The classical portion of the match ended with a 6-6 tie. In the tiebreak Magnus Carlsen showed his superiority as he won three rapid games in a row to become the World Champion. Fabiano Caruana tried really hard and matched Magnus in the classical portion, but in the rapid, he couldn't really keep up. This is Carlsen's fourth World Championship title. The first one was against Anand in Chennai, the second one against Anand in Russia, the third one against Karjakin in USA and now against Caruana in London. Magnus will turn 28 years old in two days from now and he has already been a World Champion for five years! What a champion!
These are the live updates that were made as the games were in progress!
Game 3:
It's do or die for Fabi. Magnus opens the game with 1.e4 and now is not the time for Petroff.
Fabi goes for the Sicilian. Magnus chooses the Maroczy setup and Caruana develops his bishop to c5.
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Magnus Carlsen has all his pieces nicely posted and it is extremely difficult for Fabiano to break this position without taking serious risks. But considering the situation he is in he has to take these risks.
Magnus forces the issue in the centre which exchanges a lot of pieces and brings him closer to a draw
Fabiano has managed to create some imbalance, but it doesn't seem enough for any advantage
Fabiano overstretches for a win and gets into a lost position:
Magnus makes another queen
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The final handshake of the match
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We have the Sveshnikov once again!
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...Be7 by Carlsen looks very passive. Mainly because after g3, the knight on g6 doesn't have a good square.
c7 by Caruana was a bad move
A pawn reaching on the 7th rank after just 26 moves is quite uncommon
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It was important to play Bd4 and stop Ne5 but Fabiano didn't do it and played c7 which was losing
The knight joins the game on e5 and the white king on e1 will be mated
Carlsen moved his king to h7 and now the threats are unstoppable. The queen is attacked on c4, Nd3+ is coming. Fabiano resigned.
The handshake and the game is over!
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Game 1:
Magnus Carlsen begins with 1.c4 in game 1 of the rapid tiebreaker!
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Caruana opts for an unusual setup with pawns on a6, c6 and b5, trying to expand on the queenside, but it seems like Magnus can already wrest the initiative with the central move d4.
It's true that with ..bxc4 Fabiano has won a pawn, but Magnus has a bishop pair and he ruins Black's structure with dxe5 dxe5.
The knight jumps to a4 and it somehow feels like Black's position is full of weaknesses.
The queens have come off the board and now we have to see if Magnus is going to be able to extract the maximum from his slight edge in the position | World Chess live broadcast
Caruana continues to make his moves confidently and is already ahead of time. But White should surely be slightly better.
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Rcd1 by Carlsen made Caruana go in for a deep think in the position. ...Nb7 definitely seemed like the normal move, but Fabiano went for the active ...Nb5!?
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Fabiano making a mistake by moving his knight to b5 instead of b7
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and the practical decision of playing Nb5 paid off. It is alz easy to criticise with engines on but from practical point of view I liked Nb5 more than Nb7. #CarlsenCaruana@ChessbaseIndia@chess24com
...Nd6-b5 by Caruana was surely an error as now Carlsen went Nc5 and after Rxb2 he took on e6 fxe6 and Bxc4 with a clear advantage.
Carlsen is thinking about whether to take on e6 or d4.
He is burning a lot of his time, but this is the critical moment of the game!
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Carlsen goes for the practical decision and takes on e6 with his bishop and reaches this rook endgame which should be technically winning for him
Carlsen is low on time, but he has a clearly better rook endgame. This should be extremely difficult for Fabiano to hold
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Carlsen's pawns have been fixed and this is a big miss by the World Champion
Fabiano returns the favour! Instead of giving a Ra2+ he plays Kxe4 and after Re7+! Kxf5 Rxg7, the h5 pawn falls the endgame is just winning for White.
This looks as if the endgame is losing. At first I thought that Black can push his pawn all the way to a2 and draw the game, but somehow it doesn't seem to be possible!
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The first decisive game of the match!! Ends in the favour of Magnus Carlsen!
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Follow the games Live:
Vishy Anand gives an overview of the 12 classical games of Carlsen Caruana match:
Vishy Anand gives his take on 12 classical games
IM Sagar Shah explains the three rapid games of the tiebreak
Follow Niklesh Jain's commentary on ChessBase India Hindi Live:
Niklesh Jain's live commentary in Hindi
ChessBase India Poll:
We had a poll on our YouTube page as to who would become the World Champion and 13,000 people voted. 60% of them felt that Carlsen will win the title in the rapid! If you too would like to vote, here is the link.
