Who is going to win? While everyone and his brother predict an easy win for Carlsen, I am not so sure. To some extent the coming world championship match reminds me of another one where the incumbent was a heavy favorite: Fischer-Karpov. Unfortunately, we will never know what would have happened.
But in his book "My Great Predecessors," Kasparov expressed an opinion that Karpov had good chances to win even if Karpov himself repeatedly claimed that it wasn't his world championship cycle.
What really makes both matches similar is the big government support of the challengers. Much was written about Karpov's preparation for the match where no expense was spared and all top Soviet grandmasters had to help "our Tolya." When last week the official website of the Russian Ministry of Sports published the report about the meeting between the Russian Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko and Sergey Karjakin, it really felt like a throwback to a bygone era.
In particular Mr. Mutko assured that Sergey Karjkin can choose any federal facility for his training camps and increase the number of his coaches and seconds if necessary.
Now let's examine the chess elements of the coming match.
Source: Chess.com >> https://www.chess.com/article/view/carlsen-vs-karjakin-who-will-win
