London to host Magnus Carlsen's world chess championship defense in 2018

Magnus Carlsen will make his third defense of the world chess championship next year in London, which was officially named as the host city for the biennial tournament on Wednesday.

The World Chess Federation (Fide) made the announcement at a launch event at Kensington Roof Gardens hosted by Carlsen and former UK chancellor George Osborne.

The Norwegian champion, who turns 27 on Thursday, will defend his title in the best-of-12-games match from 9-28 November against a challenger to be decided in March at the eight-man Candidates Tournament in Berlin. They will compete for a combined prize fund of €1m ($1.19m), organizers said.

“I’m very much looking forward to it,” Carlsen said at Wednesday’s launch event. “I’m looking forward to finding out who my opponent will be and to hopefully be able to bring much joy to those young and old of London’s chess fans and all around the world who want to follow.”

The field of eight potential challengers includes: Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, who qualified automatically as the loser of last year’s championship; Armenia’s Levon Aronian and China’s Ding Liren, who qualified through this year’s Chess World Cup; Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Russia’s Alexander Grischuk, who qualified as the top two finishers in this year’s Fide Grand Prix who did not qualify through the World Cup; the Americans Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana, who qualified on average rating; and Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik, the organizers’ wild-card nomination and, at 42, the oldest in the field by nearly a decade.

Kramnik was 25 when he upset Garry Kasparov in the last world championship match held in London back in 2000, ending the Russian grandmaster’s 15-year reign. He lost the title to Viswanathan Anand in 2007 and fell short in a rematch the following year, but has remained a top contender in the decade since.

Carlsen, who captured the title from Anand in 2013, retained it in dramatic fashion last year in New York, overcoming a series of self-inflicted wounds to defeat Karjakin in a quickfire tie-breaker on his 26th birthday after there was nothing to separate them after 12 classical games.

Known as the “Mozart of Chess” since before he was a teenager, Carlsen was already regarded as the world’s best player even before he unseated Anand in Chennai four years ago and is the closest thing to a mainstream star in the sport today. He’s done ads for Porsche, modeled for G-Star Raw alongside Liv Tyler and Lily Cole and enjoys a massive presence in his native Norway.

Carlsen’s peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history, a point frequently cited by those who have called him the greatest player ever. But a prolonged slump over the past year nearly cost him the world No1 ranking he’s held since July 2011.

London’s bid for the event prevailed from a field that reportedly included pitches by Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

No venue has been announced, though organizers told the Guardian on Wednesday they have “a shortlist of exciting, prestigious venues in London and will be making a further announcement once a final decision has been made.”