What is it about Magnus Carlsen? It seems every where I read, Magnus Carlsen is involved in a discussion on if he is or will be the greatest chess player of all time.  It also seems as if some are crowning him world champion even though he hasn't won one yet, so my questions are what makes Carlsen so good?  Why are people so confident in Carlsen?  Does he have something other players such as Aronian don't have?  I also saw that 60 minutes did a special and called Carlsen the Mozart of Chess.  Where is all this coming from?
Carlsen is 21 years young and is currently the highest-rated player in the world. He scored a win against Karpov and a draw against Kasparov at the tender age of 13 (Reykjavik Rapid 2004), and was the second youngest player to become a grandmaster (at the time he did it). Things like that are enough to brew confidence, garner world championship expectations, and draw superficial comparisons to a similarly precocious talent like Mozart.

I imagine that his main advantage over his current closest rival Aronian in terms of grabbing attention is just the fact that he is 8 years younger. And whereas, say, Sergey Karjakin is only a year older than Carlsen, and is the one who still holds the record for becoming the youngest grandmaster ever, he simply doesn't have the sort of tournament record that Carlsen does, especially in the highest-class tournaments of the last few years. (Note that Karjakin does have impressive recent wins like Wijk aan Zee 2009, Tal Memorial 2010 and Bazna Kings 2011; but Carlsen's success of late has been such that that trophy shelf pales in comparison.)

Anyway, assuming the upcoming world championship cycle goes through as planned, then Carlsen will have his chance to justify all the chatter and expectations. But I'll be rooting for Kramnik or Aronian myself :-)