Magnus Carlsen
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Magnus Carlsen was crowned the new world chess champion on Friday, ousting Indian champ Viswanathan Anand by a score of 6.5-3.5, which offered him the highest rating of all time.
At 22, Carlsen, of Norway, is the second-youngest world champion and has already earned the nickname as the game's Harry Potter from former chess master and coach Garry Kasparov, who called his talent "limitless" in a column for Business Insider.
The youthful star, who looks like he could be related to Matt Damon, has already earned praise for adding new and modern appeal to the game with his sense of humor and his laser-like focus. After learning to play chess from his father, Carlsen won his first tournament at 8, and at 13, defeated Russian champ Anatoly Karpov and became a grandmaster.
Unlike others drawn to the intellectual game, the dimpled-faced Carlsen, a native of Tonsberg, Norway, has appeared on the cover of British GQ" magazine and has modeled part-time, including a 2010 campaign for G-Star Raw, with actress Liv Tyler.
True to his generation, he Tweeted this prophetic photo from his training camp in October:
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