Crimea-born grandmaster Karjakin proud to represent Russia at world chess leadership match
Sport
March 30, 9:06 UTC+3
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Karjakin, a 26-year-old Russian chess grandmaster, is now the contender for the world’s chess crown, which currently belongs to Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen
MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. Being a Crimean native, grandmaster Sergey Karjakin, who won the FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament, will be glad to represent Russia in a game against the incumbent world champion, Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.
“Being Russian, and native Crimean, I would be glad to represent Russia in New York at the world leadership match,” he told the closing ceremony of the FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament. “I am proud to present my native land of Crimea.”
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the FIDE president, awarded Karjakin with a medal at the ceremony, which Russian presidential aide Igor Levitin and Alexander Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, have also attended.
The two week-tournament ended on Monday with the victory of the 26-year-old Russian chess grandmaster, and Karjakin is now the contender for the world’s chess crown, which currently belongs to Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.
The 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament was hosted by the Russian capital of Moscow between March 11 and 28 bringing together eight chess players from Armenia, the United States, Russia, Bulgaria and India.
With the $460,000 of prize money up for grabs, the Candidates Tournament in Moscow saw the board battles of World Championship 2014 finalist Viswanathan Anand (India), 2015 World Cup winner Sergey Karjakin, 2015 World Cup runner-up Peter Svidler (both Russia), 2014-15 FIDE Grand Prix winners Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura (both USA), two players qualified by rating Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Anish Giri (Netherlands), and the player nominated by the organizers – Levon Aronian (Armenia).
Karjakin now has a time of more than half of a year to prepare for the New York clash with Carlsen, who is besides holding the title of the reigning world’s champion is also the highest ranked player in history.
Karyakin and Carlsen will play in New York on November 11-30.