Fabiano Caruana is having a fantastic year. Besides qualifying to the 2024 Candidates Tournament by getting third place in the demanding FIDE World Cup, he obtained outright victories at the SuperBet Chess Classic in Romania, the U.S. Championship and the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament — note that two of the three events were part of the Grand Chess Tour. Moreover, after beating Wesley So in round 7 of the Sinquefield Cup, he has now secured overall victory in the tour!
The remarkable results of the former World Championship challenger have allowed him to, once again, cross the 2800-mark in the live ratings list — only he and Magnus Carlsen belong to the exclusive ‘club’ at the moment.
As for the Sinquefield Cup, Caruana is now sharing the lead with So and Leinier Dominguez. Importantly, So has played one more game than his fellow co-leaders, as he was supposed to face Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the event’s final round, which means he will end his tournament in Wednesday’s eighth round. Both Caruana and Dominguez collected back-to-back wins in rounds 6 and 7.
In the fight for the two spots in the Candidates still up for grabs, So is the frontrunner in the rating race and might climb to first place in the FIDE Circuit leaderboard if things go his way on the last two days of action in Saint Louis.
Meanwhile, Dominguez is now merely 0.4 points behind So in the live ratings list, but to become eligible to play the Candidates he would need to play a classical event outside the United States in December. The Cuban-born star described this sudden opportunity to reach the Candidates as “quite unexpected”.
Leinier Dominguez | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Analysis by GM Karsten Müller
Anastasiya Karlovich interviewing GCT winner Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Analysis by GM Karsten Müller
Leinier Dominguez and Richard Rapport | Photo: Lennart Ootes
