Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States at the time.

Born in Miami to Italian parents, Caruana grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He played for the United States until 2005, when he transferred his national federation affiliation to Italy. He earned his grandmaster title in 2007, and in the same year won his first Italian Chess Championship, a feat he repeated in 2008, 2010, and 2011. He won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting in 2012, 2014, and 2015. Caruana also won the Sinquefield Cup 2014, recording a 3098 performance rating, the highest in history at the top level, and improving his rating to 2844, becoming the third-highest rated player in history. He transferred back to the United States in 2015.

Having won the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, Caruana qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2016, where he was runner-up to Sergey Karjakin. He is a 2-time and the current US Chess Champion, winning the 2016 US Chess Championship and 2022 US Chess Championship, and represented the United States on at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, winning team gold and individual bronze. He won the London Chess Classic in 2017. Caruana won the Candidates Tournament 2018, becoming the first American challenger for the undisputed World Chess Championship since Bobby Fischer in 1972. In the run-up to the championship match, he won the 5th Grenke Chess Classic, the 6th Norway Chess, and shared first in the 6th Sinquefield Cup. Caruana lost the match to Magnus Carlsen in the rapid tiebreaks after drawing all twelve of the classical games.

In addition to his strength in classical time controls, Caruana is highly ranked in rapid and blitz chess. As of November 2022, Caruana is ranked 11th on the FIDE rapid (with an ELO rating of 2747) and 3rd on the blitz lists (with an ELO rating of 2847).

Personal life and chess beginnings

Caruana was born on July 30, 1992, in Miami, Florida United States, to Italian parents Lou and Santina Caruana. He is a dual citizen of Italy and the United States. When he was four, his family relocated from Miami to the neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City. When he was five, his chess talent was discovered in an after-school chess program at Congregation Beth Elohim, a reform Jewish congregation in Park Slope. That year he played his first tournament at the Polgar Chess Center in Queens, New York City.

Until the age of twelve, he lived and played in the United States, occasionally traveling to Europe and South America to participate in tournaments. His first chess coach, from age six to eight, was National Master (NM) Bruce Pandolfini, and from age eight to twelve, he studied with GM Miron Sher. In 2004, he relocated with his family from Brooklyn to Madrid, Spain to pursue a professional chess career, playing for Italy from 2005 to 2015. He trained with International Master (IM) Boris Zlotnik in Madrid, and in 2007 he moved to Budapest to train with grandmaster Alexander Chernin. In 2010, he moved to Lugano, Switzerland, and, at the end of that year, started to train with grandmaster Vladimir Chuchelov. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 2014.

Chess career

2007

In July, Caruana won the "First Saturday" GM tournament in Budapest with seven points out of nine games. He obtained his final GM norm and at age 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days, became the youngest grandmaster of both the United States and Italy, surpassing the US record set by Hikaru Nakamura