The achievement is by far the best result ever recorded by a Norwegian player.

On Wednesday Carlsen eliminated top Russian grandmaster Vladimir Malakhov, rated 34th in the world, 3.5-2.5 in the second round of tie-breaks.

Both games at regulation tournament time-limit ended in draws, the pair traded wins in the rapid chess tie-break and the match was decided at blitz chess where the players have roughly five minutes each for the game.

Carlsen beat his higher ranked and more experienced opponent 1.5-0.5 in blitz, winning with the black pieces and drawing when playing white.

The Norwegian teenager began the 128-player knockout tournament seeded a lowly 97th, but eliminated a series of the world's top players before being beaten by Russian Evgeny Bareev, one of the absolute world elite.

Carlsen then needed to win both of his matches in the eight-player consolation group that would produce two players to join the top eight in the next stage of the world chess federation FIDE's title cycle.

He will now compete in the candidates match stage to narrow the field further. Carlsen is the youngest player in history to reach the candidates stage of a FIDE world championship cycle.