The battle for the World Championship crown starts in a few hours time pitting 25 year World Champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway against his challenger 26 year old Sergey Karjakin from Russia.
The match is being held in New York, Fulton Market building, and will feature a dedicated Spectator and VIP Lounges with panoramic view of the Brooklyn Bridge, retail space, café, TV studios and much more.
The underdog in this event is Sergey who is rated 81 elo points below Magnus. Will Sergey cause the biggest upset in 2016 which would be very similar to Donald Trump’s victory?
Will the World Championship crown go back to Russia? The last Russian World Champion was GM Vladimir Kramnik who lost the crown in 2007 to GM Viswanathan Anand of India.
This World Championship event has been with its own share of drama.
Flamboyant FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was missing from the opening ceremony yesterday afternoon. His USA visa application was not processed due to the sanctions imposed by the US Treasury. The allegations against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov are that he had dealings with Syria and President Assad.
These allegations have been vigourously challenged by President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the US Treasury has also failed to provide any evidence of the alleged dealings.
In the past all chess events have been broadcast for free and would include the moves as well as live video transmission.
Agon Ltd who are the owners of the World Chess brand have tried to prevent the free video transmission of the game to millions of chess fans around the world. Their business model has been hinged to on the fact that chess fans will pay USD 15 to watch the live video transmission. At this moment Agon Ltd have not divulged any information on how successful this model is.
Kenya Chess Masala will carry live transmission of the moves as they are made.
