Carlsen vs. Karjakin | World Chess Championship 2016
The Chess.com countdown of the "Most Exciting World Championships In History" continues today with ninth place, and you don't have to remember too far back for this one.
Sergey Karjakin vs. Magnus Carlsen from 2016 in New York made it into top 10 easily with 24 points (double that of the three matches tied for 10th place). Although just two classical wins were produced, there was still a host of side items to discuss:
- Carlsen briefly trailed in the match, even though he was the heavy favorite.
- Karjakin's manager gave hilarious interviews.
- The public generally appreciated Judit Polgar's commentary style.
- Carlsen pronounced that he "generally doesn't believe in fortresses."
- Carlsen walked out of the press conference following his one loss.
- The championship ended in a playoff, with Carlsen sacrificing his queen for forced mate.
Carlsen-Karjakin went into overtime. | Photo: Mike Klein/Chess.com.
This was also the world championship with the most Chess.com coverage. Below are some reminders of the most memorable moments (the final report with links to all of the round reports is here).
First, the famous delay that caused the champ to abandon the press conference:
Here's Karjakin taking the lead in game eight with the first win of the match:
Carlsen then tied up the match in game 10:
With the final classical game a complete dud, Carlsen helped ensure his third world championship match would make our top-10 by winning two games in the rapid.
Here's his victory in the third rapid game that put him ahead:
Although he only needed a draw as White to defend his title, Carlsen ended the match by playing perhaps his most electric move of his world-championship-match career:
Coming up next: Number 8 on our list!
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
