Carlsen and Karjakin Head to Tiebreak on Wednesday

After a short round on Monday, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Sergei Karjakin head to a dramatic rapid tiebreak final for the World Championship on Wednesday. At 2 PM EST, they will begin the contest with 4 rapid games at G/25+ 10 second increment. If the match is still split 2-2, the title will be determined by a set of 5+3 second blitz games, a second set if needed, and finally, Armageddon if the blitz fails to produce a Champion.

[pgn]

[Event "Carlsen-Karjakin World Chess Championshi"]
[Date "2016.11.28"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Karjakin, Sergey"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2853"]
[BlackElo "2772"]
[PlyCount "60"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "Norway"]
[BlackTeam "Russia"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "NOR"]
[BlackTeamCountry "RUS"]
[WhiteClock "1:44:03"]
[BlackClock "1:30:50"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. Re1 Nd6 6. Nxe5 Be7 7. Bf1 Nxe5
8. Rxe5 O-O 9. d4 Bf6 10. Re1 Re8 11. Bf4 Rxe1 12. Qxe1 Ne8 13. c3 d5 14. Bd3
g6 15. Na3 c6 16. Nc2 Ng7 17. Qd2 Bf5 18. Bxf5 Nxf5 19. Ne3 Nxe3 20. Qxe3 Qe7
21. Qxe7 Bxe7 22. Re1 Bf8 23. Kf1 f6 24. g4 Kf7 25. h3 Re8 26. Rxe8 Kxe8 27.
Ke2 Kd7 28. Kd3 Ke6 29. a4 a6 30. f3 Be7 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

The chess community reacted strongly to both the surprisingly quick draw, and in anticipation of Wednesday's showdown.

If the 12th game of the World Ch. were a restaurant dish, I would send it back to the chef #CarlsenKarjakin

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) November 28, 2016

 

"I thought he [Carlsen] would at least try to create some problems for Karjakin."

-Fabiano Caruana#CarlsenKarjakin #WorldChess2016 — US Chess (@USChess) November 28, 2016

Yes, today's game was boring, but as compensation we'll likely see one of the most dramatic finishes to a WC match ever. #CarlsenKarjakin

— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) November 28, 2016

Q: Magnus, why did you make a quick draw today? A: I want to play a tie break Q: Why? A: We'll see :) Good luck @MagnusCarlsen !

— Nazi Paikidze-Barnes (@NaziPaiki) November 28, 2016  

@GMHikaru should feel proud for training Carlsen for this moment,did a better job than all his team combined #blitzbattle #CarlsenKarjakin

— Cristian Chirila (@CristianChirila) November 28, 2016

Our reporter on site GM Cristian Chirila will be covering the tiebreak final both for this site and will also be updating for our social media accounts. Follow along at facebook.com/uschess and twitter.com/uschess.