In November 2018, Magnus Carlsen defended his title against Fabiano Caruana with a pragmatically cynical decision. The match was tied (all 11 games drawn). In the last game of classical time, Carlsen achieved an excellent position, took a draw and went to rapid tiebreakers.
It was a strategic masterstroke. He steamrollered Caruana 3-0 at shorter controls. Anybody could have seen this coming. Carlsen has always been an outstanding fast player. Caruana didn’t take rapid or blitz seriously until after that thrashing. In 2018, Caruana wasn’t even in the Top 100 (Blitz) and he was more than hundred Elo below Carlsen at