Magnus Carlsen from Norway wins the 2016 World Chess Championship in New York City on Wednesday, beating Russian Sergey Karjakin to the title. The pair had played out an epic final match in the lower Manhattan since early November and could not be separated in 12 classical games. The Championship came down to a four-game rapid playoff where Carlsen managed to sneak games three and four to retain the World Championship
• Magnus Carlsen may be the man to push the barriers for global game of chess </s> The Latest on the World Chess Championship (all times local):

Reigning champ Magnus Carlsen of Norway has defeated Sergey Karjakin (SEHR'-gay kar-YAH'-keen) of Russia in the World Chess Championship in New York City.

Carlsen retained his title Wednesday night by winning the best-of-four speed games with two wins and two draws.

Organizers estimate that 6 million people around the world followed the series of quick tie-breaking games — sort of like sudden death play in football.

The championship prize is $1.1 million divided between the two players. The winner gets 60 percent.

The World Chess Championship has come down to a series of lightning-fast games that will determine whether the title goes to reigning champ Magnus Carlsen of Norway or challenger Sergey Karjakin (SEHR'-gay kar-YAH'-keen) of Russia.

The two are facing off Wednesday in New York.

After 12 games played in the past three weeks, it's still a tie between the world's two top grandmasters.

Organizers expect about 6 million people around the world plan to follow a series of quick tie-breaking games — sort of like sudden death play in football.

The championship prize is $1.1 million divided between the two players. The winner gets 60 percent. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption The games were watched by about six million people around the world

Magnus Carlsen of Norway has won the World Chess Championship for the third consecutive time after defeating challenger Sergey Karjakin of Russia.

Carlsen sealed victory following three weeks of play and a series of tiebreakers in New York.

Karjakin tied against Carlsen in 12 regular rounds but was beaten in the final phase of four quickfire games.

Organisers said the event was followed by about six million chess fans around the world.

Hundreds of spectators paid between $100 and $500 to watch the games at a former fish market in Manhattan, separated from the two grandmasters by soundproof glass.

After his victory, Carlsen's supporters greeted him by cheering and singing "Happy Birthday", to mark his 26th birthday.

The boy who conquered the chess world

The prize of $1.1m (£879,000) is divided between the two players with the winner taking 60%.

Chess reached the height of its popularity in the 1970s, when the game was overshadowed by Cold War rivalry.

In 1972, the victory of American Bobby Fischer over Russian defender Boris Spassky at the World Chess Championship in Iceland was dubbed the "match of the century".

Commentators mentioned current geopolitical tensions in connection with this year's match when Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian president of the World Chess Federation, was accused by the US of collaborating with the Syrian government and barred from travelling to New York. </s> Two-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen won his third title on Wednesday, defeating Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin after three weeks of grueling play in the World Chess Championship

Fans greeted the Norwegian with a “Happy Birthday” chorus and huge cheers after his victory. He turned 26 on the same day he beat the Russian, winning two of four tie-breaking “rapid games.”

The grandmasters started Wednesday’s chessboard battle with a 6-6 tie after 12 games. They will share a prize of $1.1 million, the winner getting 60 percent.

Organizers say about 6 million people around the world followed the series of quick tie-breaking games — similar to sudden death play in football.

If none had ended with a winner, the championship would have gone to the nerve-wracking Armageddon endgame, which lasts less than 10 minutes.

Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgar, the commentator for the tournament and the best ever female player, calls it “the killer 10 minutes — like Russian roulette.”

“Today, the faster games are a great show even for people who don’t know the game.”

On Wednesday, the required mental strategies also played out on chessboards scattered around the spectator lounge. People hovered over them, trying out various combinations of pieces, mirroring the masters.

“Magnus is my hero because he takes risks, he’s really exciting,” said Pippa Millstone, a Manhattan 9-year-old who came to watch the tournament for her fourth time.

“The game is pretty even now, but I feel like Magnus is going to start attacking really soon,” she said in the middle of the third of the four so-called “rapid games,” each about a half-hour long, played as tie-breakers.

Carlsen and Karjakin reached a draw in two, and the Norwegian won two for the championship.

At crucial moments, spectators hushed, waiting to see what the next move would be. One whispered, “no, no” when Karjakin’s choice seemed halting, or on the defensive.

Even the winner missed a chance in one game, drawing groans and a few happy shrieks, depending on loyalties.

Most fans were in homes and clubs across the globe. Some spent $15 for a pay-per-view live transmission, others to watch via high-tech goggles in 3-D virtual reality or by tracking moves on various free websites.

The New York championship did not escape the shadow of East-West rivalry dating to the Cold War days when American Bobby Fischer beat Russian defender Boris Spassky in 1972.

This time, a key figure in chess was absent in New York: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian multimillionaire and longtime president of the governing World Chess Federation who was accused by the U.S. government of collaborating with the Syrian regime. </s> It’s not quite the cold war revisited. But over the past two weeks the world chess No 1, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, has been doing battle against a Kremlin-backed Russian grandmaster who fervently supports Crimea’s annexation and the man who did it, Vladimir Putin.

On Wednesday the World Chess Championship in New York reaches its conclusion when Carlsen plays a series of quickfire games against his challenger Sergey Karjakin. The sudden death denouement comes after a series of sometimes lacklustre draws and a single win each, with the players tantalisingly tied on Monday with six points.

The match has invited comparisons with the 1972 clash between the American Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, the Soviet Union’s defending world champion. Fischer famously won, dealing a blow to the Kremlin’s use of chess as an ideological weapon and its belief in communist superiority over capitalism.

Their last match on Monday ended with a draw after just 35 minutes and 30 moves, an outcome that disappointed fans and chess experts alike. The grandmaster Susan Polgar observed that it was “as exciting as watching clothes dry”, while Short tweeted: “If the 12th game ... were a restaurant dish, I would send it back to the chef.”

“We’re not at the penalty stage yet. We’re at extra time,” Carlsen said after Monday’s match, making a football analogy. “I understand if sometimes both teams are not trying to score in the last minute of regulation that can be frustrating but also having extra time is exciting.”

After launching an aggressive attack in game eight, only to eventually lose, Carlsen stormed out of an obligatory press conference. Latterly, he has appeared more relaxed. Wednesday’s tie-breaker starts with four rapid games, with an initial time limit of 25 minutes per player. If the deadlock continues there will be an “armageddon game”, in which white has five minutes and black four. Karjakin – who starts with black, if it gets that far – will only have to draw to win the title.

The historical analogy may be overblown but there is no doubt the 2016 world championship has a 21st century political frisson. Karjakin – who is 26 – was born in Crimea. At the time the peninsula was part of Ukraine. A prodigy, he played for Ukraine’s chess federation before defecting to Russia and becoming a citizen in 2009.



According to British grandmaster Nigel Short, Karjakin is an outspoken supporter of Russia’s president: “I like Sergey. He’s stayed at my home before. I would describe him as a political opportunist.” In 2014 Karjakin posted a photo on his Instagram account showing him wearing a T-shirt with Putin’s face on it and the patriotic message: “You don’t dump your own [people].”

“Karjakin is totally backed by Putin and the Russian machine,” Short said. “The state wants him to do well. My original prediction was a narrow victory for Carlsen. We knew Karjakin was tough, and very good.” Carlsen had been “slightly off his game” but was still the favourite to win and is the number one at “rapid” format play, Short added.

The championship is being staged in New York for the first time since 1995. The choice of venue is also political - following years of simmering US-Russia tensions, and given the pro-Putin proclivities of president-elect Donald Trump, whose Manhattan home is a cab ride away. One of those spotted in the VIP chess room with views of Brooklyn bridge has been Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s ubiquitous press spokesman.

One person is missing. That is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian president of Fide, the world chess federation. Ilyumzhinov – who once claimed that aliens took him for a ride in their spaceship – has long performed the role of informal Kremlin emissary. He has met dictators including Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadaffi.

In late 2015 the US treasury department added Ilyumzhinov to a list of sanctioned Russians. It accused him of providing banking services to Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad. Ilyumzhninov has said this doesn’t stop him from travelling to the US. He has yet to turn up, though.

Chess federations from western countries including the US, England, and Germany have repeatedly tried to topple Ilyumzhinov from Fide’s top job. In 2014, Ilyumzhinov defeated his latest rival, the former world chess champion and Putin critic Garry Kasparov. Karjakin said he backed Ilyumzhinov and told Russian media that Kasparov’s views were “ultra-radical”.

Carlsen, meanwhile, is no cold war hawk. Rather, at 26, he is a cool young man who became a grandmaster at 13 and who dominates the world’s pre-eminent mind sport, winning the world championship in 2013. His chess rating – 2882 – is the highest ever. Carlsen has a cult following at home in Norway where his games are being live-screened. He has modelled for the Dutch clothing brand G-Star Raw.

Even for Carlsen the 2016 world championship has had moments of strain. According to Short, Carlsen enlisted the help of Microsoft to protect his computer from hackers. “Russian hackers are good at it. You are basically finished in a match like this if your analysis is available to your opponents,” Short explained. Karjakin had taken similar defensive measures, he suggested.

The game of chess has changed dramatically in recent years. Decades ago there was no live-streaming, with chess enthusiasts only able to follow matches by reading the next day’s paper. Now global spectators can follow matches live (for a $7 fee, payable to the murky organisation which owns chess rights, Agon) and can feed each move into powerful chess programs. “Even an idiot can to some degree follow what is going on,” Short said.

Phil Ehr, the former chief executive of the English chess federation, said the focus on Wednesday as the world championship reaches its dramatic end should be on chess, not international relations. “People in the west will root for Carlsen. People elsewhere will root for the Russian guy. It’s isn’t a big deal,” Ehr said, adding: “If Karjakin prevails good on him.” </s> The big chess showdown between three-time defending champion Magnus Carlsen and his US challenger Fabiano Caruana will be decided by a series of rapid-play tiebreakers on Wednesday.

Norway’s Carlsen and Caruana wrapped up their 12-match World ChessChampionship series in London with their 12th successive draw on Monday.

It was an anti-climactic finish to a showdown between 27-year old Carlsen – a former child prodigy now regarded by many as the greatest ever chess player – and the first American contender to the crown since the legendary Bobby Fischer in 1972.

The result means the players will have a day off on Tuesday before getting together for an intense session of chess played in a completely different format.

They will try to settle things first in a four-game series in which each player will have 25 minutes. An extra 10 seconds of time are added for each move they make.

Things will go to an even faster-paced format if there is still no winner.

The final tiebreaker is a single winner-take-all game played in a lightning three minutes.

Carlsen will be viewed as the favourite on Wednesday. He excels at rapid chess and defended his title through tiebreakers against the Russian Sergey Karjakin in 2016.

“I think I have very good chances,” the Norwegian told reporters after Monday’s game.

But chess legend Garry Kasparov said he was losing faith in Carlsen.

The former Soviet and Russian world champion said Carlsen had the upper hand in Monday’s encounter but agreed to settle on a draw because he had lost his nerve.

“In light of this shocking draw offer from Magnus in a superior position with more time, I reconsider my evaluation of him being the favorite in rapids,” Kasparov tweeted.

“Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his.” </s> NEW YORK (AP) — The World Chess Championship has come down to a series of lightning-fast games that will determine whether the title goes to reigning champ Magnus Carlsen of Norway or challenger Sergey Karjakin (SEHR’-gay kar-YAH’-keen) of Russia.

The two are facing off Wednesday in New York.

After 12 games played in the past three weeks, it’s still a tie between the world’s two top grandmasters.

Organizers expect about 6 million people around the world plan to follow a series of quick tie-breaking games — sort of like sudden death play in football.

The championship prize is $1.1 million divided between the two players. The winner gets 60 percent. </s> The World Chess Championship goes into overtime Wednesday, as Norway's Magnus Carlsen and the United States' Fabiano Caruana compete for the title. After 12 games and 12 draws, the two grandmasters meet in London for a series of tie-breaking games. If Caruana wins, he would be the first American champion since Bobby Fischer in 1972. Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson talks with Hungarian chess grandmaster and official match commentator Judit Polgár (@GMJuditPolgar) about the matchup. </s> • The 2018 World Chess Championship will go to tiebreakers after a shocking draw in Game 12 on Monday.
• There had been an unprecedented 11 draws before Monday’s result.
• The reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen, had an edge in Game 12 but didn’t capitalize.

UPDATE: Game 12 ended, controversially, in a draw after 31 moves, after Magnus Carlsen held a slight edge with the black pieces. The chess world was shocked by the result. The match will now go to tiebreakers on Wednesday to decide the championship.

After an unprecedented 11 draws, the 2018 World Chess Championship has come down to a final classical game on Monday in London between the defending champ, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, and his challenger, Fabiano Caruana of the United States.

The No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world are separated by just a year in age and a few ranking points: Carlsen, 27, is at 2,835, and Caruana, 26, is at 2,832. So the march of equal results shouldn’t entirely be a surprise, though it’s never happened before. In 2013 and 2014, Carlsen defeated the former world champion Vishy Anand of India with decisive wins over the board in classical time controls, without going to rapid or blitz tiebreakers.

That wasn’t the case in 2016, when Russia’s Sergey Karjakin challenged Carlsen and won a single game. Carlsen also won a game, then the remainder were draws, but Carlsen defended his title in the “Armageddon” rounds that followed.

On Monday, Caruana has the white pieces and a slight statistical edge, but the big question is whether he’ll press for a win, overextend himself, and hand the title to Carlsen, or angle for a draw and take his chances in the tiebreakers. The latter is risky, as Carlsen is the world’s best rapid and blitz player.

Read more: American challenger Fabiano Caruana missed his best chance to win a game against Magnus Carlsen at World Chess Championship

Caruana’s preparation for the match has generally been better than Carlsen’s, but while both players have enjoyed opportunities to win, neither has converted. Caruana, not an aggressive player, has sought to negate whatever small advantages Carlsen snared – a major difference from Anand’s brand of power chess, where he countered Carlsen’s talents by launching redoubtable assaults from his side of the board.

Caruana’s preparation vs. Carlsen’s uncanny ability to find the right responses, even when he’s in trouble

In the competitive championship games, we’ve seen Carlsen repeatedly caught in Caruana’s superior opening preparation but able to find the best moves to equalize. Caruana, meanwhile, has missed some tactical shots – or, if you accept that he possesses computerlike calculating skills, followed such moves down their lines of play and decided they were too risky.

The 11-all score line has set off the usual bout of complaints that there are too many draws in super-grandmaster chess. The Carlsen-Caruana draws have been fascinating studies in peaceful outcomes, and there have even been a few novelties uncorked, as well as many Sicilian Defences with the black pieces. (The Sicilian is regarded as one of black’s best chances to play for a win.)

But the chess has been rather studious, and it’s shown that at the top level, the use of analysis engines means it’s difficult to rattle the best competitors.

For many fans, a decisive result on Monday would be thrilling and make up for the march of draws; America might also have its first world champion since Bobby Fischer in 1972.

Coming off a rest day, neither player should be prone to a blunder brought on by stress, so one of these guys will have to go for it. The prospect of a sharper Sicilian looms, as that was the opening employed in Game 12, which showed an advantage for white after 12 moves, the result of an early punch thrown on the kingside by Carlsen.

Sharp Sicilians are notorious for getting out of hand for black – and Carlsen, having trounced Karjakin in the tiebreakers two years ago and knowing Caruana is the lesser “fast” player, could aim for a draw, though the initial moves of Game 12 suggest he has a win on his mind.
Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen defeats Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin to retain the World Chess Championship title.