World Chess Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana, left, put defending champion Magnus Carlsen under pressure before tonight's eighth match in London produced an eighth draw ©Getty Images

The World Chess Championship remains deadlocked at 4-4 after defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and US challenger Fabiano Caruana produced their eighth consecutive draw at the match venue in central London.

Meanwhile in Russia the first game in the final of the Women's World Chess Championship between Chinese holder Ju Wenjun and Russia's Kateryna Lagno was also drawn.

Game eight in the men's match at The College, in Holborn, finished after 38 moves, following an impressive fightback by Carlsen after Caruana appeared to have him at a significant disadvantage in terms of time and position with just over an hour remaining.

Caruana confessed to "some minor disappointment", adding: "I thought at some point I had a very promising position."

Carlsen added: "This was a tough game.

"He was the one who had all the chances.

"So I am happy to have survived it, for sure."

Tomorrow is a rest day in this World Chess Federation event which has only four matches remaining.

The match offers a prize fund of €1 million (£877,000/$1.14 million), to be split 60-40 between winner and runner-up.

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.

The Women's World Chess Championship final between China's defending champion Ju Wenjun, left, and Russia's Kateryna Lagno got underway in Khanty-Mansisyk today, with the first of four scheduled matches ending drawn ©FIDE
The Women's World Chess Championship final between China's defending champion Ju Wenjun, left, and Russia's Kateryna Lagno got underway in Khanty-Mansisyk today, with the first of four scheduled matches ending drawn ©FIDE

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.

The women's world title match at the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansisyk will follow a similar tie-break course if the scores remain level after four matches.

Ju, 27, is also women's rapid world champion, but she has not required any tie-breaks thus far in the competition.

Lagno, by contrast, has played three tie-breaks en-route to the final, including one Armageddon game in the third round.

Before this match the two finalists had played each other five times in classical time control matches, drawing all five.