In the 2016 World Chess Championship, the reigning champion Magnus Carlsen faced the strong Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin. After a close start of the tournament resulting in seven consecutive draws, Karjakin took a shocking lead by winning Game 8 with the black pieces, leaving only four games for Carlsen to equalise. Carlsen levelled the match in Game 10 to force a 6–6 tie at the end of classical play. Only in the rapid tie-break, Carlsen dominated with two wins to seal a 3–1 victory and retain his world title.
The last game featured a sharp position with both sides starting a fierce kingside attack. On move 49, Carlsen (white) was granted the opportunity to play Rc8+, leaving Karjakin (black) with the options to either 1) block with the bishop or 2) run the king to h7.
While Karjakin quickly saw that blocking the check with a bishop loses due to the simple exchange sacrifice, he calculated that Kh7 is safe. Which brilliant follow-up after
49. Rc8 Kh7
by white, leading to forced checkmate, did the Russian grandmaster miss?
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Jasper Reichardt · 13.10.2026
got it. pretty funny he missed it. after kh7 next move is to sacrifice queen on h6, which can only be escaped by taking with the peasant at g7 - followed by rook x h7! checkmate because the king cannot escape to h6 which is now blocked by own peasant and g6 is blocked by the white pawn.
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