Three-time defending champion Magnus Carlsen had been neck and neck with American Fabiano Caruana ahead of their latest match, which once again resulted in a tie.

Game 12 of 12 ended in a draw after 31 moves, with Carlsen — who had been enjoying a clear time advantage — offering a draw that Caruana accepted.

Many observers were surprised that Carlsen offered a draw while appearing to have the upper hand, including former chess champion Gary Kasparov, who felt the Norwegian might be losing his nerve.

The pair also eked out ties in their first 11 world championship games, meaning they stand level in the championship stakes on six points each (with half a point awarded to each player for each draw).

The 27-year-old Carlsen — nicknamed the "Thor of Chess" — has been seeking to cement his reputation as one of history's greatest players of the game. Caruana, aged 26, is the first American to compete for the title since chess legend Bobby Fischer in 1972.

In the playoff on Wednesday, the pair will face each other in the best of four rapid games. If still tied, they would compete in two "blitz games" in which each player would have only five minutes. Should the players still be level, the championship would go down to a single "Armageddon" match, the format of which guarantees a winner.

Carlsen could be favorite in the tie-break, considering that he also holds titles in speed and blitz chess, while Caruana's recent record in speed chess has been poor.

In addition to the prestige of winning the title, the pair are also battling over a €1 million (£880,000) cash prize.

Caruana, an Italian-American from Miami, earned his shot to play Carlsen by winning the Candidates Tournament earlier this year in Berlin. </s> The world championship tilt between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana will be decided in a quickfire tie-breaker after Monday’s Game 12 ended in a 31-move draw. The result shocked onlookers in light of the champion’s advantages in position and time, and left the best-of-12-games match in a historic 6-6 deadlock.

The latest bloodless result, the 12th draw between the world’s top two players in as many contests, ensured the €1m showdown in London will go down as the first title match in which no decisive results were managed in the official 132-year history of world championship play.

“I wasn’t necessarily going for the maximum,” said Carlsen, who essentially admitted he was content to settle it in the tie-breaker after move 20. “I just wanted a position that was completely safe, [BUT]where I could put some pressure. If a draw hadn’t been a satisfactory result, obviously I would have approached it differently.”

The 27-year-old champion from Norway will play as white in Wednesday’s first tie-break stage after a drawing of lots following Monday’s game: a best-of-four rapid match with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move. If that’s not enough to break the deadlock, they will play up to five mini-matches of two blitz games (five minutes for each player with a three-second increment). If all five mini-matches are drawn, it will come down to one sudden-death ‘Armegeddon’ match where white receives five minutes and black receives four minutes and both will receive a three-second increment after the 60th move. If that game is drawn, black will be declared the winner.

Carlsen, who in addition to his number one ranking is the world’s top rated rapid player and top rated blitz player (compared to Caruana’s respective ratings of No 8 and No 16), is widely regarded as a warm favorite in the format, not least due to a 13-year unbeaten record in tie-breakers. But no less than Garry Kasparov said Monday that Carlsen’s hasty draw offer betrayed a lapse of nerve in the 27-year-old reigning champion.

“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,” the longtime world number one wrote on Twitter. “Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his.”

Caruana, as white, played into the Sveshnikov variation in Monday’s classical finale, as he did in the eighth and 10th games. Carlsen was first to deviate from those lines with 8. ... Ne7 and Caruana quickly fell behind on time after the champion played a novelty with 12. ... h5.

The 26-year-old American challenger was offered a chance for a draw by repetition shortly after (13. Qa4 Bd7 14. Qb4 Bf5) but bravely turned it down with 15. Be3. Yet Caruana’s temporal issues compounded over the next few moves (15. ... a6 16. Nc3 Qc7 17. g3 Be7 18. f3 Nf8 19. Ne4 Nd7 20. Bd3) and he found himself nearly 50 minutes behind on the clock.

After Carlsen castled following a 12-minute think (20. ... O-O), Caruana delivered a surprise move (21. Rh2!?) that cost him in the opinion of the evaluation engines, but earned praise from the Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk from the commentary booth: “The deepest move in the match so far,” he said.

Even after the champion expended another 10 minutes before playing 21. ... Rac8, Carlsen was ahead in development with more than a half-hour advantage in time. He pressed the initiative with 22. ... Bg6 23. Rc2 f5 and Caruana’s dubious 25. f4 sent the computers haywire. The challenger’s position appeared increasingly difficult to hold after 26. ... e4 27. Be2 Be8 28. Kb1 Bf6 29. Re1 a4 30. Qb4 g6.

Which made Carlsen’s decision to offer a draw after 31. Rd1 Ra8 nothing short of mystifying. A relieved Caruana gladly accepted after a game that had lasted two hours and 57 minutes, sending the match to Wednesday’s tie-breaker.

“I was a bit surprised by the draw offer,” Caruana said. “I can never be better [THEN MOVE 31]. And I don’t really have any active ideas. If anything, black is better. At least I thought I was over the worst of it. I thought it was much more dangerous a few moves ago.”

He added: “I’m mainly relieved because I thought it was quite close today. I was very worried during the game. When you feel like you’re sort of on the brink of defeat, or at least you have a very dangerous position, then of course it’s quite good.” </s> Hello and welcome to London for today’s 12th game of the world chess championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Play resumes today at the College in Holborn after with the best-of-12-games match deadlocked at 5½-all following 11 draws in as many contests. Sixteen days and no blood drawn: the longest streak of games to open a match without a decisive result in the recognized 132-year history of world championship play. But the tension will never be higher than today, where a decisive result would lift the winner over the 6½-point threshold and determine an outright winner in the €1m ($1.14m) showdown.

If Carlsen can pull off a win with the black pieces, the 27-year-old from Norway will seal his third defense of the title he captured from Viswanathan Anand in 2013.

If Caruana can win as white, the 26-year-old challenger will not only become the second American-born player to capture the world championship after Bobby Fischer in 1972, he will inherit the No 1 ranking that Carlsen has held uninterrupted since July 2011.

If they draw for a 12th time, it will all come down to Wednesday’s tie-breaker, which consists of a series of games under shorter time controls.

A brief recap on how we got here: Game 1 was a grueling seven-hour, 115-move staredown, where Carlsen nearly become the first defending champion to win the opening game of a world championship as black in 37 years. The next four contests – Game 2, Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5 – were mostly safer, straightforward affairs that allowed Caruana to get his teeth in the match. The tension ramped up in Game 6 when Carlsen was outplayed by Caruana in the middlegame and pushed to the limit before saving a draw with incredibly precise defending. They played to another draw in Game 7, a result that left the champion lamenting his gun-shy play as white. In Game 8, Carlsen found himself down nearly an hour on the clock facing a dangerous position as black, until one false step by the American allowed him to hold. It was Caruana’s turn to suffer in Wednesday’s Game 9 until he was bailed out by a Carlsen inaccuracy. Then came Thursday’s Game 10, where Caruana found himself on the brink once more until Carlsen overextended himself and was made to grovel for a peaceful result. Saturday’s Game 11 fizzled out practically before liftoff, ending in a simple two-and-a-quarter-hour draw.

Eleven games. Eleven draws. Will the staredown finally end today? We’ll soon find out when Caruana makes the first move at the top of the hour. </s> After nine consecutive draws, Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen have drawn yet again in the Chess World Championship in London. There are now just two games left for either player to find a win or the series will go to a best of four tiebreaker series.

World number one Carlsen came close to winning Game 9 on Wednesday but lost his advantage following a rushed decision to offer up a pawn on his 25th move. Grandmaster (GM) Hiraku Nakamura called the move “a little premature to me”, a sentiment which was echoed by Carlsen after the game concluded.

“I felt like I had a comfortable advantage and then I just blew it, I was poor,” said Carlsen, visibly disappointed by the way the game ended. That ninth draw set the record for the longest streak of games without a win in the 132-year history of the Chess World Championship.

Finally though, in Game 10, Carlsen went all in. After spending 15 minutes contemplating his 21st move he surprised everyone by sacrificing a pawn in order to remove a rook hindering his attacks. Once he made the move he jumped up from his chair and headed to the refreshment area.

The pressure ramped up on world number two Caruana. As the moves progressed the pair traded bishops and then queens before reaching time control on move 40. For Carlsen to win, he needed to do it with just his rooks and pawns.

Russian GM Peter Svidler said Caruana was in a difficult position. “My hands would be very shaky with white in this position. It’s very, very scary.” With the game in such a fine balance, one mistake could prove fatal.

An over-extension of the king by Carlsen potentially opened the door for Caruana to take something from the game but Carlsen managed to retreat just in time. The game then fizzled out to a draw a few moves later as neither side had a chance of winning.

There are still two games left in the series, organised by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), with a prize fund of one million euros on the line. If the score is level after these last two games then the series will go to the tiebreakers.

In these extra games each player will start with 25 minutes on the clock with an increment of 10 seconds after each move. Should the series reach this point, Carlsen will be the favourite to win given he is also the world number one Blitz Chess player.

Off the board, there was major controversy early on in the series as a two-minute video was uploaded to the Saint Louis Chess Club Youtube channel before being removed shortly after. The video showed details of Caruana’s preparation for the championship.

While the video was online several screenshots were taken and shared online. Chess fans were quick to analyse the photos, including one of a laptop screen showing openings potentially being research by Caruana. The names of three grandmasters were also contained in the video – Leinier Domínguez, Alejandro Ramírez and Ioan-Cristian Chirila – who are working as second’s to help the American prepare

The final games of the series are played on Saturday 24th and Monday 26th and are shown for free on the FIDE website. They are also streamed on Twitch.tv by Chess.com hosted by IM Daniel Rensch and GM Robert Hess with regular appearances by guests such as GM’s Hiraku Nakamura and Yifan Hou. </s> Hello and welcome to today’s 11th game of the world chess championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana of the United States. Play resumes today after with the best-of-12-games match deadlocked at 5-all following 10 draws in as many games, no closer to a verdict than when we started. We have, however, borne witness to a bit of history: the longest streak of games to open a match without a decisive result in the recognized 132-year history of world championship matches.

A brief refresher on how we got here: Game 1 was a grueling seven-hour, 115-move staredown, where Carlsen nearly become the first defending champion to win the opening game of a world championship with the black pieces in 37 years. The next four contests – Game 2, Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5 – were mostly safer, straightforward affairs where Caruana was able to get his teeth in the match. The tension ramped up in Game 6 when Carlsen was outplayed by Caruana in the middlegame and pushed to the limit before saving a draw with incredibly precise defending. They played to another draw in Sunday’s Game 7, a result that left the champion lamenting his gun-shy play as white. In Monday’s Game 8, Carlsen found himself down nearly an hour on the clock facing a dangerous position as black, until one false step by the American allowed him to hold. It was Caruana’s turn to suffer in Game 9 until he was bailed out by a Carlsen inaccuracy. Then came Thursday’s Game 10, where Caruana found himself on the brink once more until Carlsen overextended himself and was made to “grovel” for a draw.

Ten games. Ten draws. Will today be the day that first blood is finally drawn? We’ll soon find out when Carlsen makes the first move as white at the top of the hour. </s> LONDON (AP) — After more than 50 hours of play over nearly three weeks, the chess world championship title will be decided by speedy tiebreaker games on Wednesday.

A 12-game battle of brains between American challenger Fabiano Caruana and reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway has resulted in 12 straight draws — the first time that has happened in a chess world championship match.

That means the match — which is taking place behind soundproof glass on a stage in London — now comes down to a series of rapid games that could even conclude in a sudden-death format known as "Armageddon" if a winner can't be found.

Caruana, 26, is trying to become the first American since Bobby Fischer to be crowned chess world champion. Still, he remains the underdog against the 27-year-old Carlsen, a former teenage prodigy who has been the world's top-ranked player since the age of 19 and is considered even more dominant when playing with shorter time controls.

However, Carlsen stunned many commentators when he offered Caruana a draw in the 12th game Monday despite having what experts and computer programs considered to be a better position and a large time advantage on the clocks. That led to suggestions the defending champion may be cracking under the pressure.

"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," former world champion Garry Kasparov tweeted . "Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his."

Even Caruana acknowledged he was "relieved" to be able to reach the tiebreakers after being on the ropes in the last game.

"When you feel like you're sort of on the brink of defeat, or at least you have a very dangerous position, then of course it's quite good," the American said.

Carlsen, though, remained confident in his ability to outplay the challenger in speed chess.

"I think I have very good chances obviously," the Norwegian said. "But I don't know what's going to happen."

With no decisive games and no political undertones, this match has not created anything resembling the worldwide buzz that Fischer's 1972 title meeting with Soviet champion Boris Spassky generated during the height of the Cold War.

Still, American chess fans are hoping that a win for the Miami-born Caruana could boost the game in the U.S.

Carlsen has created a chess craze in Norway, where his matches are front-page news and often shown live on TV. In 2014, he checkmated Microsoft founder Bill Gates in nine moves on a Norwegian talk show, using just 12 seconds on the clock.

For a global audience, these games have been live-streamed online with several top grandmasters providing play-by-play commentary and analysis, aided by super computers that instantly evaluate each position. The first game, on Nov. 9, came closest to a decisive result but Carlsen failed to convert a winning advantage and had to settle for a draw after a seven-hour tussle.

Carlsen's previous title fight against Russian Sergey Karjakin also went to tiebreakers in 2016 after they only managed to win one game each.

But despite the lack of knockout blows, this year's championship has still had some drama as both players have missed good chances to win games. Carlsen even showed up with a black eye for one game after getting injured playing soccer on an off-day.

On Wednesday, the two players will first face off in four games with rapid time controls — 25 minutes plus 10 additional seconds per move for each player.

If the match remains deadlocked after that, they will play a series of five-minute games.

And if that fails to produce a winner, the match will end in an "Armageddon" game — where the player with the white pieces gets five minutes on the clock while the person playing black only gets four minutes, but a draw counts as a win for black.

The winner will get 550,000 euros ($621,000), with the runner-up pocketing 450,000 euros ($508,000). </s> LONDON — After more than 50 hours of play over nearly three weeks, the chess world championship title will be decided by speedy tiebreaker games on Wednesday.

A 12-game battle of brains between American challenger Fabiano Caruana and reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway has resulted in 12 straight draws — the first time that has happened in a chess world championship match.

That means the match — which is taking place behind soundproof glass on a stage in London — now comes down to a series of rapid games that could even conclude in a sudden-death format known as "Armageddon" if a winner can't be found.

Caruana, 26, is trying to become the first American since Bobby Fischer to be crowned chess world champion. Still, he remains the underdog against the 27-year-old Carlsen, a former teenage prodigy who has been the world's top-ranked player since the age of 19 and is considered even more dominant when playing with shorter time controls.

However, Carlsen stunned many commentators when he offered Caruana a draw in the 12th game Monday despite having what experts and computer programs considered to be a better position and a large time advantage on the clocks. That led to suggestions the defending champion may be cracking under the pressure.

"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," former world champion Garry Kasparov tweeted . "Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his."

Even Caruana acknowledged he was "relieved" to be able to reach the tiebreakers after being on the ropes in the last game.

"When you feel like you're sort of on the brink of defeat, or at least you have a very dangerous position, then of course it's quite good," the American said.

Carlsen, though, remained confident in his ability to outplay the challenger in speed chess.

"I think I have very good chances obviously," the Norwegian said. "But I don't know what's going to happen."

With no decisive games and no political undertones, this match has not created anything resembling the worldwide buzz that Fischer's 1972 title meeting with Soviet champion Boris Spassky generated during the height of the Cold War.

Still, American chess fans are hoping that a win for the Miami-born Caruana could boost the game in the U.S.

Carlsen has created a chess craze in Norway, where his matches are front-page news and often shown live on TV. In 2014, he checkmated Microsoft founder Bill Gates in nine moves on a Norwegian talk show, using just 12 seconds on the clock.

For a global audience, these games have been live-streamed online with several top grandmasters providing play-by-play commentary and analysis, aided by super computers that instantly evaluate each position. The first game, on Nov. 9, came closest to a decisive result but Carlsen failed to convert a winning advantage and had to settle for a draw after a seven-hour tussle.

Carlsen's previous title fight against Russian Sergey Karjakin also went to tiebreakers in 2016 after they only managed to win one game each.

But despite the lack of knockout blows, this year's championship has still had some drama as both players have missed good chances to win games. Carlsen even showed up with a black eye for one game after getting injured playing soccer on an off-day.

On Wednesday, the two players will first face off in four games with rapid time controls — 25 minutes plus 10 additional seconds per move for each player.

If the match remains deadlocked after that, they will play a series of five-minute games.

And if that fails to produce a winner, the match will end in an "Armageddon" game — where the player with the white pieces gets five minutes on the clock while the person playing black only gets four minutes, but a draw counts as a win for black.

The winner will get 550,000 euros ($621,000), with the runner-up pocketing 450,000 euros ($508,000). </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> The penultimate scheduled contest of Magnus Carlsen’s world championship title defense against Fabiano Caruana fizzled out practically before liftoff on Saturday, ending in a simple two-and-a-quarter-hour draw to leave their best-of-12-games match knotted at 5½-all with one game remaining.

“I’m not thrilled, obviously,” the 27-year-old champion from Norway said. “I got surprised in the opening and just decided to shut it down. It wasn’t great but it’s no disaster. Now I’ve just got to play well in one more classical and see what happens.”

Carlsen, as white, played into Caruana’s Petroff with an opening line that paralleled their August meeting at the Sinquefield Cup, which ended in a draw. The American challenger and world No 2 was first to deviate, castling on the kingside (7. O-O) instead of the Nc6 he’d played in St Louis.

A briefly promising double-edge position took shape with (8. Qd2 Nd7 9. O-O-O Nf6 10. Bd3 c5), but Carlsen expended 23 minutes on his next two moves (11. Rhe1 Be6 12. Kb1 Qa5) and admitted he’d been thrown for a curve once more by Caruana’s exhaustively researched opening preparation and not for the first time during the fortnight. Eventually the champion offered up a queen exchange with 13. c4 and the ladies were off the board (13. ... Qxd2 14. Bxd2), abruptly stripping the tension from the affair.

“I wasn’t pleased from the opening and then after that I just wanted to play it safe,” Carlsen said. “I was trying to push a little bit, but it’s nothing real. In this match situation I thought there was no reason to go crazy.”

The action soon entered an opposite-colored bishop endgame which Caruana held with no problems before consenting to a 55-move draw after two hours and 13 minutes, the shortest game of the match so far.

The 11 straight draws represent the longest streak of games to open a match without a decisive result in the recognized 132-year history of world championship play. The previous mark was set during the 1995 match between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, which started with eight consecutive draws before Kasparov broke through en route to a 10½-7½ victory.

The players will look forward to another rest day on Sunday before the competition resumes on Monday at the College in Holborn with Game 12, where a decisive result could lift the winner over the 6½-point threshold and decide an outright winner in the €1m ($1.14m) showdown.

“There’s a lot riding on the last game,” said the 26-year-old Caruana, who will play with the white pieces in a one-off that could make him only the second American-born player to capture the world championship after Bobby Fischer in 1972. “It will be very tense for both of us. I’m not going to go crazy or anything, of course, but I will try to put pressure on him.”

He added: “What can I say? It’s going to be a tough game. At this point the tension is sort of at its peak. If I knew what would happen I would tell you.”

Should Monday’s final classical game end in another bloodless result, Carlsen will be a prohibitive favorite in Wednesday’s tie-breaker, which consists of a series of games under tighter time controls. The Norwegian, who in addition to his No 1 ranking is the world’s top rated rapid player and top rated blitz player (compared to Caruana’s respective ratings of No 8 and No 16), is unbeaten in tie-breakers over the last 13 years.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Carlsen, who extended a career-high streak of 16 straight draws stretching back to last month’s European Club Cup in Porto Carras, Greece. “A lot depends on what (Caruana) wants to do. If he wants to shut it down then that’s fine by me, we’ll play rapid (on Wednesday).
After ten consecutive draws, a record for the 132-year-old championship, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are tied 5 points each in the best-of-12-games match.