Sigrun Øen, born in 1961, and Henrik Carlsen met in the early 1980s. Sigrun Øen worked as a chemist at an environmental agency, while Henrik Carlsen worked as an IT consultant at Exxon and SAP. After their marriage, the couple had four children: daughters Ingrid, Ellen and Signe, and their second child, son Magnus, who was born in Tønsberg in 1990.

The Øen-Carlsen family lived for a time in Espoo (Finland) and Brussels (Belgium) before returning to Norway in 1998. In their home country, they first lived in Lommedalen near Oslo and later moved to Haslum.

Henrik was a great chess enthusiast and had played tournament chess in the Oslo Chess Society at a young age, before his professional career. He passed on his enthusiasm to his children. The seed fell on fertile ground with Magnus, but Ellen was also a good player and won the Norwegian Championship in her age group at the age of 17. When it became clear how much talent Magnus possessed, Sigrun and Henrik rented a motorhome and spent nine months travelling with the whole family from tournament to tournament in Europe to give their son the opportunity to develop his talent.

Magnus Carlsen with his parents and Peter Heine Nielsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Later, when Magnus Carlsen was already the best chess player in the world and became world champion, his family often accompanied him to tournaments and gave the now best chess player in history emotional support when things didn’t go well. Sigrun Øen, with her positive and friendly character, always conveyed confidence and composure.

Sigrun Øen with her daughters Ingrid, Ellen and Signe | Photo: Sagar Shah

Carlsen’s unique success in professional chess is undoubtedly based to a large extent on the harmony that his family — his parents Sigrun Øen and Henrik Carlsen and his sisters Ellen, Ingrid and Signe — were able to convey. Sigrun Øen will be greatly missed.

Magnus Carlsen was actually registered for the SuperUnited Tournament in Zagreb, but had to cancel at short notice. The reason given, an "urgent family matter", gave rise to fears of bad news, which materialised with the death of his mother. Sigrun Øen was 61 years old.

The funeral is set to take place on 17 July. In lieu of flowers, the Carlsen family requests donations for cancer research.