World Chess C'ship: All set for dramatic finish

The 11th game between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin was drawn; another draw will take the Championship to tiebreakers.

Game 11 between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin lasted only 34 moves.

Going into the last game in the classical time control, it is still all square in the World Chess Championship. The title match between Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Sergey Karjakin of Russia is tied 5.5 after the 11th game was drawn. After a day of rest, the game 12 will be played on Monday.

If that game, too, is drawn, the title will be decided by the tie-breakers on November 30. Those games will be played in the rapid and blitz formats. Game 11 lasted only 34 moves. It didn’t produce as much drama as the three previous games.

It was Ruy Lopez once again; this time it was the Closed variation. Playing with black pieces, Carlsen did try to create something out of nothing.

The reigning champion even managed to produce some excitement with his ‘d’ pawn push on the 19th move. He also got his ‘e’ pawn on to the second rank, near the promised land.

But, Karjakin had no reason to be worried. He played calmly and the game ended in a quite draw, with the possibility of perpetual checks; both the queens were still on the board when the peace treaty was signed.

“The match is trending in a good direction for me,” said Carlsen. “If it was 80 per cent chess earlier, now it is 80 per cent psychology,” said Karjakin.