It’s not quite the cold war revisited. But over the past two weeks the world chess No 1, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, has been doing battle against a Kremlin-backed Russian grandmaster who fervently supports Crimea’s annexation and the man who did it, Vladimir Putin.

On Wednesday the World Chess Championship in New York reaches its conclusion when Carlsen plays a series of quickfire games against his challenger Sergey Karjakin. The sudden death denouement comes after a series of sometimes lacklustre draws and a single win each, with the players tantalisingly tied on Monday with six points.

Magnus Carlsen: the cool grandmaster who cries when he loses to himself Read more

The match has invited comparisons with the 1972 clash between the American Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, the Soviet Union’s defending world champion. Fischer famously won, dealing a blow to the Kremlin’s use of chess as an ideological weapon and its belief in communist superiority over capitalism.





Their last match on Monday ended with a draw after just 35 minutes and 30 moves, an outcome that disappointed fans and chess experts alike. The grandmaster Susan Polgar observed that it was “as exciting as watching clothes dry”, while the British grandmaster Nigel Short tweeted: “If the 12th game ... were a restaurant dish, I would send it back to the chef.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Magnus Carlsen launched an aggressive attack in game eight, only to eventually lose. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

“We’re not at the penalty stage yet. We’re at extra time,” Carlsen said after Monday’s match, making a football analogy. “I understand if sometimes both teams are not trying to score in the last minute of regulation that can be frustrating but also having extra time is exciting.”

After launching an aggressive attack in game eight, only to eventually lose, Carlsen stormed out of an obligatory press conference. Latterly, he has appeared more relaxed. Wednesday’s tie-breaker starts with four rapid games, with an initial time limit of 25 minutes per player. If the deadlock continues there will be an “armageddon game”, in which white has five minutes and black four. Karjakin – who starts with black, if it gets that far – will only have to draw to win the title.

The historical analogy may be overblown but there is no doubt the 2016 world championship has a 21st century political frisson. Karjakin – who is 26 – was born in Crimea. At the time the peninsula was part of Ukraine. A prodigy, he played for Ukraine’s chess federation before defecting to Russia and becoming a citizen in 2009.



According to Short, Karjakin is an outspoken supporter of Russia’s president: “I like Sergey. He’s stayed at my home before. I would describe him as a political opportunist.” In 2014 Karjakin posted a photo on his Instagram account showing him wearing a T-shirt with Putin’s face on it and the patriotic message: “You don’t dump your own [people].”

“Karjakin is totally backed by Putin and the Russian machine,” Short said. “The state wants him to do well. My original prediction was a narrow victory for Carlsen. We knew Karjakin was tough, and very good.” Carlsen had been “slightly off his game” but was still the favourite to win and is the number one at “rapid” format play, Short added.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sergey Karjakin studies the board during round eight. Photograph: Richard Drew/Associated Press

The championship is being staged in New York for the first time since 1995. The choice of venue is also political - following years of simmering US-Russia tensions, and given the pro-Putin proclivities of president-elect Donald Trump, whose Manhattan home is a cab ride away. One of those spotted in the VIP chess room with views of Brooklyn bridge has been Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s ubiquitous press spokesman.

World Chess Championship: political intrigue lurks as battle reaches midway Read more

One person is missing. That is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian president of Fide, the world chess federation. Ilyumzhinov – who once claimed that aliens took him for a ride in their spaceship – has long performed the role of informal Kremlin emissary. He has met dictators including Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadaffi.

In late 2015 the US treasury department added Ilyumzhinov to a list of sanctioned Russians. It accused him of providing banking services to Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad. Ilyumzhninov has said this doesn’t stop him from travelling to the US. He has yet to turn up, though.

Chess federations from western countries including the US, England, and Germany have repeatedly tried to topple Ilyumzhinov from Fide’s top job. In 2014, Ilyumzhinov defeated his latest rival, the former world chess champion and Putin critic Garry Kasparov. Karjakin said he backed Ilyumzhinov and told Russian media that Kasparov’s views were “ultra-radical”.

Carlsen, meanwhile, is no cold war hawk. Rather, at 26, he is a cool young man who became a grandmaster at 13 and who dominates the world’s pre-eminent mind sport, winning the world championship in 2013. His chess rating – 2882 – is the highest ever. Carlsen has a cult following at home in Norway where his games are being live-screened. He has modelled for the Dutch clothing brand G-Star Raw.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sergey Karjakin, of Russia, makes a move during the fifth-round match of the 2016 World Chess Championship. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Even for Carlsen the 2016 world championship has had moments of strain. According to Short, Carlsen enlisted the help of Microsoft to protect his computer from hackers. “Russian hackers are good at it. You are basically finished in a match like this if your analysis is available to your opponents,” Short explained. Karjakin had taken similar defensive measures, he suggested.

The game of chess has changed dramatically in recent years. Decades ago there was no live-streaming, with chess enthusiasts only able to follow matches by reading the next day’s paper. Now global spectators can follow matches live (for a $7 fee, payable to the murky organisation which owns chess rights, Agon) and can feed each move into powerful chess programs. “Even an idiot can to some degree follow what is going on,” Short said.

Phil Ehr, the former chief executive of the English chess federation, said the focus on Wednesday as the world championship reaches its dramatic end should be on chess, not international relations. “People in the west will root for Carlsen. People elsewhere will root for the Russian guy. It’s isn’t a big deal,” Ehr said, adding: “If Karjakin prevails good on him.”