 "Explained: What is Armageddon, chess tie-breaker implemented in Caruana vs Sindarov semi-final in Weissenhaus")
American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana overcame his Uzbekistan counterpart Javokhir Sindarov to advance to the final of the Weissenhaus leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, on Wednesday. Caruana and Sibdarov were involved in two intense games of chess in their semi-final tie.
They played out a draw in the first game of the semi-finals on Tuesday and Wednesday’s second game had the same outcome. Only this time, there was more to play for. Caruana and Sindarov played out two draws in the rapid tie-break and exchanged victories in the blitz tie-break, forcing the match into Armageddon.
Caruana, who had beaten D Gukesh in the quarter-finals , got the better of Sindarov in the Armageddon to reach the final in Germany after 7.5 hours of exhilarating chess. Caruana will take on Vincent Keymer in the final that will also be held across two games, on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen, who lost to Keymer, will take on Sindarov in the third-place playoff match.
What is Armageddon?
The Armageddon is used as the final tie-breaker in chess. The Armageddon format, which is a type of fast chess, uses similar rules to that of a regular chess game. However, there are two notable differences in Armageddon chess.
The first one is that the black pieces have “draw odds”, which means that the player playing with black only needs to secure a draw against his or her opponent to win the contest.
Another aspect is that the player with black pieces starts with less time on the clock. In blitz time control games, the player with black pieces has four minutes and the player with white has five minutes. On the other hand, in the rapid format, players with white have 10 minutes whereas black pieces have eight minutes.
Another type of Armageddon is the bidding Armageddon. In this format, the players can bid for time to play with black pieces. They inform the arbiter about how much time they are ready to give up in order to play with the colour they choose. Players who are ready to play with less time are then given black pieces and draw odds.
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