Carlsen vs Caruana - Pre Match Data

Can you feel it? It's almost here. Chess lovers from around the world are collectively proliferating the energy on this tiny rock we call home in anticipation. In just over two weeks Magnus Carlsen will attempt to defend his claim that he is this tiny rock's best chess player. To do so, he'll have to outwit Fabiano Caruana who appears to be in top form heading into the match. You know all this though... so on with it!

2018 PERFORMANCE

The following data was aggregated from chess-db.com PGN Databases for each player. It appears to be the most accurate and the folks running that site deserve some accolades. The chess world is a wonderful community and we should celebrate that every chance we can and not take it for granted. It also deserves mentioning this includes all events and formats.

Magnus 2018 Stats

For as much attention Fabi has been getting (rightfully so) the world champ looks fairly tough to beat on paper this year. Quietly only losing a total of 12 games in 2018. 

Fabi 2018 Stats

The guy has played a lot of high level chess this year! .75 games per day basically, and he's been absolutely unforgiving in his play. From re-energizing the Petrov to providing novelties early in variations, it's no secret the American's opening repertoire and preparation is the best in the world right now. 

Head To Head

A few things that stand out to me:

• Fabi has only had white one time againt Magnus this year and the champion held a draw.
• One of Fabi's losses is a blitz game.
• 2/5 games were played in the Petrov, both of which ended in a draw.

**EDIT** CLASSICAL STATS 

Other Stuff Happening

I'll be covering the match on my twitch channel and utilizing the world championship data application I made to provide you with historical and positional data in real time! You'll have the FIDE stream, the chess brahs for GM analysis and I'll be providing something different and I hope you'll stop by! We've put a lot of hard work into our presentation of the data and we'd love for you to see it. If that sounds fun please give the Twitch channel a follow at https://www.twitch.tv/toddeberwine .

Here's a quick video showing some of the functionality of http://chessworldchampionshipdata.com

It's definitely a fun time to be a chess head.