Carlsen on WC match: “I’ll be the favorite!”

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Carlsen keen to take on Karjakin
By Nina Berglund

Norway’s world champion in chess, Magnus Carlsen, was quick to issue the message on Monday that he’s ready to take on Sergey Karjakin as his challenger for the title this fall. Carlsen gave a “thumbs up” to Karjakin’s selection, and indicated he was already flexing his muscles for a showdown.

It will be a meeting of two young men, both born in 1990, when they face off at the Chess World Championships in New York in November. Carlsen will be defending his title for the second time, after first winning in India in 2013 and then securing it against the same rival, Vishy Anand, in Sochi in 2014.

Now he’ll be up against Karjakin, a Russian national originally from Ukraine. Karjakin, like Carlsen, was a child chess prodigy who became the youngest grand master ever at the age of 12 years and seven months. He just turned 26 in January, while Carlsen will turn 26 at the end of the world championships, on November 30. Karjakin ranked eighth in the world as of Tuesday afternoon, with Carlsen still in first place and counting on crowning his next birthday with another championship victory.

“Regardless of who I meet, I’ll be the favorite,” Carlsen told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) before the candidates’ tournament that just determined his challenger began. Carlsen’s manager Espen Agdestein also thinks Carlsen remains the favourite but he was bracing for “an incredibly tough match” after Karjakin emerged as Carlsen’s world championship rival. Agdestein told NRK that Karjakin has “strong nerves” and will be “a tough man to beat.”

Carlsen has also lost to Karjakin before, not least on home turf in Norway at the annual Norway Chess tournament in both 2013, just before his first World Championship victory, and 2014. Carlsen, who’s about to launch into serious training for the upcoming Norway Chess after taking a bit of a break in recent weeks, hasn’t always done well at the Norwegian tournament that gets underway again in Stavanger in just a few weeks.

The championship match in November will be a pairing that many chess fans have wanted for years, since both were child stars at the same time. “They’re the same age (Karjakin is 10 months older) and Magnus looked up to Karjakin at the start of his career,” Agdestein told news bureau NTB. “He was a star early, but then Magnus began to go beyond him.” He told NRK that “this was earlier seen as a dream match, but Karjakin declined while Magnus became world champion. Now they’ll get the match many were uncertain would be held.”

Full article here: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2016/03/29/carlsen-keen-to-take-on-karjakin/