The Romance of the Chess World Championship Match and the World Champions that won them:

There can only be Two.

The Champion to hold the Title he beat all the masters for.

The Challenger on quest for same Title of yore.

Magnus Carlsen

The crocodile in the swamp.

Carlsen, the long awaited next great Western master after Fischer, is the first post-Soviet era raised World Champion. His ascension therefore represents a new era in chess. He has dominated international chess for four years before wresting the World Championship Title from Anand. He is expected to become the next dominant World Champion after the likes of Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer, Karpov, and Kasparov; and not merely a first among equals. And with no close competitor from among masters of his age bracket and younger, there is every indication that he is going to reign for a long long time.

Perusing through his games, my first impression was that Carlsen closely resembles Karpov in style, and it's still my impression at present. However, the more I ponder the more I now think that Carlsen also plays like some kind of super-Petrosian. Like Karpov and Petrosian, Carlsen rarely produces scintillating sacrificial brillancies (see his notable games); instead he tends to produce positional masterpieces and long endgame grind-outs.

Carlsen's style is to grab every square, diagonal, and file that he can, while prophylactically disallowing effective counterplay by calculating nearly every variation within say a 5 move 'radius'; and simultaneously creating weaknesses in his opponent's camp and playing against them thoroughly until literal exhaustion. The prophylaxis is especially important in his style; and he does it far better than any other active player today. In this sense he plays quite similarly to Karpov and in a way like a super-Petrosian. Imagine a more active Petrosian unwilling to give away early draws and is as relentless as Fischer is in endings, playing out every little advantage until there is nothing left to play for.

He is a great defender and counter-puncher. He is the only current top master who seems comfortable in maneuvering his pieces, often in the 1st and 2nd ranks, in cramped but sound positions. With his trademark grinding game, he inexorably and progressively grabs squares away from his opponent at every opportunity, and his ability to exploit the most miniscule positional advantages and conjure wins out of seemingly dead dry endgames has already become legendary.

Magnus Carlsen tied Vladimir Kramnik 4 to 4, with 12 draws

Magnus Carlsen tied Viswanathan Anand 6 to 6, with 27 draws