Carlsen bags fourth world chess crown
NEWDELHI: Norwegian champion Magnus Carlsen swept aside American challenger Fabiano Caruana in the tie-breaker phase, winning the first three rapid games to retain his world chess title for the third time, in London on Wednesday.
The winner will collect $1.19mn. Caruana, ranked way below Carlsen in rapid and blitz chess, was fighting a losing battle and the Norwegian showed his superiority to seal the longdrawn issue.
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 only ranked 10th in rapid and 18th in blitz. The third rapid game, with Carlsen playing white pieces, ended in a 51-move win for the champion.
Wednesday’s tie-break phase was lopsided once the 12 classical games had ended in a draw. 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 is the first American player to feature in a World chess title contest since the late Bobby Fischer achieved a historic first, defeating Boris Spassky of USSR in the iconic 1972 clash at the height of Cold War.