The world chess championship will be held next month, between 11th to the 30th of November. The Norwegian prodigy is set to defend his title against the Russian contender Sergey Karjakin, who is determined to bring back the glory to Russia.

About a year ago, if one had said that Sergey Karjakin will be challenging Magnus Carlsen for the championship, a number of people would have exclaimed or maybe mocked about it. But a year fast-forward that is exactly what is scheduled to happen. Both, Karjakin and Carlsen have been competitors since their junior days and were both chess prodigies.

Sergey Karjakin: The Contender

Sergey Karjakin became grandmaster at the age of 12 years and 7 months. He still holds the record for being the youngest grandmaster of all time. Evidently, ahead of the reigning world champion. Karjakin continued his progression through the years and reached a consistent rating near the 2800 mark in 2011. But, since then he seems to have hit the wall.

He has had a couple of slow starts in major tournaments, and that has been a consistent problem for the Russian representative. Let us take for instance, the 2014 Candidates Tournament, Karjakin put up a decent show but his slow start ensured another shot for Viswanathan Anand at the world championship.

While he came up short, he took it positively and as a valuable learning experience. That paid-off during the Chess World Cup, launching an epic comeback to beat Peter Svidler in the tie breaker. It earned him a spot on the Candidate’s table for a shot at the world championship this year. But, most would have still written off the young and highly talented grandmaster. However, Karjakin prevented that from happening with a miraculous Candidates’ Tournament win in March to earn the right to challenge the world champion Magnus Carlsen.

The topic of world championship is a very relevant one when it comes to Karjakin. He moved from Ukraine to Russia for exactly that reason. He has the experience, being a second to two world champions, namely; Ponomariov and Kramnik.  

When asked about his style of play, the challenger said in an interview: “I’m of Fischer’s opinion: it’s not important who’s sitting opposite – I play against pieces! Therefore, yes – I try to get a struggle. And then we’ll see what happens next. I never deliberately reject the chance to play for a win”.

Magnus Carlsen: The Champion

Magnus Carlsen was rather slow to gain the grandmaster title. He secured it at the age of 13 years, 4 months and 27 days, making him the third youngest.

The Norwegian has been a favourite for his instinctual play and gained international attention as an unknown 13-year-old, who drew against the then top ranked Garry Kasparov. His attitude at the board contrasted to the intense conduct of other players. However, he continued to play with all ambition and vigour even against the world’s elite. The move backfired more often than not. Since then, he worked to bring changes to his game cutting down on aggressive errors, allowing his intuition to guide him towards amazing positional advantages on the board.

His style kept on evolving and it kept his game from falling into complicated situations, avoiding unexpectedly losing control of games. But, Carlsen is human too and has not been immune to errors in recent years.

Who will win the World Championship?

Most chess fans and supporters have already predicted for a comfortable victory for the reigning world champion. But, that won’t come so easy. The game on paper and on the board might just be between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin. However, Carlsen is not only up against Karjakin, but the Russian Federation, whose only goal is to reclaim their supremacy in Chess. And, Sergey Karjakin is the person on whom the Russians are counting on.  

In particular, Mr. Vitaliy Mutko (Russian Minister of Sports) assured that Sergey Karjakin can choose any federal facility for his training camps and increase the number of his coaches and seconds if necessary.

Returning to the chess elements of the upcoming championship, Karjakin has surprised the world in the last one year; first winning the World Cup, secondly winning the Candidates’ Tournament despite odds being against him. And, he is likely to do no less than that, when the world championships finally begin on 11th November 2016.

What will prevail, the supremacy of the Russian Federation through Karjakin whose hopes of becoming a world champion is close to reality, or will Carlsen celebrate a “Happy Birthday” on 30th November 2016, remains to be seen.