Espen Agdestein

Espen Agdestein
CountryNorway
Born (1965-02-07) 7 February 1965 (age 59)
TitleFIDE Master
Peak rating2403 (July 2004)

Espen Agdestein (born 7 February 1965) is the former manager of former Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen (until 2021). He is the brother of chess grandmaster and former coach of Magnus Carlsen, Simen Agdestein, and is himself a FIDE master, with a FIDE rating of 2372.[1]

Agdestein is one of the co-founders and partners of Idekapital, the largest Venture Capital Fund in Norway. Idekapital manages over NOK 500 million and invests in Norwegian startup companies in need of growth capital. He founded Idekapital together with Anders Brandt, Rune Holen and Kristian Øvsthus.[2][3]

He is part owner and sits in the board of directors in Magnus Carlsen's company Play Magnus,[4] where Anders Brandt is chairman and Kate Murphy is the CEO.[5] Espen said that "Play Magnus is Magnus Carlsen's tool to bring chess to the world".[6]

Agdestein was Carlsen's manager beginning in 2009, and according to an interview in the Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, the job as manager of Carlsen turned out to be more hectic than Agdestein first expected.[7]

He founded the magazine Art of Taste in 2001 which was later bought by Hjemmet Mortensen in 2006. Agdestein worked as a director at Hjemmet Mortensen from 2006-2009. He quit his job as a director to start working as Carlsen's manager.[8]

  1. ^ "Agdestein, Espen FIDE Chess Profile - Players Arbiters Trainers". ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Idekapital". Idekapital. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Sjakkmanager blir fondsforvalter". www.dn.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. ^ "Marketing the 'Mozart of Chess' | Smith Magazine". smith.queensu.ca. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Nøkkelopplysninger fra Enhetsregisteret - Brønnøysundregistrene". w2.brreg.no. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  6. ^ "- Carlsens sjakk-app verdt 130 millioner". Dagbladet.no. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  7. ^ "- Jeg trodde det skulle bli behagelig, men jeg har aldri hatt det så hektisk før". Aftenbladet. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  8. ^ "Sluttet som direktør, satset på 18-åring". Nettavisen. Retrieved 18 November 2015.