Current World #3
Fabiano Caruana announced today that he will
switch federations to represent the United States in international competitions. Born in Miami and raised in New York City, the 22 year old and his family moved to Europe to further his career as a budding chess professional. Since he holds dual citizenship, he switched to Italian federation with little difficulty. In the past two years, the
Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and main sponsor Rex Sinquefield made little secret of their desire to bring Fabiano back home. The paperwork should be completed by fall, and we can expect to see Caruana at both the
2016 US Championship and the
2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Starring three of the Top 10 players on the planet,
Team USA can expect to be seeded second at next summer's Olympiad, right behind the Russians. The
national team continues to become
both younger and stronger. Check out the following possible lineup.
- Fabiano Caruana 2803, age 22
- Hikaru Nakamura 2799, age 27
- Wesley So 2778, age 21
- Ray Robson 2680, age 20
- Sam Shankland 2656, age 23
Average = 2743 FIDE, age 23!
N.B.: Gata Kamsky retired from international team competition, and Alexander Onischuk may step aside too. Three more young Grandmasters could compete for the final two roster spots, including Alex Lenderman, Daniel Naroditsky, and another newcomer Yaroslav Zherebukh.
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