Net worth and prize money of world chess champion Magnus Carlsen

How much money does Magnus Carlsen have?

Magnus Carlsen has been the reigning world chess champion since 2013. If you consider that only a handful of chess players can make a living from their game, then this is Magnus Carlsen with an estimated fortune of 10 million euros an absolute exception. A clever marketing of his name is of course part of the success strategy.

At the age of five, the exceptional talent learned how to play chess from his father. In 1999 he played his first chess tournament. At the beginning of 2004 he secured all three grandmaster norms within just four months. Between 2009 and 2010 he was trained by the chess legend Garry Kasparov and became the youngest player (19 years old) to climb the FIDE world rankings. Since July 2011 he has been number 1 in the world rankings.

Chess world champion title:

The greatest money can be made at world championships, which are only held irregularly. As a rule, there is usually only 5-digit prize money to be won in smaller tournaments. The top elite, however, receive a lucrative entry fee.

• 2013 Chennai: Victory against Viswanathan Anand (1.2 million euros in prize money)
• 2014 Sochi: Victory against Viswanathan Anand (800,000 euros in prize money)
• 2016 New York: Victory against Sergei Karjakin (1 million euros in prize money)
• 2018 London: Victory against Fabiano Caruana (550,000 euros in prize money)
• 2021 Dubai: Watch against Jan Nepomnyashchi (1.2 million euros in prize money)

Prize money Chess World Championship 2021 in Dubai

The World Chess Championship prize money totaling € 2,000,000 was distributed 60:40 in favor of World Cup winner Carlsen: € 1.2 million. The 2021 World Cup took place in Dubai and Magnus successfully defended his title against Jan Nepomnyashchi.

Prize money World Chess Championship 2018 in London

Magnus played in November 2018 against the US-Italian Fabiano Caruana in London for the world title. There was a total of around one million euros in prize money, of which due to the playoff the shares were distributed as follows: winners 55%, losers 45% shares.

Corona chess tournament “Magnus Carlsen Invitational” 2020

An exclusive online chess tournament with eight chess grandmasters will be held from April 18, 2020 to May 3, 2020 and broadcast live on Chess24.com. The tournament was organized by the world chess champion himself and is called “Magnus Carlsen Invitational“And would like to use the time of the corona pandemic to make the sport of chess even more popular. Prize money: $ 250,000.

Income from show competitions:

Carlsen receives a nice entry fee for taking part in show chess competitions. The simultaneous competitions are very popular, where the player faces several opponents on several chessboards at the same time.

Model and advertising contracts

In 2010 Carlsen signed his first modeling contract with the Dutch fashion label G-Star. His name has long been registered as a trademark in order to be able to market itself even better. The genius can earn even more money through lucrative advertising deals. A company of its own was also founded for this purpose

Own chess apps

In the meantime, Magnus has also brought its own apps into the stores, so that everyone can learn chess and, above all, improve their skills. The three available apps are: “Play Magnus”, “Magnus Trainer” and “Magnus Kingdom” and are financed with in-app purchases.

Books and my own film

The young life has already been written and filmed. In addition, his company “Play Magnus AS” took over the e-book publisher Chessable in 2019 and participated in the online platform Chess24.

_{Cover picture: Frans Peeters / Flickr [CC-BY-SA 2.0]
Game against Fabio Caruana: Frans Peeters / Flickr [CC-NC-ND 2.0]}