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Fabiano Caruana began playing chess at the age of five but only started practicing seriously when he turned 12. He joined the Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan, New York, and in 2002, he earned the FIDE Master (FM) title. By the time he was 12, his Elo rating had already reached 2250. Caruana was trained by renowned youth coach Bruce Pandolfini and later by Miron Sher, which led him to compete in several Youth World Cups and Pan-American Championships.
At the age of 12, his family moved to Europe, where chess is more highly regarded and where major tournaments are held. Many great chess players had also settled there. In Spain, he trained in Madrid under IM Boris Zlotnik, and around the age of 14, the family relocated to Budapest, Hungary, where he continued his training with GM Alexander Chernin. Later, he moved to Lugano, Switzerland, for further training with Vladimir Chuchelov, among others. Eventually, he returned to the United States, settling in St. Louis in 2014.
Caruana’s breakthrough came in 2007 when he won the Hogeschool Zeeland Chess Tournament in the Netherlands, scoring 7½ out of 9 with a TPR of 2715. I was present at the tournament and witnessed him successfully defend a difficult position against Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the final round. That same year, he became a grandmaster at the age of 14, breaking Hikaru Nakamura’s record in the U.S. With some pride, I would like to mention that earlier that year, in Gibraltar, I managed to defeat Caruana in the final round in a beautiful strategic game with Black, though it was already evident that this young player had great potential.
From that point on, Caruana consistently delivered strong tournament performances. His most significant achievement came in March 2018 when he won the Candidates Tournament in Berlin, earning the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship in London that November.
As we had already seen in the previous World Championship cycle, the competition at the top level was extremely close, and this match proved no different. Despite having a winning position in the first game, Carlsen was unable to convert it into a victory. Ultimately, all classical games ended in draws. Carlsen was criticized for his approach in the final two games, where he made it clear that he considered a draw more than sufficient. However, he cannot be blamed, as he went on to dominate the rapid tiebreaks, winning 3-0. Caruana’s playing style, which excels in deep calculation, was less suited to faster time controls, where intuition plays a more significant role and the sense of control can be harder to maintain.
Despite this, Caruana's formidable calculating ability has kept him among the world's top players for many years, consistently ranking second behind Carlsen. A notable highlight of his career was his victory in the 2020 Tata Steel Chess Tournament, where he outclassed the entire field.
In the following position, taken from one of Caruana’s analyses, he had prepared a stunning tactical blow after Black’s previous move (...Qf8-f6). Can you find it?
Key Concepts of Chess - Pawn Structures Vol.1 and 2
In this two-part course the emphasis will be on typical pawn-structures.
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