regional level. He played in his first national championship in 2001 at age 18 in his hometown Linköping.

He performance stagnated from mid-2001 to mid-2005 [ [http://www.fide.com/ratings/id.phtml?event=1705814 FIDE Online. Chess rating progress chart ] ] due losing small rating points in successive tournaments in that period. He attributed this delay to not playing enough tournaments and activating himself.

In 2007, Carlsson played for Swedish national team in the 16th European Team Chess Championship and scored 6.0/9 without a single loss. His performance rating was 2686 having faced strong opposition, including Dmitry Jakovenko and Mark Hebden. [ [http://www.greekchess.com/euro2007/medals.html European Team Chess Championships 2007 ] ] He was also a member of the national team at the 2006 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin (+3 =1 —2). [ [http://www.olimpbase.org/players/eakqqusg.html OlimpBase :: Men's Chess Olympiads :: Pontus Carlsson ] ]

He plays for the Sollentuna SK chess club, with which he took part in the European club cups in 2002, 2005 and 2007. Beyond the Swedish league he has also played in the Spanish league and other tournaments in Spain.

Carlsson became an International Master and Grandmaster in three years. He achieved the IM title in August 2005, and the grandmaster title in October 2007 after earning four GM norms. This made him 16th Swede to become a GM. He earned his first GM norm at the 2005 European Team Championship [ [http://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2005/NB_Carlsson2.html Carlsson celebrates IM title with GM norm! ] ] , his second at the Open de Tarragona (Spain) [ [http://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2006/NB_Carlsson.html Pontus Carlsson earns 2nd GM norm! ] ] , this third at the Torneig Internacional Ciutat de Sóller, and the fourth in the 3rd round at the European Club Cup.

Having received the Grandmaster title, he is to be elected into the Swedish Chess Academy. The Chess Academy is an organization of dignitaries and sponsors of chess, and all Swedish Grandmasters are members.

His long-term goal is reach the 2600 rating mark. He says that he is undergoing a serious training program include both Mark Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and "New in Chess" magazine as part of it.

Quotes

*"The training that I have done this far have taken me to 2500, but in order to reach 2600 I need to work hard on my weaknesses."

*"Before that I only played two or max three ELO tournaments per year. Between 2001 and 2004 I had problems to reach my normal playing strength during the tournaments since I was to rusty all the time. I always started the tournaments bad and then when I got warm and recovered, the tournament was over and it was a half year left to the next one. I had 2400 in 2001 and in 2004 I had 2360 after losing five ELO points in almost every tournament that I played during this period. Therefore I decided to activate myself and start to play more and a bit more serious."

*"No I don't think so. I mean there are only two black GMs in the world and I'm the only one that plays in Europe so everyone knows who I am. It's not possible for me to hide!" ~when asked if international opponents are surprised when placing his name and country with his face.

References

External links

*fide|id=1705814|name=Pontus Carlsson
*chessgames player|id=50058
* [http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&safe=vss&cof=&domains=www.thechessdrum.net&q=pontus+carlsson+&sitesearch=www.thechessdrum.net Articles on Pontus Carlsson at the Chess Drum]