The 12-game match, organised by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played at The College in Holborn, London, between 9 and 28 November 2018.

[3] On 28 November, rapid chess was used as a tie-breaker; Carlsen won three consecutive games to retain his title and became four-time world champion.

[4] Players qualified for the Candidates Tournament as follows (age, rating and world ranking are as of March 2018, when the tournament was held):[5][6] Note: Numbers in the crosstable in a white background indicate the result playing the respective opponent with the white pieces (black pieces if on a black background).

The Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana was held from 9 to 28 November 2018 in London, United Kingdom, at the Cochrane Theatre of The College in Holborn.

[8][9] The tie-breaking method consisted of the following schedule of faster games played on the final day in the following order, as necessary: The prize fund was 1 million euros net of all applicable taxes.

[13] The World Chess Federation also showcased an "alternative logo", which depicts two figures with overlapping legs holding a chessboard.

[14] The match was held under the auspices of FIDE, the world chess federation, with the organisation rights belonging to Agon, its commercial partner.

The appeal committee was composed of International Grandmasters and was chaired by Alexander Beliavsky (Slovenia) with Nigel Short (England) and Jóhann Hjartarson (Iceland) also present.

The match took place at The College in Holborn, Central London, an impressive Victorian building with a glass dome on the roof.

Among the guests were movie stars Woody Harrelson[21] (who also made the first move in game one for the previous championship match in New York) and Tom Hollander;[22] Ellisiv Reppen, partner of Jan Gustafsson, who was part of Carlsen's team in New York;[23] Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales;[24] Sergey Karjakin, the previous challenger for the chess championship; Daniel Weil, the person who designed the pawn he moved, as well as the rest of pieces and the chessboard;[25] and Lucy Hawking, daughter of physicist Stephen Hawking.

Carlsen was helped by Peter Heine Nielsen, Laurent Fressinet, Daniil Dubov, Jan Gustafsson and Nils Grandelius.

Caught by surprise, Carlsen avoided the most critical continuation and soon found himself far behind on the clock,[37] a reversal of fortunes from Game 1.

Caruana had the clearly-better position, but Carlsen was able to "beg for a draw",[37] successfully navigating to a drawn pawn-down rook endgame.

Carlsen had many ways to go wrong earlier, but had successfully avoided all the traps and now initiates a forced line that leads to a comfortable endgame for Black.

The variation was so subtle that Garry Kasparov wrote that no human could have found it,[44] though Caruana's second Rustam Kasimdzhanov disagreed.

Carlsen temporarily sacrificed a pawn to exert some pressure on the Black kingside, but when the opportunity arose to open the game with 15.Nce4 (diagram) – which would have compromised Black's king position but made it awkward to recapture the sacrificed pawn – he didn't sufficiently believe in his position to press ahead.

Four-time U.S. champion Hikaru Nakamura reacted immediately and negatively to 24.h3, with disapproving facial expressions and harsh comments that he didn't like the move at all.

Caruana soon realised that he had lost his advantage, and forced a draw before Black's bishop pair and extra pawn could make an impact.

White enjoys a positional advantage and can continue a slow buildup of pressure with 25.Bc6, 25.Bf3 or 25.Kg2, although Black might still be able to set up a fortress with ...h5, ...f5, ...Kg7 and ...Qf6.

Now White's king was also exposed, and the game proceeded to rook and queen exchanges and a drawn opposite-coloured bishops ending.

While it leads to a lasting and comfortable White advantage, Black manages to simplify the position, as well as gains the chance to reach an opposite-coloured bishops endgame.

The 1995 Classical match began with eight consecutive draws before Viswanathan Anand broke through against Garry Kasparov for a win.

Former world champions Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik both disapproved of Caruana's 18.f3 and 21.Rh2 idea, thinking that it just created weaknesses for Black to play against.

Black still had a superior position and a clear plan while White remained passive, but Carlsen offered a draw, opting to go to the tiebreaks.

At the press conference, Carlsen explained his decision with an earlier recommendation of his team to avoid any potential risks.

which, after 28...Kh7 avoiding the threatened knight fork, led to a position in which White could not defend his major pieces on the c-file.

In the end Caruana's desperate attempts to stir up complications led to a final mistake 43...Ne6?, allowing Carlsen to push his c-pawn through to promotion.

[63] Carlsen's strategy to draw game 12 and win the tiebreaks had been vindicated, a point he emphasized in the press conference.

For his part, Caruana lamented the fact that one needed to find one's best form to win a tiebreak, which he was not able to do, but looked forward to making another title attempt in the future.

[63] The 12-game streak of draws in the classical portion of this match was one of the reasons behind FIDE's decision to extend the 2021 world championship to 14 games.