Pontus Carlsson
| Pontus Carlsson | |
|---|---|
Pontus Carlsson, Warsaw 2013
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| Full name | Pontus Carlsson |
| Country | Sweden |
| Born |
December 18, 1982 Cali, Colombia |
| Title | Grandmaster (GM) |
| FIDE rating | 2454 (February 2017) |
| Peak rating | 2515 (October 2008) |
Pontus Carlsson (born December 18, 1982) is a Swedish chess grandmaster.
When Carlsson was one year old, his family died. He was subsequently adopted by a Swedish couple and it was his stepfather, Ingvar Carlsson (former chairman of the Swedish Chess Federation), who taught him the game of chess when he was 4.
He 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 a hip-hop fan.
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.
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.
Carlsson 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 of Linköping.
His performance stagnated from mid-2001 to mid-2005 due to losing small amounts of rating points in successive tournaments during that period. He attributed this delay to not playing enough tournaments and activating himself.
In 2007, Carlsson played for the Swedish national team in the 16th European Team Chess Championship and scored 6/9 without a loss. His performance rating was 2686, having faced strong opposition, including Dmitry Jakovenko and Mark Hebden. He was also a member of the national team at the 2006 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin (+3=1−2).
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