‘Mozart of chess’ retains world title after snapping record-breaking stalemate
Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has won the World Chess Championship for the fourth straight time, dominating American challenger Fabiano Caruana in a tie-breaker in London.
Carlsen, 27, and Caruana, 26, spent three weeks in November in a stalemate with a record streak of 12 draws as they battled for the sport’s big- gest title. But the deadlock was broken last night when the two grandmasters locked horns in a best-of-four series of rapid games.
For each of these games the players had only 25 minutes to make all of their moves.
Top-ranked Carlsen showed why he is renowned for his speed chess and end game prowess to dominate the tiebreaker, winning three in a row on the 13th day of play.
He will take home 55 per cent of the cash prize pool, which is €1 million (£880,000), while Caruana receives the rest.
Carlsen pumped his fist after winning the first rapid game, heaping pressure on Caruana, who played aggressively in the second game but came undone.
The Norwegian world number one went on to win the second and third games, meaning a fourth rapid game or faster blitz games were not needed.
Wearing suits, the pair faced off behind a sound-proof glass wall at the sold-out event space at The College in Holborn in front of dozens of international media.
Thousands of chess fans worldwide followed the action online on live-streaming site Twitch TV and the event was also trending on social media platform Twitter.
Carlsen, known as the Mozart of chess, has held the title since 2013 and it was his fourth straight championship win. The World Chess Championship is held every two years and London was hosting it for the first time since 2000.
Detective agency Pinkerton was hired for this year’s series in a bid to prevent cheating.
The us-based firm employed metal detectors, device sweeping and advanced surveillance techniques to ensure no outside help was possible, despite cheating being rare in top-level chess.