The 2018 World Chess Championship is here. Magnus Carlsen, three-time defending champion and the “Thor of Chess”, is taking on challenger Fabiano Caruana of the United States.
Caruana, the son of Italian-origin parents, will aim to become only the second man from the US to lift the championships since Bobby Fischer did it in 1972. The 26-year-old is also the highest rated player ever to not win the World Chess Championships with an Elo rating of 2844.
As for Carlsen, he will enter elite territory should he win his fourth crown in London, making him only the fourth man to do so. A discussion and a quiz around the World Championships would be impossible without a mention of the Russian/Soviet domination.
Should Caruana win, he would become only the sixth non-Russian/Soviet player to win the World Championships since 1948. From 1993 onwards, there were two World Championships, FIDE and Classic, till they were re-unified in 2006.
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