Hikaru Nakamura – 1987 (FIDE rating: Approx 2650)
Fabiano Caruana – 1992 (FIDE rating: Approx 2600+)
Fabiano just recently broke Hikaru’s record for being the youngest American Grandmaster.
Which one will break 2700 first? Which one will go the furthest?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Fabiano for sure. He’s willing to be coached. Hikaru doesn’t. Point to Fabiano.
Mr. Nakamura is at his peak (overrated already a bit) and Caruana will be a 2700+ player, for sure. Naka will always be a great blitz player, preferrable with a mouse (online blitz)
But Fabiano plays ‘real’ chess.
btw: in europe Fabiano is getting great skill and experience. Naka will keep wasting his time in the non-chess landscape of the usa…
isn’t fabiano Italian?
In the article listing his win, he is listed as such.
Fabiano was born and raised in the US. He’s playing for Italy now.
He’s a GM. He’ll get his title at the next fide meeting.
In the last years I cannot remember a World Champion without a team helping him.
Ok, Nakamura is rated 2650 fide,but his rating is about the same since a year or more ago … it means that he needs a coach.
In the old 70´s two guys like Fischer and Larsen had chances with some of their not very clear sacrifices, but in our days a master can destroy a false line with a good computer in just one day.
For me Caruana is doing a most honest effort than Nakamura:he is living in Hungary,just working in his chess with his family and trainer without know the local language,that means no parties,no friends,no girlfriends:just work and study.Wow,he is a 17 years old boy.Can he do something else?I do not think so.
I put my hopes on him!
Is Nakamura to proud to advance above 2700?
On the other hand I saw Caruana on one of his worse tournaments and from what I saw his talent is very limited. He seems quite dedicated to chess, I don´t know if he studies still or what but he plays a lot. On the other hand, I would never believe Jakovenko can make it so far, today´s chess requires more groise than natural talent like Nakamura is.
Fabiano will rule for years to come.
If Kamsky is American, then Caruana is not.
Fabiano is becoming a great player to be sure, but not without controversy too.
-A story to protect the innocent-
There once was a father who has been manipulating his son’s ratings for some time. Looking at the boy’s USCF tournament history, people saw his father was the associated TD. To enter those results into the USCF system a fee must be paid. As it turns out, some fees were paid after the results were known. This was revealed by a player who saw the boy at a disastrous tournament. Basically, if the boy had a bad result, it would not get entered. This-in turn-popped the boy’s ratings high enough to qualify his participation in norm gaining tournaments.
Once, a brief march of years ago, when the boy was lower rated, he’d play in tournaments in his native country. If he won against a much higher rated player, he’d be pulled from the tourney. His ratings seemed to grow and grow. People checked those facts on his USCF tournament history and where surprised. Some wondered aloud, can ratings be manipulated?
Some say the boy did get the results. Your humble narrator leaves it for you to decide. Which was bigger, his rating or the ambition of his father?
Some even consulted a statistician
asking: Is it possible to go up in every rating report? To which he replied, “Possible, but improbable.”
The below comment about Fabiano is true. Check the USCF MSA site. His father only submitted results where he did well. For some reason, USCF turns a blind eye to all of this.
I wish Fabiano the best of luck. I just hope he is allowed to develop his social skills, which he apparently is lacking.
Let’s just wait and see. Nakamura seems to be asleep these days…(guess that happens) I don’t think the guy has ever won any supertournament…so why is everyone talking like he’s some super talent? He has not DONE anything really remarkable. Fabiano…..lets wait and see.
The post about the manipulation of the rating system is disturbing. I feel the USCF has been looking for another individual to set the USA on fire for chess like Fischer did. Revealing this would certainly be a black eye in terms of PR.
If this is how the Caruana(s) wanted to gain this title and acclaim, so be it. Don’t expect a lot of honest players to be impressed though.
Willie Mays=Nakamura
I find the submission of some tournaments to USCF for rating and not others a bit disturbing. It seems to me that allowing international tournaments to be USCF rated creates a loophole in the system, especially when it’s the parent or coach who does the submission. Either every event needs to be submitted, or none of the events submitted, and it should come from the actual TD or organizer. I don’t think the USCF is really equipped to handle submissions from foreign TDs and organizers.
If his rating is used to determine eligibility for representing the United States in competition then those results should be removed from the calculations. Since it appears that he represents Italy the inflated USCF rating becomes irrelevant.
But not withstanding this rating irregularity, it does not detract from what he has accomplished. Making Grandmaster at such a young age is a significant accomplishment. It will be interesting to see how Fabiano and Hikaru progress over the next few years.
Anonymous said “btw: in europe Fabiano is getting great skill and experience. Naka will keep wasting his time in the non-chess landscape of the usa…” He may have a point there. Perhaps that will be the step Nakamura needs to take to reach the next level.
It doesn’t matter too much what their ages are…to me it’s quite clear the Nakamura has more talent…but is Nakamura gonna quit for ‘higher callings’? Btw…an effecient and excellent blog by Polgar!
An old post, I know, but just thought I’d mention the result: Nakamura reached 2700 in October 2008, while Caruana reached 2700 in September 2010 (nearly 2 years later). Although in the most recent published FIDE ratings, Caruana only trails Nakamura by 4 points.