World Chess Championship: Carlsen loses Game 8 to Karjakin

PanARMENIAN.Net - After seven straight draws, Sergey Karjakin of Russia, the challenger, claimed the first full-point on Monday, November 21 against titleholder Magnus Carlsen of Norway at the World Chess Championship, Business Insider reports.

Game 8 was dense and difficult, and with the white pieces, Carlsen may have pressed too hard beyond what at one juncture looked like another draw.

The opening was a fairly staid and initially symmetrical Queen's Pawn game — nothing surprising for Carlsen, who has in the WCC so far adopted a strategy of boring openings, aiming to test Karjakin in the middle and endgames.

Carlsen had dodged a few bullets in previous games, but his approach caught up with him in Game 8. Karjakin barely made the so-called "time control," executing the first 40 moves in 100 minutes with just ten seconds to spare.

Perhaps sensing the challenger's stress, Carlsen pressed on past several drawing chances, but blunders on both sides made for a tense spectacle until Carlsen's commitment to the win with white became his undoing on move 52.