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Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born South Miami Florida 30 July 1992) is the official United States National Chess Champion and the second highest ranked player in the world.

He is a natural born US citizen who also possesses an Italian citizenship by his maternal parentage.

At a very young age in Park Slope Brooklyn, he was recognized as a chess prodigy.

May 2016 FIDE Ratings List

The updated ratings for May 2016 are out. Here’s the the top 20:

FIDE-May-2016-Top-20

See how 80% of the Top 10 are 90’s babies, i.e., they were born in the 1990’s. It speaks volumes about the quality of computer support these kids got especially when they were starting out.

Anyway, Wesley So retains his hold onto the 10th place, ahead of two former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov.

The World Championship we are about to witness in November is between the No. 1 player Magnus Carlsen and No. 8 Sergey Karjakin. Looks like a heavily lopsided match to me, I dare say.

Check out the top 100 players here.

Final Standings: US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016

The last day of the challenge has finished, and Hikaru Nakamura came out to be the overall winner, followed by Wesley So with a full point behind. Garry Kasparov retained his 3rd rank from Day 1, and so did Fabiano Caruana, the champion of the US Chess Championship 2016, his tailender.

US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016 Final Standings

US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016 Final Standings

Wesley So’s round 10 win over Garry Kasparov was hailed by commentators as “one of the finest attacking game since Morphy!”. Here’s the game:

Thus, at the end of this challenge, the Wesley So vs. Garry Kasparov matchup stands at 4.0-2.0 in favor of Wesley So.

Wesley So leads Day 1 of the US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016

9 Rounds down, and 9 rounds to go.

Wesley So lost his very first game in this tournament/challenge against the legendary Garry Kasparov, but he managed to get back at the latter in their next two matchups (thus, their score so far is 2-1 in favor of So). He even come out ahead of the pack at the end of the day. He who scored 5.0 out of 9 games — tied with Hikaru Nakamura in points but leads after the tie-break was applied.

Day 1 Results: US Ultimate Blitz Chess Challenge 2016

Day 1 Results: US Ultimate Blitz Chess Challenge 2016

Wesley So vs. Garry Kasparov (2016)

You heard it right. It’s happening! In 6 blitz games.

BLITZ PROMO_v02

As a bonus to the US Chess Championship 2016 event, the top 3 finishers, which of course include Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura, all members of the top 10 in the recent FIDE Ratings List, will play in a 4-way sextuple round robin with the legendary Garry Kasparov.

US Chess Championship 2016 Final Standings

Fabiano Caruana wins his last game against IM Akshat Chandra to establish a full point solo lead at the recently concluded US Chess Championship 2016.

Final Standings - US Chess Championship 2016

Final Standings – US Chess Championship 2016

Wesley So settled for 2nd place where he shared the score 7.5 with Hikaru Nakamura.

US Championship Open?

On Chessbase news: US Championship 2016 – The strongest ever?

Three top ten players start in the US Championship 2016 and nominally it is the strongest US Championship of all times. But can you really compare today’s tournaments with those of the past? Andy Soltis takes a look at previous Championships that were surprisingly strong and concludes that in a historical context 2016 might not be “the strongest ever”.

Let Magnus Carlsen and the rest of the top 10 gang play, and sure you may call it the strongest US Championship ever.

My point is, if you ask the question, “Is the 2016 US Championship by native Americans the strongest ever?” Then the answer is NO!