11.24.18 The World Chess Championship Match being contested in London by the current World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, and the second-highest rated player in the world, Fabiano Caruana, will enter the final game in an eleven-game-deadlock tie at 5.5 points apiece. In Game 11, Carlsen played a low-risk opening variation of the Petroff and steered the game into the safe harbor of a bishops-of-opposite-color draw on move fifty-five.

Playing the white pieces and using information from the now infamous leaked video from Caruana's team, Magnus Carlsen was still unable to get even a hint of an opening advantage. The game began as a Petroff and neither player pressed for any kind of meaningful advantage or unnecessary risk which is understandable considering the Match situation.

Carlsen obviously wants to win the Match and is going about that goal by not losing. By shepherding the Match to the tiebreak portion, the World Champion significantly increases his chances of keeping the title. The classical rating difference between the players is only three points--with odds of winning an individual game a virtual 50/50 tie--while the rapid and blitz differences are ninety-one and one hundred seventy-two points respectively.

Caruana will have white in Game 12 and Carlsen may play the game Aikido style--that is, he may lay in wait and hope the Challenger over presses in order to avoid the rapid a blitz portion of the Match.

In post game comments, Carlsen said he was not happy with what he got out of the opening and, considering the Match situation, he played Game 11 safe.

For the Challenger's part, Caruana added, "Not much happened today."

Tomorrow is a rest day.

Game 12 will begin at 10:00 a.m. eastern U.S. on Monday, November 26th.

The opening in Game 11 was again a Petroff.

The World Champion Magnus Carlsen

The Challenger Fabiano Caruana

This is why biding his time is in Carlsen's best interest in the classical time control portion of the Match.

After making the ceremonial first move of Game 11, Sergey Karjakin joined Judit Polgar and Anna Rudolph in the World Chess studio in London to offer his comments on the Match.

Magnus Carlsen fields a question at the post-game press conference

Official Site of the FIDE World Chess Championship Match 2018

Official site of the venue for the Match: The College

Match Schedule
All games will be played at 10:00 a.m. eastern U.S. time (3:00 p.m. GMT.)

Game 1 Friday, November 9

Game 2 Saturday, November 10

Rest Day Sunday, November 11

Game 3 Monday, November 12

Game 4 Tuesday, November 13

Rest Day Wednesday, November 14

Game 5 Thursday, November 15

Game 6 Friday, November 16

Rest Day Saturday, November 17

Game 7 Sunday, November 18

Game 8 Monday, November 19

Rest Day Tuesday, November 20

Game 9 Wednesday, November 21

Game 10 Thursday, November 22

Rest Day Friday, November 23

Game 11 Saturday, November 24

Rest Day Sunday, November 25

Game 12 Monday, November 26

Tie Break/Awards Ceremony Tuesday, November 27

Tie Break/Awards Ceremony Wednesday, November 28