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London. Who is the best chess player in the world? The answer today is the last chapter of the London Chess World Cup between reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen, and his challenger, Fabiano Caruana. After the twelve clbadic clbadic matches ended in a draw, the decisive start decides who will win the title.
Back for the twelfth game on Monday: Norwegian Carlsen had an edge over Black from the start and pushed the Caruanas army off the board. He also has a big lead in the time remaining to think. All spectators in the room and hundreds of thousands of viewers from around the world are expecting a dramatic final phase.
But then surprise: with his 31st stroke, Carlsen, 27, offers a draw. Caruana, who is a year younger, thinks for a moment, but the Italian-American can not refuse. It means tie-break.
Trains, seconds, flash games
This extension to the World Cup, which must force a decision, consists of several stages. First, four quick chess games are played. Each player has a reflection time of 25 minutes, plus a time credit of ten seconds per turn. If there is still no winner, five mini-flash matches followed, two five-minute games per player and a time credit of three seconds per turn.
If, after each mini-match, the winner is determined – which is unlikely – it will be followed by a game called Armageddon. Here, White has five minutes to think and Black only four minutes plus three seconds of 61 shot credit. White has to win, Black shoots next.
Already in 2016, Carlsen defended his title against Russian Sergei Karjakin in a 3-1 draw. At that time, he even played the twelfth game with the whites without a draw to qualify for overtime.
He is leading the world with a score of 2880 on Elo – this figure reflects the strength of the game. Caruana is only eight in the standings, with nearly 100 points behind. In the flash, it's even clearer. Carlsen is number one with 2939 points, Caruana with 2767 number 16. In addition, Carlsen was already three times world champion Blitzschach.
Caruana does not seem to be impressed. A few days ago, the Brooklyn grandmaster, grown up in Brooklyn, has already stated that he did not see himself in the decisive game as an underdog. And the outcome of the twelfth match even gave him a boost. If Caruana really won, he could revive the American pit: 46 years after "Bobby" Fischer triumphed over Boris Spbadki in the Reykjavik World Cup thriller "The Game of the Century". (Red.)
("Die Presse", print edition, 28.11.2018)
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