Fabiano Caruana wins U.S. Masters with 8 out of 9

by Johannes Fischer
12/3/2024 – Fabiano Caruana was the clear rating favourite at the U.S. Masters, an open tournament that was played in Charlotte from 28 November to 1 December. Caruana and other top players rarely play open tournaments, but the U.S. Masters promised FIDE Circuit points, and thus winning the tournament might help Caruana to qualify for the Candidates 2026. Caruana started the tournament with five wins, then lost to GM Nikolas Theodorou but after scoring 3.0/3 in the last rounds he still finished clear first with 8.0/9, gaining 17.11 FIDE Circuit points. | Photos: Charlotte Chess Center
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Playing in open tournaments can easily be difficult for top players, but with 5.0/5 Caruana had a concinving start in Charlotte. However, in round 6 the world's number 2 stumbled against GM Nikolas Theodorou.

Fabiano Caruana

With this win Theodorou took the lead, but then drew his games in rounds 7 to 9, while Caruana won all three remaining games and took the tournament by a whole point ahead of Grigoriy Oparin.

Final standings

# Name Rating Fed Pts Prize
1 GM Fabiano Caruana 2805 (2857) USA 8.0 $7500.00/trophy - 1st Place
2 GM Nikolas Theodorou 2612 (2694) GRE 7.5 $3500.00 - 2nd Place
3 GM Grigoriy Oparin 2653 (2730) USA 7.0 $1700.00 - 3rd Tie
4 GM Illia Nyzhnyk 2576 (2637) UKR 7.0 $1700.00 - 3rd Tie
5 IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova 2385 (2459) USA 7.0 $3300.00 - 3rd Tie / U2500 1st / Womens 1st
6 GM Awonder Liang 2687 (2755) USA 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
7 GM Alexander Donchenko 2617 (2617) GER 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
8 GM Abhimanyu Mishra 2616 (2714) USA 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
9 GM Olexandr Bortnyk 2603 (2677) UKR 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
10 GM Lázaro Bruzón 2578 (2658) USA 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
11 GM John Michael Burke 2573 (2661) USA 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
12 GM Bharathakoti Harsha 2531 (2638) IND 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
13 GM Guha Mitrabha 2511 (2511) IND 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
14 GM Gleb Dudin 2510 (2636) HUN 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie
15 IM Isik Can 2508 (2508) TUR 6.5 $314.29 - 5th Tie GM NORM

...264 players

Games

In the FIDE Circuit leaderboard Caruana is now just behind Arjun Erigaisi.

Source: FIDE

The player with the most points in 2024 will qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, and this is a race between Caruana and Erigaisi, although Nodirbek Abdusattorov still has a slight chance.

After the U.S. Masters Caruana travelled to Saint Louis to collect more circuit points in the Saint Louis Masters, which starts on 3 December. Meanwhile, Erigaisi and Abdusattorov will try to pick up points at the Qatar Masters, which also starts on 3 December.

The last chance to gain the necessary points to win the Circuit will come at the end of the year at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York.

Tournament page

Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".