Karjakin to Challenge Carlsen in World Championship

Sergey Karjakin prevailed in his game today against Fabiano Caruana to earn the right to challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen later this year. Fabiano fought hard for an imbalanced position with Black, since the most likely tiebreak scenario required a win from him. Karjakin found a brilliant attacking line to seal the victory.

[pgn]

[Event "Candidates 2016"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.03.28"]
[White "Karjakin, Sergey"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B67"]
[WhiteElo "2760"]
[BlackElo "2794"]
[PlyCount "83"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 a6 8.
O-O-O Bd7 9. f4 h6 10. Bh4 b5 11. Bxf6 gxf6 12. f5 Qb6 13. fxe6 fxe6 14. Nxc6
Qxc6 15. Bd3 h5 16. Kb1 b4 17. Ne2 Qc5 18. Rhf1 Bh6 19. Qe1 a5 20. b3 Rg8 21.
g3 Ke7 22. Bc4 Be3 23. Rf3 Rg4 24. Qf1 Rf8 25. Nf4 Bxf4 26. Rxf4 a4 27. bxa4
Bxa4 28. Qd3 Bc6 29. Bb3 Rg5 30. e5 Rxe5 31. Rc4 Rd5 32. Qe2 Qb6 33. Rh4 Re5
34. Qd3 Bg2 35. Rd4 d5 36. Qd2 Re4 37. Rxd5 exd5 38. Qxd5 Qc7 39. Qf5 Rf7 40.
Bxf7 Qe5 41. Rd7+ Kf8 42. Rd8+ 1-0

[/pgn]

After the game, Fabiano Caruana showed his typical sportsmanship:

Didn't quite work out at the end, but gave it a shot in a tough situation. Congrats to @SergeyKaryakin on a well deserved victory.

— Fabiano Caruana (@FabianoCaruana) March 28, 2016