A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, having qualified for the title at the age of 12 years and 7 months.

[citation needed] Karjakin's public approval of the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted the Grand Chess Tour to ban him for future events.

Momot Club in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, and was coached by Vladislav Borovikov,[8][9] becoming an International Master at age 11 years and 11 months.

Also in 2001, Karjakin tied for first place in the U14 European championship with Borki Predojević and Rauf Mamedov, taking the silver medal on tiebreak.

[10] In January 2002, he was the official second of fellow Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov during the final of the FIDE World Championship, though Karjakin had only just turned 12 at the time.

[11] In 2003, Karjakin won a six-game match against Alexandra Kosteniuk ("Dannemann Classico") in Brissago by a score of 4–2[12] and tied for second in the Ukrainian championship.

In October, Karjakin was the only human to win against a computer in the Man vs Machine World Team Championship in Bilbao, Spain, where he was the youngest and lowest-rated player, beating Deep Junior.

[17] In 2006, Karjakin played for the first time in the Wijk aan Zee Corus A tournament, scoring 7/13 points (4 wins, 6 draws, 3 losses).

[18] In the same year, he took part in the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam; it was a match between two teams, "Rising Stars" (made up of Karjakin, Magnus Carlsen, Wang Hao, Daniel Stellwagen, and Jan Smeets) and "Experience" (Alexander Beliavsky, Artur Yusupov, John Nunn, and Ulf Andersson), held with the Scheveningen system.

[citation needed] In July 2008, Karjakin convincingly won a rapid chess match against GM Nigel Short 7½–2½.

[citation needed] He won the ACP World Rapid Cup, which was conducted from 27 to 29 May 2010, defeating Dmitry Jakovenko in the final by 4–3.

The final standings listed Carlsen followed by Karjakin, then Hikaru Nakamura, Teimour Radjabov, Vassily Ivanchuk, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

[24][25] In November, Karjakin shared third place with Vassily Ivanchuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi in the category 22 Tal Memorial in Moscow.

[28] In November–December 2012, Karjakin shared first place with Wang Hao and Alexander Morozevich with 6½/9 in the FIDE Grand Prix event held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

[citation needed] In March 2014, he finished second place in the FIDE Candidates Tournament held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, behind Viswanathan Anand.

The first part of the event took place from 29 July to 1 August in the Heixiazi Island, where Karjakin sequentially knocked out four of the five members in the Chinese team: Wei Yi, Ding Liren, Ni Hua and Yu Yangyi.

[30][31] In the second half of the event, which was held in Harbin in December, he also defeated Wang Yue, leading team Russia to victory.

[32] In March 2016, Karjakin won the 2016 Candidates Tournament in Moscow and qualified to play a match against Magnus Carlsen for the title of World Chess Champion.

[39][40] The extent of Karjakin's and Carlsen's domination in the event was shown by the fact that their closest rivals, Daniil Dubov, Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Grischuk (three-time world blitz champion), were a full two points behind.

In round five, Karjakin defeated French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the rapid tiebreaker after drawing the classical games.

[46] Karjakin criticised Daniil Dubov for serving as a second for Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2021 against Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Dubov responded that he considered it to be a match between two individuals and counter-argued that working with Carlsen would improve his chess and hence help the Russian team.

[4][60] His public approval of the invasion led to Russian President Vladimir Putin awarding him a Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" in June 2022.

[61][62] After the suspension ended in September 2022, Karjakin continued a self-imposed "ban" by refusing to participate in any tournament where he could not play under the Russian flag.

"[5] Since January 2022, Karjakin has (as of November 2024[update]) only played two classical FIDE-rated games, at the Russian Team Championship in May 2023.

[78] Karjakin, an Eastern Orthodox Christian,[79] married Galiya Kamalova, secretary of the Moscow chess federation, in May 2014.

[83] Later that year, in February 2024, Karjakin visited the ruins of the Ukrainian town Avdiivka, which had recently been occupied by Russian forces.