Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana
2008
Full name	Fabiano Luigi Caruana
Country	Italy United States
Born	July 30, 1992 (1992-07-30) Miami, Florida USA
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2736 (No. 17 in the January 2012 FIDE World Rankings and Top World Junior)
Peak rating	2736 (January 2012)

Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is a Grandmaster and chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States.

On 15 July 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days – the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States.

In the January 2012 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2736, making him 17th in the world and Top World Junior.

Life and career

Fabiano Caruana was born on July 30, 1992 in Miami, Florida of an Italian-American father and an Italian mother. At age 4 his family relocated from Miami, Florida to Park Slope, Brooklyn. Coincidentally, this was the same neighborhood where Bobby Fischer lived during his youth. At age 5, his chess talent was discovered in an after school chess program at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and he played his first tournament at the Polgar Chess Center in Queens, New York.

Up to the age of twelve, he lived and played in the United States, with occasional travel to European and South American tournaments.

His first chess coach, from age six to eight, was National Master Bruce Pandolfini, and from age eight to twelve he studied with Grandmaster Miron Sher. In 2004 at age twelve, he relocated with his family from Park Slope, Brooklyn to Madrid to pursue a professional chess career. He trained with International Master Boris Zlotnik in Madrid, and in 2007 he moved to Budapest to train with Grandmaster Alexander Chernin.

At age fourteen Caruana became the youngest ever Grandmaster of both the United States and Italy (surpassing the record in the United States set by Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura). He currently lives in Lugano Switzerland, and plays for Italy.

Chess career

1998

• Participated at the Summer Chess Camp of Bryant Park in New York, and he learned from Miguel Iñiguez, the most elemental checkmates.

1999

• Participated in the New York Scholastic Championship, where he finished in ninth place.

2007

• Grandmaster Title - Caruana obtained his final GM norm earning the Grandmaster title in July. Due to his young age and having broken the prior "contemporary" record of Hikaru Nakamura as youngest ever American to become a Grandmaster, he received much attention from the international chess world.

• Vlissingen chess tournament - In August he played the strong Vlissingen chess tournament in the Netherlands. His last round opponent was former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Caruana playing black, drew the game in 82 moves, and won the tournament with performance of 2715.

• Italian Championship - At the end of the year he participated in the Italian Championship. The prior year he was the co-champion of Italy by tying with Michele Godena but losing the fifth rapid play-off game. This year he won with a score of +8 (9.5/11) to become the youngest ever Italian champion.

2008

• Corus C - This was his first experience at Corus and throughout much of the tournament he was the clear leader. His last round opponent was Parimarjan Negi, and Caruana needed ½ point to win the tournament. Caruana won the game in 61 moves and the tournament with a final score of +7 (10/13) and performance of 2696.

• Ruy Lopez Festival - Taking place in early April, the Ruy Lopez Festival included a seven round closed tournament, and a two-day rapid open tournament. In the seven round closed tournament, Caruana had a disappointing result of -2 (2.5/7) with performance of 2513. The two-day rapid open tournament that followed was won by Caruana with a score of +6 (7.5/9) followed by Michael Adams, Julio Granda Zuniga, and Dzhurabek Khamrakulov all with a score of +5 (7/9).
• Mitropa Cup - In June he played first board for Italy at the Mitropa Cup, which is a four-board team competition amongst 10 "middle" European nations. He scored +6 (7.5/9) winning the first board prize with performance of 2810.
• NH "Rising Stars vs. Experienced" - This tournament is of a Scheveningen format which is a double round team match of five "Rising Stars" against five "Experienced" players. Caruana played against Evgeny Bareev, Viktor Kortchnoi, Artur Jussupow, Simen Agdestein, and Ljubomir Ljubojevic. He scored +3 (6.5/10) with performance of 2706.
• Cap d'agde - The event was a knock-out closed rapid tournament organized into two round robin groups of eight players each, with the top four scorers of each group proceeding to the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, and then the finals. The time control was 25 minutes with a 10-second increment. In his group, Caruana placed first with a score of +4 (5.5/7) winning against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Xiangzhi Bu, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Marie Sebag, and drawing against Vassily Ivanchuk, Ivan Cheparinov, and Kateryna Lahno. Caruana's performance was 2866 and he had qualified to enter the quarter-finals. His quarter-final match, which was against Anatoly Karpov, was closely fought. Karpov won the first game, and Caruana won the second. Then tie-break games with time control of 15 minutes were played. The first four games were all drawn. The fifth game Karpov won, and Caruana was knocked out.
• 38th Olympiad - This was Caruana's first Olympiad. On the first board he played against Levon Aronian in the first round, Viktor Korchnoi in the fourth round, Michael Adams in the fifth round, Emanuel Berg in the seventh round, and Peter Leko in the eighth round. He lost to Aronian and Leko, and won against Adams, Korchnoi, and Berg. His final score was 7.5/11 with performance of 2696.
• Italian Championship - Caruana successfully defended his title winning the title for the second consecutive year with a score of +5 (8/11).

2009

• Corus B - Having won Corus C 2008, Caruana received and accepted invitation to Corus B 2009 which was of category 16 with average Elo of 2641. Throughout the tournament his standings ranged from first to third place. Going into the last round he was tied for second and his opponent was Nigel Short who was in clear first. The game lasted 67 moves. Caruana won the game and the tournament with a score of +4 (8.5/13) and performance of 2751. Caruana is the first player ever to win both Corus C and Corus B in consecutive years placing clear first in both.

• In April Caruana played in the Russian Team Championship at Sochi with the "Club 64" of Moscow, scoring 5 points out of 6; his team placed second after Tomsk.

• In May he played with the Italian team in the "Mitropa Cup" at Rogaska Slatina in Slovenia, scoring 6 points out of 8 and winning the individual gold medal on first board.

• In November Caruana played in the Chess World Cup 2009 at Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia. In the first two rounds he beat the Cuban grandmasters Lázaro Bruzón and Leinier Dominguez (Elo 2719), in the third the Russian Evgeny Alekseev (Elo 2715); in round four he lost, only in the rapid games, to Vugar Gashimov (Elo 2759 and seventh in the world). This performance allowed him to reach 2675 points Elo.

2010

• December - he won the Italian Championship for the third time with a score of 9 points out of 11 games.

• From 28 December 2010 to 6 January 2011 Caruana played in the 53rd Reggio Emilia Tournament. He placed 6th out of 10 and tied 7 out of his 9 games (only winning, again, against Nigel Short).

2011

• January - at the Gibraltar Masters, he finished on place 5 behind Ivanchuk, Short, Külaots and Roiz.

• July - he won with 7 points out of 10 at the AAI tournament in New Dehli (category 17).

• December – he won the Italian National Championship for the fourth time with a score of 10 points out of 11 games. He had previously won the 2007 and 2008 national championships, and did not play the 2009 national championship due to a calendar conflict with the FIDE World Cup.

2012

• January - at 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament A in Wijk aan Zee (previously known as Corus Chess) he finished on place 2 together with Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov behind the winner Levon Aronian.

Rating

• His rating in the January 2012 FIDE ratings list is 2736 - a year-to-year increase of 15 points.

Federations

• Caruana, possessing dual citizenship of both the United States and Italy, has the option of FIDE affiliation with either country. On 11 October 2005, after living in Europe for 10 months, he transferred his affiliation from the United States (USA) to Italy (ITA).

• In Rome on 9 February 2009, Caruana met with Gianni Petrucci, President of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). During that meeting, Caruana initiated discussions with Petrucci regarding elevation of the status of the Italian Chess Federation (FSI) from "Associate Sport Discipline" (DSA) to "National Sport Federation" (FSN).

Notable games

• Fabiano Caruana – Emanuel Berg, Dresden Olympiads 2008, French Defence C-08
• Fabiano Caruana – Francisco Vallejo-Pons, Pamplona 2008, Sicilian Najdorf B-90
• Artur Yusupov – Fabiano Caruana, NH Chess tournament 2008, Slav Defence D-10
• Michael Adams – Fabiano Caruana, Dresden Olympiads 2008, French Defence C-03
• Fabiano Caruana – Nigel Short, Corus-B Wijk aan Zee 2009, Catalan opening E-06

The game Caruana – Nigel Short, played in the last round of Wijk aan Zee-B 2009, had a dramatic course: Short had a decisive advantage, but blundered with 47... Nh4?, losing a piece. The simple 47... cxd2 48. Rxc6 dxe1=N! +, King moves 49.Nxf3 was the correct course. Caruana then strayed, allowing Short a perpetual check with 57. Qd3+, which would have been enough to win the tournament. Instead, Short played the disastrous 57. Qb5+ ?? Ke4 and Caruana won after a few moves.

Further reading

• "Fabulous Fabiano", by Macauley Peterson, Chess Life, January 2008, pp 30–35.
• Caruana: "L'anno prossimo voglio giocare nel torneo A!"PDF (7.72 MB) - by Janis Nisii, Torre & Cavallo Scacco!, February 2008, pp 5–9 [in Italian]

External links

• Fabiano Caruana rating card at FIDE
• Fabiano Caruana player profile at ChessGames.com
• Fabiano Caruana player profile at the Internet Chess Club
• Fabiano Caruana at 365Chess.com
• Fabiano Caruana's Complete Chess Game Collection (personal website of a fan, 574 games)
• Biography from Chessbase.com
• "A Chess Player's Challenge: Opponents His Own Age" (The New York Times, 17 May 2003)
• 2007 Italian Championship interview from Chessbase.com

Achievements
Preceded by Hikaru Nakamura	Youngest ever United States grandmaster 2007-present	Succeeded by Incumbent