Reigning champion Magnus Carlsen needs to break the streak of draws to retain his World Chess Championship title ©Getty Images

Norway's Magnus Carlsen and America's Fabiano Caruana are tied at five-and-a-half games a piece as the best of 12 contest reaches deadlock after 11 draws at the men’s World Chess Championships in London.

Carlsen continued the defence of his title with only one scheduled match left as he drew with Caruana in this latest match at the The College in Holborn

The fastest match of the contest so far only lasted two hours and 13 minutes as Carlsen admitted he played with caution with the final so closely fought.

"I wasn’t pleased from the opening and then after that I just wanted to play it safe," Carlsen said.

"I was trying to push a little bit, but it’s nothing real.

"In this match situation I thought there was no reason to go crazy."

The 55 move draw and the 11 straight draws sets the record for the longest streak of games to open a match without a decisive result in the recognized 132-year history of World Championship play.

Following a rest day tomorrow, the match is due to resume on Monday (November 26).

It offers a prize fund of €1 million (£885,000/$1.1 million), to be split 60-40 between winner and runner-up.

America's Fabiano Caruana is locked in a tense struggle with Norway's Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship after a record 11 straight draws in London ©Getty Images
America's Fabiano Caruana is locked in a tense struggle with Norway's Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship after a record 11 straight draws in London ©Getty Images

If the match is tied after 12 games, a succession of tie-break methods will be employed.

The first will be four rapid games - 25 minutes for each player - after which the player with the best score will be the winner.

In addition to his world number one ranking, Carlsen also tops the rapid and blitz chess world rankings and could be the favourite for the victory if the quicker matches are played.

If the match is still tied, the players will take part in up to five mini-matches of best-of-two blitz games - taking five minutes each.

The player with the best score in any two-game blitz match will be the winner.

If a winner is still to be found, the match will go to a single, sudden-death "Armageddon" game, with white being given five minutes and black four minutes.

In the case of a draw, the black will be declared the winner, with players drawing lots to have the right of choosing which colour they want.