Magnus Carlsen's best games

Magnus Carlsen is, for many, the best player in history. His trademark isn’t the spectacular sacrifice, but patience: squeezing tiny advantages until he wins. But when it’s time to finish the job, he strikes like no one else. Open his most memorable game in the viewer above.

1. The sacrifice that kept the crown (Carlsen – Karjakin, 2016)

2016 World Championship. After a grueling match, everything comes down to the rapid tiebreak games. Karjakin defends with a Sicilian Defense and holds on… until Carlsen finds the perfect finish.

On move 50 comes the blow: 50.Qh6+!! Carlsen offers his queen. If Black captures with the pawn, mate follows down the file; if the king captures, mate comes with the rook. There’s no defense. Karjakin resigned, and Magnus retained his title on his own birthday.

The lesson: even the most positional player in the world wins with tactics. Strategy builds the advantage; tactics cash it in.

2. The record game: 125 unbeaten (Carlsen – ?, 2012–2014)

Between October 2012 and May 2014, Carlsen strung together 125 classical games without a loss. The absolute record. No opponent managed to beat him. That streak includes his first World Championship (2013, vs. Anand) and his second (2014, also vs. Anand). To study that era, look up his games from the 2013 Candidates Tournament or Norway Chess 2014.

👉 On Lichess you can search his best games from that era: lichess.org/games/search → White: MagnusCarlsen.

3. The art of the endgame: impossible technique (Carlsen – Karjakin, 2016 classical game 1)

If you want to see Carlsen’s technique in its purest form, study the first classical game of the 2016 World Championship. A draw after 115 moves that Carlsen pushed to the limit — Karjakin survived, but the lesson is in how Carlsen turns a seemingly equal position into a three-hour ordeal.

4. The longest World Championship in history: Carlsen – Nepomniachtchi 2021

The 2021 World Championship (Dubai) produced what is the longest World Championship game in history: 136 moves in game 6. Nepomniachtchi made a mistake in the rook endgame and Carlsen exploited it with surgical efficiency.

👉 You can watch it on Lichess and then paste its PGN into the viewer above to replay it move by move.

How to load any Carlsen game

The viewer above accepts any PGN. The workflow to study a game:

1. Go to lichess.org → search “MagnusCarlsen”
2. Open the game you want to study
3. Click the “PGN” menu → “Copy PGN”
4. Paste it into the viewer on this page and click Load

That way you can review any of his more than 2,500 documented official games in seconds.

Why you should study Carlsen

• Universality. He’s comfortable in any structure, open or closed.
• Endgame technique. He converts minimal advantages into wins; he handles endgames like no one else.
• Constant pressure. He doesn’t force things: he waits, improves his pieces and pounces on the opponent’s first mistake.

Keep exploring

• Full biography, Elo and world championships: Magnus Carlsen’s player page.
• His place in history: world champions and best players in history.
• The opening from the tiebreak: the Sicilian Defense.
• More masterpieces: Fischer’s best games and Kasparov’s.

Replay it and notice how understated it is until the very end. This is how Carlsen wins: quietly, until the decisive blow.