Magnus Carlsen (right) is looking to win the title for a third straight time. Magnus Carlsen (right) is looking to win the title for a third straight time.

The challenger

Name: Sergey Karjakin; Age: 26

Elo Ranking: Rank 9 (2772)

Nationality: Russia

The Champion

Name: Magnus Carlsen; Age: 25

Elo Ranking: Rank 1 (2853)

Nationality: Norway

KEY POINTS

It will be the first time in a decade that Viswanathan Anand will not be involved when the world chess champion will be decided.The five-time champion was dethroned by Carlsen in Chennai (2013) before retaining the crown against the same opponent in Sochi (Russia) a year later.

For a sedentary sport associated with high IQs and cerebral players, its biggest prize will be contested between two individuals in their mid-twenties (Carlsen 25. Karjakin 26).

The two players will compete for a prize purse of at least $1 million.

Russia, and its erstwhile incarnation Soviet Union, has been the most dominant country in the sport for a very long time, but have not had a world champion since 2006, when Vladimir Kramnik defeated Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in Elista (Russia).

Karjakin files

As a chess prodigy, Karjakin picked up his first pawn at age 5 after watching a match on television. By 12, he became the youngest person ever to reach grandmaster status, a record that still stands. He has since garnered numerous trophies, most notably a first-place tie at the 2012 Grand Prix tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and winning the prestigious Norway Chess competition two years in a row, 2013 and 2014.

He beat Fabiano Caruana in the final round of the 2016 Candidates’ Tournament held in Moscow to earn the right to challenge Carlsen for the title.

Karjakin’s politics

Karjakin, born in Crimea (now annexed by Russia from Ukraine) has played for Russia since 2009. Before that he used to compete for Ukraine. In July 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev made Karjakin a Russian citizen. Karjakin said he decided to play for Russia as he had been unable to get the sponsorship and the ‘required’ coaching he needed in Ukraine. The Russian chess federation offered him the ‘best trainers’ he had said.

Karjakin has also been a strong supporter of the Kremlin and has backed Russia’s policy in Ukraine. Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula following the ouster of former Russia-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.

“I am actually extremely happy about this because I always considered myself Russian. I speak Russian, think in Russian, so I’m entirely a Russian person, and entirely support Russia as a state.”

Hat-trick quest for Carlsen

Carlsen is attempting to complete a hat-trick of world titles – which has only been achieved by Mikhail Botvinnik, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Anand since the advent of the FIDE World Championship in 1948.

Move before the match

Litigation has started well before the first move is made on the board, with World Chess USA Inc and World Chess Events Ltd filing a lawsuit in a federal court to block three websites from immediately relaying every move on the internet. The lawsuit is aimed at protecting their exclusive rights to relay the moves to a worldwide audience. While those present at the Fulton Market Building – the venue of the championships – will get to see the moves ‘live’, a majority of the fans will be following the matches on the internet and hence the move to block non-authorized web-platforms to air the moves.

Hackers’ threat

Carlsen who has used specialised chess computers to prepare moves for the 12-game match against Karjakin has been worried that Russian hackers could gain access to his games and his tactics, which in turn could help Crimean-born Karjakin. Carlsen has alerted tech giant Microsoft of the threat and has asked them to ensure that he is not a victim of hacking. Russia based hackers have recently exposed Therapeutic Use Exemption data of top athletes by breaking into the World Anti-Doping Agency website.

(With inputs from New York Times)

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