Championship having gone unbeaten in the rapid tiebreaks with Karjakin and in his subsequent matches with Caruana in 2018 (both in the classical portion and in the rapid tiebreaks) and Nepomniachtchi in 2021. (Carlsen however was beaten in 3 classical games in a row by Wesley So in the finals of the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019. Carlsen was also beaten in a classical game by Fabiano Caruana in the semi-finals.) Karjakin won the 2016 World Blitz Chess Championship, which took place on 29 and 30 December 2016. Before the last round, Carlsen was leading with 16.0/20, while Karjakin was half a point behind. In the last round, Carlsen drew with Peter Leko, while Karjakin won against Baadur Jobava. Thus, they both finished the tournament with 16½/21. The tie-break (the Elo average of the opponents) was used to decide the winner, and as Karjakin's opponents had the better average, Karjakin was crowned 2016 World Blitz Champion. The extent of Karjakin's and Carlsen's domination in the event was shown by the fact that their closest rivals, Daniil Dubov, Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Grischuk (three-time world blitz champion), were a full two points behind. 2017–2018 In December, he participated in the London Chess Classic, placing eighth with a score of 3½/9. In January, Karjakin competed in the Tata Steel Masters. He placed seventh, scoring 7½/13 (+2−0=11). In March, he competed in the Candidates Tournament 2018. He finished third with 8/14 (+4−2=8), one point behind the winner Caruana. In April, he participated in the fifth edition of Shamkir Chess, finishing third with a score of 5/9 (+1−0=8). From 28 May to 7 June, he competed in the sixth edition of Norway Chess, finishing last with 3/8 (+1−3=4). 2019–2020 From 31 March to 9 April, he competed in Shamkir Chess 2019. He placed in a tie for second, with 5 points out of 9. From 5 to 16 December 2020, Karjakin competed in the 73rd Russian Chess Championship. He finished with a score of 7/11, which earned him second place behind winner Ian Nepomniachtchi. 2021 In July–August 2021, Karjakin competed in the Chess World Cup 2021. In round five, Karjakin defeated French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the rapid tiebreaker after drawing the classical games. He then knocked out US GM Sam Shankland in the quarterfinals and eliminated Russian GM Vladimir Fedoseev in the semifinals to qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022. Eventually,