World Chess Championship 2018

The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organised by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played in London, at The College in Holborn, between 9 and 28 November 2018.

The classic time control portion of the match ended with twelve consecutive draws, the only such time in the history of the World Chess Championship. On 28 November, rapid chess was used as a tie-breaker, of which Carlsen won three consecutive games to retain his World Championship title.

Candidates’ Tournament

Caruana qualified as challenger by winning the 2018 Candidates Tournament. This was an eight-player, double round-robin tournament played in Berlin on 10–28 March 2018.

Championship Match Regulations

The match was organised in a best-of-12-games format. The time control for the games was 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, an additional 50 minutes added after the 40th move, and then an additional 15 minutes added after the 60th move, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 1. Players were not permitted agree to a draw before Black's 30th move.

The tie-breaking method consisted of the following schedule of faster games played on the final day in the following order, as necessary:

• Best-of-four rapid games (25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move). The player with the best score after four rapid games is the winner. The players are not required to record the moves. In the match, Carlsen immediately won three games in a row, securing the championship.
• If the rapid games had been tied 2-2, up to five mini-matches of best-of-two blitz games (5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move) would have been played. The player with the best score in any two-game blitz match would be the winner.
• If the blitz matches had failed to produce a winner, one sudden death "Armageddon" game: White receives 5 minutes and Black receives 4 minutes. Both players receive an increment of 3 seconds starting from move 61. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the colour. In case of a draw, the player with the black pieces is declared the winner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2018