After nearly a month of fiercely contested play, the World Chess Championship are being decided in a series of fast-paced tie-breakers. Fabiano Caruana hopes to become the first US champion since Bobby Fischer in 1972 – but faces world number one Norwegian Magnus Carlsen in London.
After 12 draws in 12 regular games, the pair now face ever-tighter time limits until a winner is decided on Wednesday. The ultimate decider could be the sudden death game called Armageddon. That will only happen if the evenly-matched grand-masters fail to eke out a decisive win for one of them, as the time on the clock is quickly pared down.
Caruana and Carlsen are playing four games with just 25 minutes on each player’s timer at the start and 10 seconds added per move. That is far less than in the games played so far, where they have had a generous hour to begin, with 50 minutes added at turn 40 and 30 seconds per move. If neither contestant comes out ahead after those games, the match format shifts to “blitz” chess – with just five minutes on the starting clock, and three seconds a move.
Then comes Armageddon. The drawing of lots is crucial in this “sudden death” variant – the player with white pieces gets five minutes on the clock, and black receives only four.
But black has his own advantage. If, despite the intense speed of the game, it once again ends in a draw, the player holding the black king is declared the winner – and the new world champion.
Whoever is declared the winner will also take home a €1m (£880,000) cash prize. Defending champion Carlsen appeared to play deliberately for a tie-breaker scenario in the 12th and final game of regular play rather than risk defeat, despite an apparent positional advantage.
