Does all-conquering King Magnus have anything left to annex?

Carlsen possesses the classical, rapid and blitz crowns, having crushed all comers. He has also played a significant role in the recent chess boom, both driving it as the sport’s biggest star and profiting from it as a businessman. Where does he go from here?

On a pleasant November afternoon at Chennai’s Hyatt Regency, Ellen Carlsen said with pride: “I am the first victim of Magnus Carlsen. I am also one of the players to beat Magnus; there are not too many of them, after all.”

What she said about her elder brother during a chat eight years ago holds true even now. Carlsen is still the planet’s best chess player by some distance. He won the World title for the fifth time at Dubai last week in brutal fashion.

Carlsen had claimed the first of those titles a few days after Ellen — she was a medical student then and is now pursuing a PhD after completing her MD — predicted on Twitter that her brother would break through in game five. The match against local hero Viswanathan Anand had been evenly poised until then; the first four games had all ended in draws.