Sergey Karjakin wins the 2015 Chess World Cup

Sergey Karjakin of Russia

Russia’s Sergey Karjakin has taken the title at the 2015 Chess World Cup, hosted this year in Azerbaijan.

The Chess World Cup was held in the country’s capital, Baku, from 10th September to 5th October. It kicked off with hundreds of players competing for the title in the first round and only two were left in the finals. This year's world cup saw the participation of some of the world's best players.

Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin, both of Russia, made it to the finals. The pair have both qualified for the 2016 Candidates Chess Tournament. In a closely-contested final, it was Karjakin who came on top. After losing the first two games of the final, Karjakin managed to win the next two games to force the final to be decided by a tie-breaker.

In the end Karjakin took the tie-breaker 6-4 and with it, the world cup winner’s title.

The Cup is one of the highly regarded tournaments in chess after the World Championship and the Candidates Tournament. It is from here that the players aspiring to win the World Championship have a chance to participate.

The World Cup is held annually every year with the top most players in the world competing for the prize.

En route to the title, Karjakin defeated the likes of Fabiano Caruana, Peter Svidler, Levon Aronian, Tapalov, Kramnik and many other strong contendors to lift the championship. It was a very interesting tournament to watch and gave fans a huge opportunity to learn from the masters.

Now as the world cup concludes all eyes are now on the Candidates tournament which begins in 2016.