World Chess Championship 2018

The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and the challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organised by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played at The College in Holborn, London, between 9 and 28 November 2018.FIDE-Agon agreement
(3.1a) of Annex 11, 2012 FIDE General Assembly. The games were broadcast on worldchess.com and by NRK.

The classical time-control portion of the match ended with 12 consecutive draws, the only time in the history of the world chess championship that all classical games have been drawn. On 28 November, rapid chess was used as a tie-breaker; Carlsen won three consecutive games to retain his title and became four-time world champion.

Candidates Tournament

Caruana qualified as challenger by winning the 2018 Candidates Tournament. This was an eight-player, double round-robin tournament played in Berlin on 10–28 March 2018.

Qualified players

Players qualified for the Candidates Tournament as follows (age, rating and world ranking are as of March 2018, when the tournament was held):

Results

Championship match

The Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana was held from 9 to 28 November 2018 in London, United Kingdom, at the Cochrane Theatre of The College in Holborn.

Match regulations

The match was organised in a best-of-12-games format. The time control for the games was 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, an additional 50 minutes added after the 40th move, and then an additional 15 minutes added after the 60th move, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 1. Players were not permitted to agree to a draw before Black's 30th move.RULES & REGULATIONS FOR THE FIDE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH (FWCM) 2018
FIDE.

The tie-breaking method consisted of the following schedule of faster games played on the final day in the following order, as necessary:
* Best-of-four rapid games (25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move). The player with the best score after four rapid games is the winner. The players are not required to record the moves. In the match, Carlsen immediately won three games in a row, securing the championship.
* If the rapid games had been tied 2–2, up to five mini-matches of best-of-two blitz games (5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move) would have been played. The player with the best score in any two-game blitz match would be the winner.
* If the blitz matches had failed to produce a winner, one sudden death "Armageddon" game: White receives 5 minutes and Black receives 4 minutes. Both players receive an increment of 3 seconds starting from move 61. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the colour. In case of a draw, the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

Prize fund

The prize fund was 1 million euros net of all applicable taxes. Had the match been decided in the classical portion it would have been divided 60% vs 40% between winner and loser. As the match went to a tiebreak the split was more even at 55% vs 45%.

Previous head-to-head record

Prior to the match, Caruana and Carlsen had played 33 games against each other at classical time controls, of which Carlsen won 10 and Caruana 5, with 18 draws. The most recent game, during the 2018 Sinquefield Cup tournament, resulted in a draw.

Alternative logo

The World Chess Federation also showcased an "alternative logo", which depicts two figures with overlapping legs holding a chessboard. The image received controversy for appearing provocative and even "sexy". When the head of World Chess, Ilya Merenzon, was asked to speak on the topic, he said that "it's about two people fighting", but later added that "it would be nice to bring a little bit of sexual appeal into chess".

Organisation and location

The match was held under the auspices of FIDE, the world chess federation, with the organisation rights belonging to Agon, its commercial partner.
Following the previous championship match in 2016, the president of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, said that the next venue would be in London or somewhere in Asia. Japan, South Korea and Singapore all said they were prepared to host the match. In November 2017, London was revealed as the host.

The Chief arbiter was Stéphane Escafre from France, and deputy arbiter was Nana Alexandria from Georgia. The appeal committee was composed of International Grandmasters and was chaired by Alexander Beliavsky (Slovenia) with Nigel Short (England) and Jóhann Hjartarson (Iceland) also present. The FIDE Supervisor was Ashot Vardapetyan, an International Arbiter from Armenia.

The match took place at The College in Holborn, Central London, an impressive Victorian building with a glass dome on the roof. The interior was refitted for the match to provide an elevated rectangular playing space that was to be sound-proof and set behind unidirectional glass so that the players were separated from the audience: the players could be seen, but they would not see the spectators who stood in near total darkness. To attend the event, ticket prices ranged from £45 to £100. It was also broadcast online, with IM Anna Rudolf and GM Judit Polgár providing commentary.

The first move of each game of the match was ceremonially performed by guests invited by the organisers. Among the guests were movie stars Woody Harrelson (who also made the first move in game one for the previous championship match in New York) and Tom Hollander; Ellisiv Reppen, partner of Jan Gustafsson, who was part of Carlsen's team in New York; Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales; Sergey Karjakin, the previous challenger for the chess championship; Daniel Weil, the person who designed the pawn he moved, as well as the rest of pieces and the chessboard; and Lucy Hawking, daughter of physicist Stephen Hawking. For the first five minutes of actual game time, photographers were allowed to remain in the playing space to take photos.

Live analysis

The games were analysed live by the Sesse computer, running Stockfish. The computer uses a 20-core 2.3 GHz Haswell-EP CPU, which is significantly more powerful than most personal computers.

Seconds

The seconds of the players were revealed after the match. Carlsen was helped by Peter Heine Nielsen, Laurent Fressinet, Daniil Dubov, Jan Gustafsson and Nils Grandelius. Caruana's seconds were Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Ioan-Cristian Chirila, Alejandro Ramirez and Leinier Domínguez.

Match preparation video leak

On 13 November 2018, a two-minute video showing Caruana's preparation for the match showing a list of openings, possibly revealing some of Caruana's opening preparation, was uploaded onto the Saint Louis Chess Club's YouTube channel. The video was quickly removed, but screenshots from the video were disseminated on the Internet. They revealed that Caruana's team was focusing on particular games, and openings—openings that deal primarily with how Caruana would defend as Black against 1.d4 or 1.e4; including variations of the Queen's Gambit Declined, Petrov's Defence, and the Grünfeld Defence with a fianchetto.

Schedule and results

Days with games are shaded.

The regular games began each day at 15:00 (local time and UTC) in London.

Regular games

Game 1: Caruana–Carlsen, ½–½

The first game was a marathon draw, lasting 7 hours. At the time, it was the fourth longest game in a world championship, after Game 5 of the 1978 championship (124 moves), Game 7 of the 2014 championship (122 moves), and Game 14 of the 1908 championship (119 moves). (Since then, this has been surpassed by Game 6 of the 2021 championship, with 136 moves, making the game the fifth-longest World Championship game.) Caruana opened with 1.e4, and Carlsen responded with the Sicilian Defence, with Caruana playing the Rossolimo Variation, an opening with which he had lost against Carlsen in 2015. After 15 moves, it was clear that Carlsen had won the opening duel, with White having no clear way to improve his position while Black still had plans. Caruana started to consume a lot of time, but failed to neutralise Carlsen, with the result that Carlsen had a strong position after 30 moves and Caruana was in serious time trouble. Carlsen had a winning position several times between moves 34 and 40 but, despite a significant time advantage, failed each time to find the winning continuation, and after 40...Bxc3 Caruana was able to reach a drawn endgame. Carlsen continued to play for a win but Caruana was able to hold the game, despite being a pawn down in a rook endgame. The players finally agreed to a draw after 115 moves.

: Sicilian Defence, Rossolimo Variation ('' ECO'' B31)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6. h3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Nd7 8. Be3 e5 9. 0-0 b6 10. Nh2 Nf8 11. f4 exf4 12. Rxf4 Be6 13. Rf2 h6 14. Qd2 g5 15. Raf1 Qd6 16. Ng4 0-0-0 17. Nf6 Nd7 18. Nh5 Be5 19. g4 f6 20. b3 Bf7 21. Nd1 Nf8 22. Nxf6 Ne6 23. Nh5 Bxh5 24. gxh5 Nf4 25. Bxf4 gxf4 26. Rg2 Rhg8 27. Qe2 Rxg2+ 28. Qxg2 Qe6 29. Nf2 Rg8 30. Ng4 Qe8 31. Qf3 Qxh5 32. Kf2 Bc7 33. Ke2 Qg5 34. Nh2 (diagram) h5 35. Rf2 Qg1 36. Nf1 h4 37. Kd2 Kb7 38. c3 Be5 39. Kc2 Qg7 40. Nh2 Bxc3 41. Qxf4 Bd4 42. Qf7+ Ka6 43. Qxg7 Rxg7 44. Re2 Rg3 45. Ng4 Rxh3 46. e5 Rf3 47. e6 Rf8 48. e7 Re8 49. Nh6 h3 50. Nf5 Bf6 51. a3 b5 52. b4 cxb4 53. axb4 Bxe7 54. Nxe7 h2 55. Rxh2 Rxe7 56. Rh6 Kb6 57. Kc3 Rd7 58. Rg6 Kc7 59. Rh6 Rd6 60. Rh8 Rg6 61. Ra8 Kb7 62. Rh8 Rg5 63. Rh7+ Kb6 64. Rh6 Rg1 65. Kc2 Rf1 66. Rg6 Rh1 67. Rf6 Rh8 68. Kc3 Ra8 69. d4 Rd8 70. Rh6 Rd7 71. Rg6 Kc7 72. Rg5 Rd6 73. Rg8 Rh6 74. Ra8 Rh3+ 75. Kc2 Ra3 76. Kb2 Ra4 77. Kc3 a6 78. Rh8 Ra3+ 79. Kb2 Rg3 80. Kc2 Rg5 81. Rh6 Rd5 82. Kc3 Rd6 83. Rh8 Rg6 84. Kc2 Kb7 85. Kc3 Rg3+ 86. Kc2 Rg1 87. Rh5 Rg2+ 88. Kc3 Rg3+ 89. Kc2 Rg4 90. Kc3 Kb6 91. Rh6 Rg5 92. Rf6 Rh5 93. Rg6 Rh3+ 94. Kc2 Rh5 95. Kc3 Rd5 96. Rh6 Kc7 97. Rh7+ Rd7 98. Rh5 Rd6 99. Rh8 Rg6 100. Rf8 Rg3+ 101. Kc2 Ra3 102. Rf7+ Kd6 103. Ra7 Kd5 104. Kb2 Rd3 105. Rxa6 Rxd4 106. Kb3 Re4 107. Kc3 Rc4+ 108. Kb3 Kd4 109. Rb6 Kd3 110. Ra6 Rc2 111. Rb6 Rc3+ 112. Kb2 Rc4 113. Kb3 Kd4 114. Ra6 Kd5 115. Ra8

Game 2: Carlsen–Caruana, ½–½

Game 2 began as a Queen's Gambit Declined with Caruana opting for the rarely played 10...Rd8. Caught by surprise, Carlsen avoided the most critical continuation and soon found himself far behind on the clock, a reversal of fortunes from Game 1. Caruana was clearly in the driver's seat, but Carlsen was able to "beg for a draw", successfully navigating to a drawn pawn-down rook endgame. The game was drawn by agreement after 49 moves.

:Queen's Gambit Declined, Harrwitz Attack ('' ECO'' D37)
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 0-0 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Qc2 Nc6 9. a3 Qa5 10. Rd1 Rd8 11. Be2 Ne4 12. 0-0 Nxc3 13. bxc3 h6 14. a4 Ne7 15. Ne5 Bd6 16. cxd5 Nxd5 (diagram) 17. Bf3 Nxf4 18. exf4 Bxe5 19. Rxd8+ Qxd8 20. fxe5 Qc7 21. Rb1 Rb8 22. Qd3 Bd7 23. a5 Bc6 24. Qd6 Qxd6 25. exd6 Bxf3 26. gxf3 Kf8 27. c4 Ke8 28. a6 b6 29. c5 Kd7 30. cxb6 axb6 31. a7 Ra8 32. Rxb6 Rxa7 33. Kg2 e5 34. Rb4 f5 35. Rb6 Ke6 36. d7+ Kxd7 37. Rb5 Ke6 38. Rb6+ Kf7 39. Rb5 Kf6 40. Rb6+ Kg5 41. Rb5 Kf4 42. Rb4+ e4 43. fxe4 fxe4 44. h3 Ra5 45. Rb7 Rg5+ 46. Kf1 Rg6 47. Rb4 Rg5 48. Rb7 Rg6 49. Rb4 ½–½

Game 3: Caruana–Carlsen, ½–½

Game 3 was a 49-move draw, beginning again with the Rossolimo Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Caruana deviated first with 6.0-0, against which Carlsen chose a rare continuation. White maintained some pressure, but it was not serious. On move 15 Caruana suffered a "blackout" and played Bd2, missing that Black does not have to exchange rooks. This lost all the White pressure, and a few moves later with neither side having any concrete plan, Caruana exchanged all the and went into a slightly inferior endgame, where Black possessed a bishop for White's knight as well as a slight advantage. Carlsen tried, but Caruana was never in real danger of losing.

: Sicilian Defence, Rossolimo Variation ('' ECO'' B31)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6. 0-0 Qc7 7. Re1 e5 8. a3 Nf6 9. b4 0-0 10. Nbd2 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Nxf3 cxb4 13. axb4 a5 14. bxa5 Rxa5 (diagram) 15. Bd2 Raa8 16. Qb1 Nd7 17. Qb4 Rfe8 18. Bc3 b5 19. Rxa8 Rxa8 20. Ra1 Rxa1+ 21. Bxa1 Qa7 22. Bc3 Qa2 23. Qb2 Qxb2 24. Bxb2 f6 25. Kf1 Kf7 26. Ke2 Nc5 27. Bc3 Ne6 28. g3 Bf8 29. Nd2 Ng5 30. h4 Ne6 31. Nb3 h5 32. Bd2 Bd6 33. c3 c5 34. Be3 Ke7 35. Kd1 Kd7 36. Kc2 f5 37. Kd1 fxe4 38. dxe4 c4 39. Nd2 Nc5 40. Bxc5 Bxc5 41. Ke2 Kc6 42. Nf1 b4 43. cxb4 Bxb4 44. Ne3 Kc5 45. f4 exf4 46. gxf4 Ba5 47. f5 gxf5 48. Nxc4 Kxc4 49. exf5 ½–½

Game 4: Carlsen–Caruana, ½–½

Game 4 was a 34-move draw that began with the English Opening, Four Knights, Kingside Fianchetto variation. Carlsen came up with the first new move, 11.b4, but Caruana was prepared with the immediate rejoinder 11...Bd6. Several logical moves later Carlsen had the opportunity to create an imbalanced position with 15.b5, but declined (see diagram). After 15...Bd7 stopping the pawn break, it became difficult for either side to come up with concrete plans, and the game was soon drawn. This was only the second time Carlsen opened with c4 in a world championship match, the first being a victory against Viswanathan Anand in game 5 of the 2013 World Chess Championship.

:English Opening, Four Knights, Kingside Fianchetto ('' ECO'' A29)
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Bg2 Bc5 7. 0-0 0-0 8. d3 Re8 9. Bd2 Nxc3 10. Bxc3 Nd4 11. b4 Bd6 12. Rb1 Nxf3+ 13. Bxf3 a6 14. a4 c6 (diagram) 15. Re1 Bd7 16. e3 Qf6 17. Be4 Bf5 18. Qf3 Bxe4 19. Qxf6 gxf6 20. dxe4 b5 21. Red1 Bf8 22. axb5 axb5 23. Kg2 Red8 24. Rdc1 Kg7 25. Be1 Rdc8 26. Rc2 Ra4 27. Kf3 h5 28. Ke2 Kg6 29. h3 f5 30. exf5+ Kxf5 31. f3 Be7 32. e4+ Ke6 33. Bd2 Bd6 34. Rbc1 ½–½

Game 5: Caruana–Carlsen, ½–½

Game 5 was a 34-move draw, beginning once again with the Rossolimo Variation of the Sicilian Defence. This time play transitioned to the little-used Gurgenidze variation, which was prepared by Caruana before this match began, forcing Carlsen to spend a lot of time thinking early on. In fact, the variation with 7...a6 was last played at the top level in 2007. It was not until 13. ...Qa5 that Caruana began to seriously think about his next move. Although Caruana had caught Carlsen in his preparation, Carlsen navigated the complications accurately, and emerged not only unscathed, but with a slightly superior position. Nonetheless, Caruana was able to defend without many problems, and the players agreed to a draw after the 34th move.

: Sicilian Defence, Rossolimo Variation ('' ECO'' B31)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. 0-0 Bg7 5. Re1 e5 6. b4 Nxb4 7. Bb2 a6 8. a3 axb5 9. axb4 Rxa1 10. Bxa1 d6 11. bxc5 Ne7 12. Qe2 b4 13. Qc4 Qa5 (diagram) 14. cxd6 Be6 15. Qc7 Qxc7 16. dxc7 Nc6 17. c3 Kd7 18. cxb4 Ra8 19. Bc3 Kxc7 20. d3 Kb6 21. Bd2 Rd8 22. Be3+ Kb5 23. Nc3+ Kxb4 24. Nd5+ Bxd5 25. exd5 Rxd5 26. Rb1+ Kc3 27. Rxb7 Nd8 28. Rc7+ Kxd3 29. Kf1 h5 30. h3 Ke4 31. Ng5+ Kf5 32. Nxf7 Nxf7 33. Rxf7+ Bf6 34. g4+ ½–½

Game 6: Carlsen–Caruana, ½–½

Game 6 was an 80-move draw. Carlsen began with 1.e4, while Caruana defended with the Petrov Defence, one of his favourite openings. Both players blitzed out the opening, reaching a dry and drawish middlegame. However, Carlsen played somewhat carelessly and Caruana was able to sharpen the position by opening the center. By move 26 it was apparent that Black was for choice. Carlsen defended by giving up a knight for three pawns, two of which were connected passed pawns on the , and forced an opposite-color bishops endgame. Caruana was able to take one of the pawns, but Carlsen had strong counterplay and it was unclear how Caruana could make progress. On move 67 Carlsen made a subtle error that allowed Caruana a forced mate in 30 moves, found by Sesse. However, the line was subtle and difficult to find. Grandmasters had trouble explaining the idea after the game: Garry Kasparov wrote that no human could have found it, although Caruana's second Rustam Kasimdzhanov wrote: "Maybe the move was indeed difficult to see. But it was not impossible. However, to find such a move you have to believe that you can win this endgame. And even if it is objectively drawn you can still try some tricks". After this last opportunity Carlsen made no further mistakes and held the draw.

: Petrov's Defence, Karklins-Martinovsky Variation ('' ECO'' C42)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nd3 Nxe4 5. Qe2 Qe7 6. Nf4 Nc6 7. Nd5 Nd4 8. Nxe7 Nxe2 9. Nd5 Nd4 10. Na3 Ne6 11. f3 N4c5 12. d4 Nd7 13. c3 c6 14. Nf4 Nb6 15. Bd3 d5 16. Nc2 Bd6 17. Nxe6 Bxe6 18. Kf2 h5 19. h4 Nc8 20. Ne3 Ne7 21. g3 c5 22. Bc2 0-0 23. Rd1 Rfd8 24. Ng2 cxd4 25. cxd4 Rac8 26. Bb3 Nc6 27. Bf4 Na5 28. Rdc1 Bb4 29. Bd1 Nc4 30. b3 Na3 31. Rxc8 Rxc8 32. Rc1 Nb5 33. Rxc8+ Bxc8 34. Ne3 Nc3 35. Bc2 Ba3 36. Bb8 a6 37. f4 Bd7 38. f5 Bc6 39. Bd1 Bb2 40. Bxh5 Ne4+ 41. Kg2 Bxd4 42. Bf4 Bc5 43. Bf3 Nd2 44. Bxd5 Bxe3 45. Bxc6 Bxf4 46. Bxb7 Bd6 47. Bxa6 Ne4 48. g4 Ba3 49. Bc4 Kf8 50. g5 Nc3 51. b4 Bxb4 52. Kf3 Na4 53. Bb5 Nc5 54. a4 f6 55. Kg4 Ne4 56. Kh5 Be1 57. Bd3 Nd6 58. a5 Bxa5 59. gxf6 gxf6 60. Kg6 Bd8 61. Kh7 Nf7 62. Bc4 Ne5 63. Bd5 Ba5 64. h5 Bd2 65. Ba2 Nf3 66. Bd5 Nd4 67. Kg6 (diagram) Bg5 68. Bc4 Nf3 69. Kh7 Ne5 70. Bb3 Ng4 71. Bc4 Ne3 72. Bd3 Ng4 73. Bc4 Nh6 74. Kg6 Ke7 75. Bb3 Kd6 76. Bc2 Ke5 77. Bd3 Kf4 78. Bc2 Ng4 79. Bb3 Ne3 80. h6 Bxh6 ½–½

Game 7: Carlsen–Caruana, ½–½

For Game 7, Carlsen once again had the white pieces (the order switched at the halfway point) and he repeated the Queen's Gambit Declined of game 2. The first nine moves followed game 2, until Carlsen deviated with 10.Nd2. However, Caruana was well-prepared and had his counter ready. Carlsen temporarily sacrificed a pawn to exert some pressure on the Black , but when the opportunity arose to open the game with 15.Nce4 (diagram) – which would have compromised Black's king position but made it awkward to recapture the sacrificed pawn – he didn't sufficiently believe in his position to press ahead. Carlsen later said that playing 15.0-0 was an admission that White had no advantage. After White recaptured the sacrificed pawn the position was symmetrical. Carlsen made some attempt to win the game, but although he was able to establish an outpost for his knight on d6, he had to trade every other piece to achieve it, and the game fizzled to a draw on move 40.

:Queen's Gambit Declined, Harrwitz Attack ('' ECO'' D37)
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 0-0 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Qc2 Nc6 9. a3 Qa5 10. Nd2 Qd8 11. Nb3 Bb6 12. Be2 Qe7 13. Bg5 dxc4 14. Nd2 Ne5 (diagram) 15. 0-0 Bd7 16. Bf4 Ng6 17. Bg3 Bc6 18. Nxc4 Bc7 19. Rfd1 Rfd8 20. Rxd8+ Rxd8 21. Rd1 Rxd1+ 22. Qxd1 Nd5 23. Qd4 Nxc3 24. Qxc3 Bxg3 25. hxg3 Qd7 26. Bd3 b6 27. f3 Bb7 28. Bxg6 hxg6 29. e4 Qc7 30. e5 Qc5+ 31. Kh2 Ba6 32. Nd6 Qxc3 33. bxc3 f6 34. f4 Kf8 35. Kg1 Ke7 36. Kf2 Kd7 37. Ke3 Bf1 38. Kf2 Ba6 39. Ke3 Bf1 40. Kf2 ½–½

Game 8: Caruana–Carlsen, ½–½

In Game 8 Caruana had the white pieces and once again opened with 1.e4. Just like the other three games before in this situation, Carlsen responded with the Sicilian Defence. Unlike the previous three games, Caruana played an Open Sicilian. Carlsen responded with the Sveshnikov Variation.

By move 20 the position was very open and sharp with Black's king feeling a little exposed. Caruana found the very good 21.c5, sacrificing a pawn to further open the center and create a passed d-pawn. Engine analysis showed this position to be winning for White. Unfortunately for Caruana, 23.Rad1 was a little too slow for this position (23.Rae1 seizing the open e-file immediately was preferred) and 24.h3? gave away all of his advantage. Four-time U.S. champion Hikaru Nakamura

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