The 2018 World Chess Championship resumes in London on Saturday after three-time defending champion Magnus Carlsen drew with American Fabiano Caruana in their gruelling first game.
“It could have been better,” Norway’s Carlsen, 27, said after Friday’s seven-hour opener, the first of an expected 12 games taking place until November 26. “At a certain point it was very promising... my head was working well but obviously the conclusion of the game shows that I still have things to work on.”
But 26-year-old Caruana, the first American to compete since the legendary Bobby Fischer in 1972, suggested he was pleased with the outcome after 115 moves. “I had a very strong feeling that I was losing for a number of moves,” he told reporters.
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Carlsen is seeking to cement his reputation as one of history’s greatest chess players, while Caruana is another young prodigy helping to return mass appeal to the highbrow game.
Chess has its own unique scoring system that awards the winner of each game one point, while a draw sees the contenders get half a point each. The title goes to the first person to reach 6.5 points, with a rapid series of tiebreakers played in case the two are level after the first 12 games.
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