LONDON — Norwegian Magnus Carlsen won the world chess championship for a fourth time on Wednesday after winning three tiebreakers against US rival and world number two Fabiano Caruana.
The 27-year-old defending champion, who collected a winner鈥檚 prize of 鈧550,000 ($626,065), and his bespectacled opponent had drawn 12 out of 12 classical games through November.
That stalemate forced the pair into the faster-paced, best-of-four rapid tiebreakers.
鈥淔rankly speaking, in the last couple of years my game hasn鈥檛 been great,鈥 Carlsen told a news conference. 鈥淚n that sense, this match and the classical portion was a step in the right direction.
鈥淚 think I played relatively well and Fabiano is just a very strong player…I feel like I have things to work on, clearly.鈥
The failure of Caruana, 26, to defeat Carlsen means the United States has not won the chess title since the enigmatic and volatile Bobby Fischer beat Russia鈥檚 Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War in 1972.
鈥淚 have some regrets about the classical portion but I don鈥檛 think I can really be upset about it,鈥 said the American. 鈥淚 was hoping to play my best chess today but I didn鈥檛 even come close to that.
鈥淚 felt a lot of pressure but I don鈥檛 think I had added pressure because I was the first American challenger in a long time,鈥 he added.
鈥淩ight now I鈥檓 mainly disappointed, but I hope that I can look back at the match and learn a lot from it because it is also a great privilege to play Magnus and a great learning experience.鈥
Caruana will still collect 450,000 euros for his efforts at The College, a Victorian era building in London鈥檚 Holborn.
Carlsen has been the world鈥檚 top ranked player for the past eight years and has now defended his title three times since he first won it in 2013 by beating Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.
This year was the first time the Norwegian had won the championship without losing a single game. — Reuters

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR