Chess world anticipates Carlen, Karjakin showdown

For the next two months, the eyes and minds of the chess world would be focused on the world chess championship title match. Agon, the company that owns the commercial rights to organize the world chess championship, announced that the match will begin on November 11 in Manhattan, New York, between the reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and the challenger Sergey Karjakin of Russia. The match is a best-of-12 series and concludes on November 30.

Carlsen had defeated Viswanathan Anand for the title of world chess champion in November 2013, and defended it successfully once. Karjakin has emerged as the new challenger. The match represents a first for players who came of age during the computer era and essays a generational shift in chess. Carlsen and Karjakin, both 26, are the youngest finalists for the title in the history of chess. Anand was in his forties when Carlsen took the title from him at age 23.

Norwegian chess grandmaster and current world champion Magnus Carlsen, 26, will defend his world championship chess title next month against Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, also 26, in New York. One week following the conclusion of the 2016 Chess Olympiad, Carlsen played a simultaneous handicap match against 11 hand-picked opponents in New Jersey as a warm-up exercise. Each of his opponents had 30 minutes per game, while the world champion had 30 minutes for his total eleven games. Carlsen won handsomely 11-0. In the photo, Carlsen replays one of the games of his opponents from memory.

Chess grandmaster Eugenio Torre (in photo), 64, attended his 23rd Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan – more times than any other player in chess history. Torre is the Philippines’ and Asia’s first chess grandmaster and was ranked, at one time, No 17 in the world. He once qualified for the Candidates matches and holds a victory over former world champion Anatoly Karpov. At Baku, he played board three for the Philippines and won a medal.

Carlsen is considered the favourite for the match based on his playing record with Karjakin. Carlsen has five victories to his opponent’s one, with 16 draws. The last time a World Championship was held in New York City was in 1995 when Anand faced Garry Kasparov on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. A global audience of hundreds of millions of chess fans are expected to follow the games and the match.

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