Russia’s Sergey Karjakin will challenge Sweden’s Magnus Carlsen for the world championships title after emerging victorious in the 14-round, FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2016 in Moscow.
Karjakin defeated Fabiano Caruana in the final round after the two players on equal points were paired against each other.
Caruana played the Richter-Rauzer variation of the Sicilian defence aiming for a win with the black pieces.
However, Karjakin avoided the sharpest lines and proceeded into a strategically even middle-game.
Feeling some heat on the e4-pawn, white decided to throw it away in order to open up the files and diagonals for the heavy pieces. In the mutual time trouble Caruana made a mistake and Karjakin immediately pounced on the opportunity to sacrifice a rook for the strong attack.
In other round 14 results, Peter Svidler drew with Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri drew with Veselin Topalov and Hikaru Nakamura drew with Levon Aronian.
The final standings saw Karjakin – 8, 5 winning the tournament while Ananad edged Caruana for second place although they each ended on seven and one half points.
Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Peter Svidler and Hikaru Nakamura with seven points occupied the next four place while Topalov with four and one half points rounded out the top eight.
