Magnus Carlsen retains World Chess Championship

Magnus Carlsen won the World Championship match on Wednesday in New York against Sergey Karjakin of Russia. For nearly three weeks, Calrsen fought hard and tried his best to win all the games. There were 12 closely fought games and one tiebreaker before he was able to get the victory. It was a truly memorable day to him because he retained his title on his 26th birthday.

The match ended 6:6 and Carlsen dominated the rapid session with the score 3:1. His final move was when he made an astonishing Queen sacrifice. The Norwegian caught the challenger’s king, allowing him to finish the match in defence style. Carlsen said that he was very happy that at the end of the match he found joy in playing.

The first seven games that he played always ended in draws. That was when Karjakin made a comeback from the edge during the third and fourth game. He even lost in game 8 which he expressed that he had all sorts of negative thoughts in his head. But Carlsen never backed down. It was in game 10 where he levelled the match and ended it with triumphantly.

“For me, it’s a matter of when I get the chance, I’ll try to punch him until he finally knocks over,” Carlsen said. That was Carlsen’s third world championship victory.

The spectators described the match as outstanding. Lev Alburt, a grandmaster who has followed championship matches since 1994, said that its one of the highest quality matches on both sides.

“Even the fact that of many draws, almost all have been achieved in very sharp play. Both players are trying to squeeze something almost from nothing. Where other players would play safe, both keep playing for a win, creating problems for their opponent at a risk to themselves," said Lev in an interview with New York Times.

Karjakin admitted that he had some mistakes all throughout the games. He revealed that he might have over prepared. “Maybe it would be better to have a fresh head and not repeat it so much,” he said.

This was the first world championship match in New York since 1995. The organisers said that there were over ten million people worldwide who followed the games online.