New York: Norwegian Magnus Carlsen extended his dominance over the chess world by winning the World Chess Championship for the third consecutive time, beating his Russian challenger Sergei Karyakin in a tie-breaker.

The win puts Carlsen closer to the status of chess legends like Garry Kasparov, who dominated the game for 15 years.

Although Karyakin foiled predictions by tying Carlsen in 12 regular rounds, the Norwegian champion beat him in the final phase of four quick-fire extra games.

The battle for the world chess crown ended in the dramatic tie-breaker on Wednesday after a win apiece and nine draws.

So the young stars - both aged just 26 - headed into the chess equivalent of extra time in soccer. Unlike the earlier rounds, which lasted an average of six hours, the rapid-play rules meant the players had just 25 minutes each, so each game was over in an hour.

The accelerated games left plenty of opportunity for mistakes, and while predictions were difficult, Carlsen - a king of the blitz format and world No. 1 since 2010 - had remained favourite.

The Norwegian, who turned 26 on Wednesday, has played several blitz tournaments this year, beating US GM Hikaru Nakamura in one in October. But he had occasionally lost his cool - slamming the door of the press room after defeat in the eighth round, earning a fine of five per cent of his prize money.

Carlsen won the championship - organized by the International Chess Federation, Fide - in 2013 and 2014, beating Viswanathan Anand.

Karyakin, a child prodigy who became the youngest ever chess GM at the age of 12, has known Carlsen for years and had little to lose, with no one even expecting him to reach the final.

"Sergei has impressed everyone with his tenacity these last few weeks, so he was perfectly capable of pulling off an upset," said Wesley So, who travelled to New York from Minnesota to watch the clash.

Much has been made of the clash, comparing it to the great Cold War chess battles of the 1970s, but Karyakin, who is from Crimea and supported Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula, has played down political overtones. The last Russian to claim the title was Vladimir Kramnik in 2007.

The competition initially offered prize money of 600,000 euros ($637,000) for the winner, and 400,000 euros for the losers, but that was changed to 550,000 and 450,000 euros respectively because the battle went into extra time.

After the game, Karjakin suggested that he might have over-prepared, at the expense of his creativity. "Maybe it would be better to have a fresh head and not repeat so much," he said.

Carlsen said it was the most difficult of his championship matches, adding: "I'm very happy that at the end of the match I managed to find joy in playing... That's the most important thing."

This was the first world championship match in New York since 1995, and organizers hoped to emulate the luxury boxes at baseball or basketball games, with a VIP lounge where drinks were free and tickets cost up to $1,200 a day.

Regular day passes cost $75 most days. It was a test for chess as an American spectator sport, and the results were mixed. Even in the venue, most spectators followed the game on video monitors or computer simulations of the board, rather than observing the players through the one-way mirrors.