Pontus Carlsson

Pontus Carlsson (born December 18, 1982) is a Swedish chess grandmaster.

Early life Carlsson was born December 18, 1982 in Cali, Colombia. At age one, Carlsson's family passed and he was taken to an orphanage. He was adopted by a former chairman of the Swedish Chess Federation, Ingvar Carlsson, who taught him chess at age four. In Sweden, Carlsson began playing chess nationally and internationally, representing the country in the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy (+3=1−2) as an International Master. Along with representing his county internationally, Carlsson won youth championships both at the regional and national levels. He played in his first national championship in 2001 at age 18 in his hometown of Linköping.

Carlsson holds dual citizenship in Colombia and Sweden. due to losing small amounts of rating points in successive tournaments. 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 played against Grandmasters Dmitry Jakovenko and Mark Hebden.

He plays for the Sollentuna SK chess club, with which he took part in the European club cups in 2002, 2005, and 2007. Beyond the Swedish league he also played in the Spanish league and other tournaments in Spain. He earned his first GM norm at the 2005 European Team Championship, his second at the Open de Tarragona (Spain), the third at the Torneig Internacional Ciutat de Sóller, and the fourth in the 3rd round at the European Club Cup. As a Grandmaster, he was elected into the Swedish Chess Academy.

Quotes

"The training that I have done this far have taken me to 2500, but in order to reach 2600 I need to work hard on my weaknesses." "Before that I only played two or max three ELO tournaments per year. Between 2001 and 2004 I had problems to reach my normal playing strength during the tournaments since I was too rusty all the time. I always started the tournaments bad and then when I got warm and recovered, the tournament was over and it was a half year left to the next one. I had 2400 in 2001 and in 2004 I had 2360 after losing five ELO points in almost every tournament that I played during this period. Therefore I decided to activate myself and start to play more and a bit more serious." "No I don't think so. I mean there are only two black GMs in the world and I'm the only one that plays in Europe so everyone knows who I am. It's not possible for me to hide!" (when asked if international opponents are surprised when placing his name and country with his face)