Norwegian retains his world title after thrilling tiebreak and wows a global audience looking forward to more of the same
Just after Magnus Carlsen had defeated Sergey Karjakin to retain his world chess championship, at 1am UK time on Thursday morning, I looked at the Guardian home page and was astonished and delighted to see that the liveblog on the world championship was the third-most read item on its website. For a moment chess – ignored, marginalised, even derided by some – finally had its place in the sun.
The four rapidplay tie-breakers which decided the match, after 12 classical games had finished all-square, were one of those rare moments when all the stars aligned, creating a truly memorable event. It was Carlsen’s 26th birthday; rapidplay – where each player has about half an hour for all his moves – is fast enough to be exciting but provides sufficient time for “proper” chess to be played; Karjakin defended doughtily in a terrible position in game two and the Norwegian missed a win; and then, best of all, Carlsen found the most beautiful checkmate in the final game to secure the title.
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