Carlsen's Playing style

As a teenager, Carlsen became known for his attacking playing style. His win over Sipke Ernst in the 2004 Wijk aan Zee C-group, which ended with an epaulette mate, was admired by several other chess players. As he matured, Carlsen found that this risky playing style was not as well suited against the world elite. Around 2007 Carlsen was struggling against top players, and had trouble getting much out of the opening. To progress, Carlsen became a more universal player, capable of handling all sorts of positions well. In the opening, Carlsen has alternated between various opening moves. Instead of specializing in either 1.d4 or 1.e4, Carlsen has alternated between them, thus making it harder for opponents to prepare against him.

Since the announcement that he was coaching Carlsen, Garry Kasparov has repeatedly stated that Carlsen has a positional style similar to that of past world champions such as Anatoly Karpov, José Raúl Capablanca and Vasily Smyslov, rather than the tactical style of Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal and himself. Similarly, Viswanathan Anand compared Carlsen's style to that of Bobby Fischer, suggesting that both are "brilliant in simple technical positions". However, Carlsen has claimed that he does not have any preferences in terms of playing style. Kasparov and others have claimed that while Carlsen spends less time on opening preparation than other top-level players, his positional understanding more than makes up for it. According to Kasparov, Carlsen has the ability to correctly evaluate any position, which only Karpov could boast of before him. Carlsen's endgame prowess has been described as among the greatest in history.