Carlsen on verge of retaining world title
Norwegian champion Magnus Carlsen swept aside American challenger Fabiano Caruana at the start of the tiebreaker phase, winning the first two rapid games to take a 2-0 lead and all but make sure that he will defend the world chess title for the third time, in London on Wednesday.
The winner will collect $1.19mn. Barring a sensational comeback by Caruana, who is ranked way below Carlsen in rapid and blitz chess, the Norwegian would clinch the title.
The 27-year-old got into pole position to crown himself world champion for the fourth time after winning after the first two of four rapid games, living up to his reputation as the world’s topranked rapid and blitz player. Caruana, 26, is ranked a modest 10th in the world in rapid chess and 18th in blitz, thus being at a clear disadvantage.
Wednesday’s tie-break phase was seen as lopsided after all the 12 classical games had ended in a draw. And it turned out as predicted. Carlsen, playing with white pieces, won the first rapid game when Caruana resigned after 55 moves. The Norwegian also won the second game, this time in just 28 moves playing with black pieces as his American challenger’s resistance finally melted away under time pressure. The Norwegian became world champion in 2013 when he wrested the world title from Viswanathan Anand in Chennai.
The Indian grandmaster won the subsequent Candidates tournament to take on the younger Norwegian again in 2014, but Carlsen successfully defended his title. Carlsen’s second title defence came in 2016, this time against Russian Sergey Karjakin.
Fabiano Caruana became the first American player to play in the World chess title contest since the late Bobby Fischer had achieved a historic first, going on to defeat Boris Spassky of USSR in 1972 at the height of Cold War.