World Chess Championship: Magnus Carlsen retains title Published duration 28 November 2018

media caption How Carlsen kept his World Chess Championship crown...after 50 hours!

World number one Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has retained his World Chess Championship title, beating US opponent Fabiano Caruana in a tie-breaker event.

He beat Caruana in three time-limited games, ending the American's hopes of becoming the first US champion since Bobby Fischer won in 1972.

This showdown followed a new record, in which all 12 matches of regular play were drawn.

Carlsen told the BBC that the win was "huge for me".

"Fabiano played very well and he's an extremely strong player so it's very special," he said.

"It was very tense for these whole three weeks and there was no point in particular where I felt I was going to win the match. I didn't particularly feel that I was losing it either. It was always hanging in the balance."

Caruana, however, told Norway's NRK TV that he had had a "bad day".

"I didn't even put up a fight," he said.

Carlsen, who has won the championship three times before and was the favourite to win the game, took a two-match lead and needed only a draw in the third tie-breaker to seal his victory.

But Caruana resigned in the third as it became increasingly clear the Norwegian would win.

Players needed to win the best of four of these shortened games to take the title.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Fabiano Caruana, right, is ranked number two in the world after Carlsen

While there have been longer streaks of draws in chess, the lack of a win or loss in the entire championship battle set the new record.

"The match has made history, though of an ignoble kind," the World Chess broadcast's tournament report on the 12th and final regular game said, reflecting the frustration of some viewers after so many draws.

Carlsen's tie-breaker victory came after he seemed to play for the tie-breaker event in the final regular game - drawing criticism from former world champion Garry Kasparov, who said the "shocking draw offer" showed he was "losing his nerve" and no longer favourite to win.

Vladimir Kramnik, another Russian chess grandmaster, said: "He might be tired of tension, fighting; maybe even of chess itself to a certain degree."

"I'm a bit surprised that it's never occurred to anybody that I might know what's best for me," Carlsen told the BBC.

"It was a purely sporting decision and regardless of the result today I would have felt that it was the right one.

After Carlsen's victory, Kasparov tweeted that his consistency was "phenomenal".

Related Topics Chess