Fabiano Caruana

2026 Candidates Experience:

 This will be Fabiano’s 6th Candidates (2016, 2018, 2020-21, 2022, 2024 and 2026). He won the event in 2018 and tied for second in 2016 and 2024.

Overview

Currently the third highest-rated player in the world, Fabiano is a former World Championship Challenger (2018), and winner of the 2023 and 2025 Grand Chess Tours. A top ten rated player for over a decade, much of it spent in the top five, he has been rated number two many times. A strong argument can be made that Fabiano’s excellent play and consistency made him the second strongest player in the world the past decade, trailing only Magnus Carlsen.

Caruana has won many super-tournaments in his career. His most recent victories include the American Cup (2022), Sinquefield Cup (2023), Superbet Chess Classic (2023 and 2024), Zagreb Rapid & Blitz (2024) and the Champions Showdown: The Kings (2025). He has won four consecutive U.S. Championships, a feat last accomplished by Bobby Fischer in the 1960s.

Fabiano has represented the United States in Chess Olympiads since 2016. He led the team to gold that year at the Baku Chess Olympiad, also earning an individual bronze medal on board one. He was also the leader of the American teams which won silver medals at the Batumi (2018) and Budapest (2024) Chess Olympiads.  With a peak FIDE rating of 2844, Caruana holds the third highest rating since the inception of Professor Arpad Elo’s system in 1970.