Sergei Karjakin
- October 22, 2025
Defeated in the 2016 World Championship Match
Highest FIDE Elo Rating: 2788
Ranking: highest world rank was fourth
Tournament Career: winner of nine super-tournaments:
2016 Candidates Tournament
Chess World Cup 2015
2x winner of Norway Chess
winner of Tata Steel Masters 2009, Tal Memorial 2010, Dortmund Chess Meetings 2012 (with a worse tiebreak against Caruana)
and two others…
Chess Olympiads: for Ukraine: gold team and individual medals
For Russia: individual gold medal
Why he earned it:
Sergei Karjakin earned the nickname “minister of defense” due to his performances. He managed to escape from many difficult positions, even against the best players in the biggest tournaments. When given the opportunity, he would mercilessly attack and surprise his opponent with a counterattack. His skills were recognized by Magnus Carlsen in their World Championship match, where Carlsen pressed for a win so long that he miscalculated and lost the game. He then had to work hard to equalize the match and decide it in a rapid tiebreak.
Karjakin claimed the most prestigious tournament titles available in today’s chess; besides the Candidates Tournament, he won Norway Chess twice, dominated the World Cup (defeating Andreikin, Mamedyarov, Eljanov, Svidler), the traditional tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Dortmund, and the Tal Memorial. He also had successes at the Olympiads and was ranked fourth in the world.
Why he isn’t higher:
Karjakin had the potential to achieve further successes, but he has been inactive since 2022. Many people think he is still banned from all tournaments, but that’s not entirely true. This series does not aim to address politics, but let’s briefly discuss Karjakin’s current situation.
When Karjakin (who was born in Crimea and started his career representing Ukraine) publicly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a series of rather aggressive social media posts, the FIDE Ethics Commission imposed a six-month ban on him from participating in their tournaments. Due to this ban, he missed the 2022 Candidates Tournament, among others. The private organizer of the Grand Chess Tour, which includes the Sinquefield Cup, gave him a lifetime ban. After six months, Karjakin could return to FIDE-organized tournaments under a neutral flag, similar to other Russian chess players. Karjakin refused, stating that he is primarily a patriot and only then a chess player. Since then, he has been inactive, and his name is not found on the FIDE ranking list.
Best Games:
Magnus Carlsen vs Sergei Karjakin
2016 World Championship Match, New York, Round 8
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Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.