Chennai: Magnus Carlsen celebrated his 26th birthday at Lower Manhattan, New York, on Wednesday with the small gift of the world chess championship title. The Norwegian super GM outwitted Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin 3-1 in a four-game rapid tie-breaker to retain his crown. The two players were locked six points apiece at the end of 12 classical rounds. Karjakin, 26, had broken the deadlock with a win in the eighth round only for Carlsen to hit back in the 10th. The defending champion’s class told in the tie-breaker.
Following draws in the first two rounds, Carlsen dealt a fatal blow to his opponent’s confidence by winning the third game with black pieces. Karjakin folded without much fight in the next, which he needed to win to take the series into blitz rounds. After winning the world championship defeating Viswanathan Anand in Chennai for the first time in 2013, Carlsen retained it in 2014 against the same opponent before getting the better of Karjakin in the Big Apple.
The Norwegian admitted that his latest conquest was the toughest of his career. “I’m happy that at the end of the match I managed to find joy in playing. That’s the most important thing,” he told reporters. GM K. Sasikiran raised a toast to three-time world champion. “Carlsen was a worthy winner because he kept pushing the limit after becoming the world champion for the first time. He overcame the slump in form that is inevitable after the maiden triumph. Overall, the match was tough on both players,” he said.
According to Sasikiran, Carlsen’s win in the 10th round was the turning point. “Karjakin probably made a mistake in going for passive defence, which had earned him draws from difficult positions in third and fourth rounds. An active line of defence might have helped him salvage a draw. Carlsen looked sharper in the tie-breaker,” he said. GM Koneru Humpy said the world championship was intense throughout. “The standard was quite high with a lot of theoretical battles. I thought Karjakin would win the trophy after he took the lead. But losing the 10th game proved to be an insurmountable psychological barrier. Carlsen took control in the tie-breaker, though Karjakin played well in the first two rapid rounds,” she added.
The Carlsen-Karjakin match was the most youthful in world championship history with the combined age of the contestants being 52. Humpy expects the future to remain youthful as well. “Becoming a GM at the age of 11 or 12 isn’t rare these days. The grasping power of this generation is so good that I feel the future world championship will only feature young players,” she said.
