World Chess Championship 2016

Fulton Market Building, New York City, United States
11–30 November 2016
	Defending champion	Challenger
	Magnus Carlsen	Sergey Karjakin
	6 (3) Scores 6 (1) Game 1 ½ 42 move draw ½ Game 2 ½ 33 move draw ½ Game 3 ½ 78 move draw ½ Game 4 ½ 94 move draw ½ Game 5 ½ 51 move draw ½ Game 6 ½ 32 move draw ½ Game 7 ½ 33 move draw ½ Game 8 0 52 moves → 1 Game 9 ½ 72 move draw ½ Game 10 1 ← 75 moves 0 Game 11 ½ 34 move draw ½ Game 12 ½ 30 move draw ½ Tie break 13 ½ 37 move draw ½ Tie break 14 ½ 84 move draw ½ Tie break 15 1 ← 38 moves 0 Tie break 16 1 ← 50 moves 0
	Born 30 November 1990 25 years old	Born 12 January 1990 26 years old
	Winner of the World Chess Championship 2014	Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2016
	Rating: 2853 (World No. 1)	Rating: 2772 (World No. 9)
← 2014 2018 →

The World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Sergey Karjakin to determine the World Chess Champion.^[1] Carlsen had been world champion since 2013, while Karjakin qualified as challenger by winning the 2016 Candidates Tournament. The best-of-12 match, organized by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played in New York City between 10 and 30 November 2016.

The match opened with seven consecutive draws before Karjakin won the eighth game. Carlsen evened the score by winning the tenth game. All other games were drawn, leaving the match at a 6–6 tie, so tie breaks decided the match. After two draws to begin the rapid chess tie break, Carlsen won the remaining two games to win the match and retain his title.^[2]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Final position after 50.Qh6+!! in the final tie-break game. Carlsen's sham queen sacrifice forces mate next move: 50...Kxh6 51.Rh8# or 50...gxh6 51.Rxf7#.

Planning timeline

• November 27, 2014: At the closing ceremony for the 2014 championship, FIDE president Ilyumzhinov announces the 2016 match will take place in the United States.^[3]
• October 4, 2015: At the 2015 Chess World Cup, Ilyumzhinov reiterates the location as the United States, saying that the date and place were already final.^[4]
• December 15, 2015: FIDE and Agon sign media rights deal with Norwegian broadcaster NRK, listing 7-figures (in unknown currency) until 2020.^[5]
• January 8, 2016: FIDE announces that Agon has made operational an official broadcasting platform (worldchess.com) for the World Chess Championship cycle events (already present in October 2015).^[6]
• March 1, 2016: Agon announce that the city will be New York City, with approval from its mayor.^[7]
• March 4, 2016: Agon announce that only approved broadcasters will be allowed to retransmit moves from the Candidates and ensuing World Championship.^[8]
• March 28, 2016: Sergey Karjakin wins the Candidates Tournament 2016 to qualify to play Magnus Carlsen.
• May 26, 2016: Agon head Ilya Merenzon says that "The contract between FIDE and Agon is finalized and is being signed. The contract between the players and FIDE will be finalized in the next 2–3 weeks."^[9]
• June 7, 2016: Agon announces that a venue has been found in New York City, with only sponsor details and paperwork left to be finalized in the next 2 weeks.^[10]
• August 8, 2016: Agon announce the venue as the Fulton Market building in the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan.^[11]
• August 30, 2016: Agon publish on their website that PhosAgro has signed a strategic partnership contract as a sponsor of the 2016 FIDE World Chess Championship.^[12]
• September 12, 2016: Agon announce EG Capital Advisors as a sponsor, and give pricing packages for virtual reality viewing options.^[13][14]
• September 30, 2016: Tickets go on sale.^[15] The lowest price listed is $75 per game.
• October 17, 2016: Agon announce their new broadcast model for the World Championship.^[16][17]

Candidates Tournament

The Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger was held on 11–30 March 2016 in Moscow, Russia, with FIDE's commercial partner Agon as the official organizer,^[18][19] with support from the Russian Chess Federation.^[20] The tournament was an 8-player double round-robin, with five different qualification paths possible:^[19] the loser of the World Chess Championship 2014 match, the top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2015, the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, next two highest rated players (average FIDE rating on the 12 monthly lists from January to December 2015, with at least 30 games played) who played in Chess World Cup 2015 or FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, and one player nominated by Agon (the organizers).

Qualified players

Qualification path	Player	Age	Rating	Rank
Loser of the World Chess Championship 2014 match	Viswanathan Anand	46	2762	12
Winner of the Chess World Cup 2015	Sergey Karjakin	26	2760	13
Runner-up of the Chess World Cup 2015	Peter Svidler	39	2757	16
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15	Fabiano Caruana	23	2794	3
	Hikaru Nakamura	28	2790	6
The top two players with highest average 2015 rating who played in World Cup or Grand Prix	Veselin Topalov	41	2780	8
	Anish Giri	21	2793	4
Wild card nomination of the organizers (Agon), with FIDE rating in July 2015 at least 2725	Levon Aronian[20]	33	2786	7

Standings

Pos	Player v t e	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	Qualification		KAR	CAR	ANA	SVI	ARO	GIR	NAK	TOP
1	Sergey Karjakin (RUS) (Q)	14	4	9	1	8.5	Advance to title match		—	1  ½	1  0	½  ½	½  ½	½  ½	1  ½	1  ½
2	Fabiano Caruana (USA)	14	2	11	1	7.5			½  0	—	1  ½	½  ½	½  ½	½  ½	1  ½	½  ½
3	Viswanathan Anand (IND)	14	4	7	3	7.5			1  0	½  0	—	1  ½	1  ½	½  ½	½  0	1  ½
4	Peter Svidler (RUS)	14	1	12	1	7			½  ½	½  ½	½  0	—	½  1	½  ½	½  ½	½  ½
5	Levon Aronian (ARM)	14	2	10	2	7			½  ½	½  ½	½  0	0  ½	—	½  ½	1  ½	½  1
6	Anish Giri (NED)	14	0	14	0	7			½  ½	½  ½	½  ½	½  ½	½  ½	—	½  ½	½  ½
7	Hikaru Nakamura (USA)	14	3	8	3	7			½  0	½  0	1  ½	½  ½	½  0	½  ½	—	1  1
8	Veselin Topalov (BUL)	14	0	9	5	4.5			½  0	½  ½	½  0	½  ½	0  ½	½  ½	0  0	—

Results by round

Pairings and results^[21]

Numbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.