The World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Sergey Karjakin to determine the World Chess Champion. Carlsen had been world champion since 2013, while Karjakin qualified as challenger by winning the 2016 Candidates Tournament. The best-of-12 match, organized by FIDE and its commercial partner World Chess (former Agon), was played in New York City between 10 and 30 November 2016.

The match opened with seven consecutive draws before Karjakin won the eighth game. Carlsen evened the score by winning the tenth game. All other games were drawn, leaving the match at a 6–6 tie, so tie breaks decided the match. After two draws to begin the rapid chess tie break, Carlsen won the remaining two games to win the match and retain his title.

The Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger was held on 11–30 March 2016 in Moscow, Russia, with FIDE's commercial partner Agon as the official organizer, with support from the Russian Chess Federation. The tournament was an 8-player double round-robin, with five different qualification paths possible: the loser of the World Chess Championship 2014 match, the top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2015, the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, next two highest rated players (average FIDE rating on the 12 monthly lists from January to December 2015, with at least 30 games played) who played in Chess World Cup 2015 or FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, and one player nominated by Agon (the organizers).

Pairings and results

Numbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.

Going into the final round, Caruana and Karjakin were tied for the lead, half a point ahead of Anand, and played each other in the final round. Due to the tie breaks situation, the only possible tournament winners were Caruana and Karjakin, with the winner of their final game also the winner of the tournament. A draw would cause the tournament result to depend on Anand's game against Svidler; if Anand won then Caruana would win, but otherwise Karjakin would win. Karjakin had the further advantage of white in the final game. Caruana played for a win in the final round, but overpressed, and at the critical moment, Karjakin calculated correctly and won the game and tournament. In retrospect, Karjakin's draw with black in his other game against Caruana, which Chessbase called a "brilliant defensive effort", was critical. Karjakin's victory qualified him as the official challenger.

The Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin was held from 10 to 30 November 2016 in New York City, United States, under the auspices of FIDE.

Prior to the match, as of 10 November 2016, Carlsen and Karjakin had played each other 21 times (at long time controls) with Carlsen leading 4 wins to 1 with 16 draws. Their most recent encounter was at the July 2016 Bilbao Chess Masters double round-robin tournament, where Carlsen won one game while the other was drawn.