World championship chess is the intellectual UFC—players go at it in open combat, looking to crush their opponents and make them look weak. And after two weeks of play in the 2016 World Chess Championship, which has been taking place in New York City, numerous players have fallen, with just two remaining standing (or technically, sitting): Chess Grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin.
Twenty-five-year-old Norwegian Carlsen is the defending world champion, an international superstar, and has even made the rounds Stateside. Watch Carlsen obliterate a chess hustler in NYC’s Washington Square Park:
But his competitor, 26-year-old Karjakin, is a relative unknown, who came into the championship an underdog, to say the least. Having played to a draw with Carlsen on Nov. 29 (the two made just 30 moves in 36 minutes), Karjakin’s now forced a series of tiebreakers set for Nov. 30. He could go from international man of mystery to chess superstar overnight.
According to the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Karjakin’s not even the best player in Russia (he’s No. 2), ranks ninth worldwide among active players, and fifth in Europe. (Carlsen, on the other hand, is No. 1 across the board.) Karjakin, however, was also the youngest chess player to ever reach grandmaster status at age 12 (Carlsen landed the honor at 13).
Formerly representing Ukraine, Karjakin has made waves by unabashedly supporting President Vladimir Putin and the forcible annexation of Crimea in 2014. Notes RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL), “Born in Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, in 1990, Karjakin represented Ukraine until he was poached to play for Russia. In July 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev made Karjakin a Russian citizen by decree.” In fact, Karjakin has been an outspoken supporter of the Russian annexation, posting a photo of himself on Instagram, wearing a T-shirt of Vladimir Putin with the message “We don’t leave our guys behind” on it.
He went even further, telling RFE/RL:
“I ally myself entirely with Russia because Crimea, as we know, has transferred to Russia….I am actually extremely happy about this because I always considered myself Russian. I speak Russian, think in Russian, so I’m entirely a Russian person, and entirely support Russia as a state.”
For more on Sergey Karjakin, who could be named world chess champion tomorrow, click here.
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