Resident GM: Ben Finegold
As many of you have already heard, Super-GM and World #3 Fabiano Caruana has decided to play under the USA flag! This will effect many events, most importantly: The US Championship, The Olympiad, and The World Team Championship. With Fabiano, Hikaru Nakamura, and Wesley So playing the top 3 boards for our teams, there will be a big fight for boards 4 and 5, most likely between Sam Shankland, Ray Robson, Alex Onischuk, Var Akobian, and Aleksandr Lenderman. Gata Kamsky has indicated he will no longer play in team events for the USA once he reaches age 40, which he has done.
Caruana's transfer would make history for US chess: claiming three GMs in the world top ten // photos Lennart Ootes
Fabiano started playing chess in New York and moved to Europe just as he was about FIDE master strength about 11 years ago. I played Fabiano in one of his last events in the US before he moved, and won a nice game. Caruana is one of the nicest players on the circuit, and is very affable, talking and playing blitz with anyone. If you would like to see Caruana playing in the US, he will be playing at the end of August in the Sinquefield Cup, here at the CCSCSL, along with the World's best, and the other top 10 Americans, Hikaru and Wesley. This is the first time in history that the USA has three players in the FIDE top 10!
Here is my win against Fabiano...as they say, beat 'em when they are young!
