Sk Shahid Ahmed: After a tie in the classical format with 6 points apiece, defending champion, Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen headed into 4 tie-breaking Rapid matches against World’s Youngest Grandmaster in history, GM Sergey Karjakin.
First two tie-breaker matches ended in a draw. Magnus won the third one with Black pieces which put Karjakin in a must win situation in Tie breaker number four. However Magnus finished in a brilliant fashion and went on to the fourth tie breaker by doing a Queen Sacrifice which forced Karjakin to resign.
The road to Carlsen’s third World Championship victory has not been easy. As he lost first in Game 8, only to bounce back in Game 10 and win it to equalize the score with 5 points each. Game 11 saw both sides trying to score an important win, however none conceded and it ended up in a draw. In Game 12, Carlsen went for a quick draw in perhaps one of the shortest games in World Championship history as the entire game lasted only a mere 35 minutes. When he was asked, why did he go for a quick draw, his answer was, “I just want to play the tie break”.
It is obvious that Carlsen favors playing the Tie breakers as the Rapid & Blitz format of the game is definitely his favorite. Carlsen started the World Championship with White pieces as he drew a White Pawn during the draw of the colors. He started the 1 st game with Trompowsky Opening. When asked if it had anything to do with, Donald Trump winning the Presidential Election, he replied, “I am a big fan of Donald Trump.” said then 25 years old World Champion to a tv channel.