Reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Russian challenger Sergei Karjakin are in a dead heat with one game left in their World Chess Championship match in New York City.
A tense 11th game ended in a draw on November 26, leaving Carlsen and Karjakin with 5.5 points each.
The 12th and final regulation game is scheduled for November 28. If the players are tied at the end, a series of tiebreakers will begin on November 30.
Carlsen, 25, had been heavily favored to win when the match began on November 11, but Karjakin, 26, won the eighth game after seven draws. Carlsen evened the series by winning the 10th game, and neither man could break the tie in the 11th game.
“It’s so close now that anything can tip the scales,” Carlsen, who won his title by defeating Viswanathan Anand of India in 2013, said after the game.
Carlsen earned his grandmaster title at age 13, while the Ukraine-born Karjakin earned his at age 12.
