The Other Wunderkind from Norway

I'm talking about Magnus Carlsen. Possibly the world's best chess player right now. Born in 1990, he earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 13 and has never looked back.

The other Norwegian is of course Petter Northug.  Both Carlsen and Northug have had similiar development timelines. Both came into prominence early in their careers. Both were hailed as heirs to the throne in their respective disciplines and both were are pretty cocky when they step into the arena. For example, the opening move in Carlsen's win vs. former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov while playing black pretty much raised a wtf flag from the crowd. The game was pretty much over at move 19 where Magnus had a pawn charging down the center of the board and his bishop maintaining a stranglehold on the long diagonal.

Northug pretty much does the same thing during mass starts.  He's content to sit in the crowd because he's so cocksure of his ability to put 20 meters on just about anyone during the final sprint.  Here's a lesser known video of Northug vs Teichmann.



Which leads me to think.  One could put together an entire documentary of Northug-Teichmann battles.  But that would be mean.