World Chess Championship 2016

World Chess Championship 2016

Fulton Market Building, New York City, United States
11–30 November 2016
	Defending champion	Challenger
	Magnus Carlsen	Sergey Karjakin
	6 (3) Scores 6 (1) Game 1 ½ 42 move draw ½ Game 2 ½ 33 move draw ½ Game 3 ½ 78 move draw ½ Game 4 ½ 94 move draw ½ Game 5 ½ 51 move draw ½ Game 6 ½ 32 move draw ½ Game 7 ½ 33 move draw ½ Game 8 0 52 moves → 1 Game 9 ½ 72 move draw ½ Game 10 1 ← 75 moves 0 Game 11 ½ 34 move draw ½ Game 12 ½ 30 move draw ½ Tie break 13 ½ 37 move draw ½ Tie break 14 ½ 84 move draw ½ Tie break 15 1 ← 38 moves 0 Tie break 16 1 ← 50 moves 0
	Born 30 November 1990 25 years old	Born 12 January 1990 26 years old
	Winner of the World Chess Championship 2014	Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2016
	Rating: 2853 (World No. 1)	Rating: 2772 (World No. 9)
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The World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Sergey Karjakin to determine the World Chess Champion.^[1] Carlsen had been world champion since 2013, while Karjakin qualified as challenger by winning the 2016 Candidates Tournament. The best-of-12 match, organized by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played in New York City between 10 and 30 November 2016.

The match opened with seven consecutive draws before Karjakin won the eighth game. Carlsen evened the score by winning the tenth game. All other games were drawn, leaving the match at a 6–6 tie, so tie breaks decided the match. After two draws to begin the rapid chess tie break, Carlsen won the remaining two games to win the match and retain his title.^[2]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Final position after 50.Qh6+!! in the final tie-break game. Carlsen's sham queen sacrifice forces mate next move: 50...Kxh6 51.Rh8# or 50...gxh6 51.Rxf7#.