World Chess Championship 2016

Defending champion	Challenger
Magnus Carlsen (NOR)	Sergey Karjakin (RUS)
6 (3)	6 (1)
Born 30 November 1990	Born 12 January 1990
Winner of the World Chess Championship 2014	Winner of the 2016 Candidates Tournament
Rating: 2853 (ranked #1)	Rating: 2772 (ranked #9)

The World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match between reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Sergey Karjakin, to determine the World Chess Champion. Carlsen has 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, USA, between 11 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 the title of World Chess Champion.

The final position in the final tie-break game. Carlsen (as white) has just played the queen sacrifice 50. Qh6+!!. It is mate next move (50...Kxh6 51. Rh8#; 50...gxh6 51. Rxf7#).

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, with support from the Russian Chess Federation. The tournament was an 8-player double round-robin, with five different qualification paths possible: 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).

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