Carlsen vs Caruana – The Battle for World Chess Champion 2018

Chess – the brutal mental sport rivalled by no other intellectual battle. This month, the greatest clash of chess minds is taking place in the heart of London through the coming days. The prize, a 60/40 split of 1 million Euros to the winner, and even more valuable to the players, the title of World Chess Champion. This is the World Chess Championship.

The two contenders fight it out over 12 consecutive gruelling chess games spanning 19 days (with a potential tiebreak in the case of a draw and rest breaks every two days). The games themselves last roughly five hours – needless to say, immense mental stamina and superhuman concentration are required to play consistently at this level. The contest is held by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, with the organisation rights belonging to Agon, its commercial partner. Chess players have arrived from across the world to see the contenders battle it out over the board.

Magnus Carlsen will be defending his title against Fabiano Caruana

The current reigning world champion and highest rated player on the planet, Magnus Carlsen, will be defending his title against Fabiano Caruana, the world number two and winner of the 2018 Berlin Candidates tournament.

Magnus Carlsen, aged 27, described by many as the ‘Mozart of Chess’, has stood supreme above all other chess players since he took the title in 2013 aged 22. Growing up in Norway, Magnus became a Grandmaster aged 13 and has been the world number one player continuously since January 2010. He is regarded by many to be the greatest chess player of all time, standing with such greats as Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. He is especially renowned for his incredible end-game accuracy and faultless intuition.

Since 2012, the duo have played 29 long play games

Fabiano Caruana, the 26 year old American-Italian looking to dethrone the king, is a former chess prodigy as well; he earned his Grandmaster title aged 14 and is the current rated world FIDE number two. Though not as highly rated as Carlsen, Caruana has been steadily gaining on the world champ and now he sits just 3 FIDE rating points below Carlsen (2835 to 2832). Caruana won the Berlin Candidates’ Tournament in March, giving him the opportunity to take his shot at the championship.

Since 2012, the duo have played 29 long play games; Carlsen has won 9, Caruana 5. The rest were draws. Though history may seem to be in Carlsen’s favour, Caruana’s average rating was much lower throughout most of these games, a gap which has since been closed, as seen below. A computer simulation run by chess.com gave the defending champion a 63% chance of winning the game 6.5-5.5, with Carlsen winning 2 games and Caruana winning 1. Polls also place the match going to Carlsen with a slight edge, typically around 70% (chess.com surveys) vote in favour of Magnus Carlsen retaining his championship title.

The world chess championship features the biggest games of the year

So far the games have resulted in consistent draws. Though this is fairly standard in a championship match, there have in fact been some upsets already; the first game, for example, saw Carlsen lose a winning advantage and walk away with only a draw.

The world chess championship features the biggest games of the year between the strongest players on the planet playing at the top of their ability. For anyone with even a basic understanding of chess, the championship offers tremendous insight into theoretical and practical chess concepts and can produce the highest quality games to learn from and enjoy. We may even get to see some huge upsets, blunders and tactics, all of which can be educational to chess players of all abilities.

To any readers with more than just a passing interest, Warwick Chess Society will be hosting an in-depth live analysis of Game 10 on Thursday 22nd November in Oculus 1.01, starting 7:30pm. Will Caruana overcome the odds and take down the king?