Magnus Carlsen triumphs over Sergey Karjakin in World Chess Championships 2016

After a gruelling 16 games and a painstaking 10 draws in the lead-up to the tiebreakers, the World Chess Championship has finally come to a close.

Reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway is not afraid of his Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin, however he is afraid of losing the World Chess Crown, Russian Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov, the 12th World Champion, told TASS on Tuesday.

The players squared off for a penalty-style face-off on Wednesday (30 November) after the score was locked 5½ – 5½ after 11 games.

However, things changed in the eighth round as the Russian got better of his opponent and went on to win the first match of the tournament. “So everyone is happy except the fans”, commented a United States chess grandmaster Susan Polgar on her Twitter account, as the match was wrapping up.

THE VERDICT: Chess is on something of an upswing lately; “Magnus” follows in the cinematic footsteps of the recent “Queen of Katwe”, and the game is constantly cropping up in mainstream media, including in an episode of “Doctor Who” written by Neil Gaiman. Part of Pentagram’s efforts have been focused on designing the actual pieces the players use.

Anyone, who would have said or believed that the pre-tournament underdog would even dare threaten to take the title away from the Champion were shunned away as laughing-stock before the tournament began.

The final tiebreaker will be an “armageddon” game where white is given five minutes per move and black only four. If no victor emerges after four of those, the match move on to five-minute games.

Wednesday’s finale match is a tie-breaker. That day also happens to be the Birthday of the current Champion Magnus Carlsen.

“If there is still no victor, Carlsen and Karyakin will play an Armageddon game in which white has five minutes and black has four, but black only has to draw to win the match”, the World Chess Federation said.

The first two of four games of “rapid chess” both ended in draws after two hours – compared to championship games that can last as many as six hours or more. The World Chess Championship was last held in 2014, when Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand of India in Sochi, Russia.