Why I'm Still Heartbroken After the Candidates
By now, the chess world is floating down from the absolute madness that arose during the final Candidates game between Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi on Sunday.
I am still heartbroken.
No matter who they were rooting for, every chess player was Fabi on Sunday: they know the bitter pain of failing to navigate a winning yet fragile position. Nightmares flood their sleep with the suffocating weight of time pressure and unrelenting nerves that cause even the best to stumble in critical moments. Then add a healthy dose of dream achieving possibility, and you have a recipe for pure agony.
My love for Fabi goes back to the days when chess reintroduced itself to me after years away. The 2018 World Championship was the first major event that I ever followed. Never before did I think I’d be watching hours long broadcasts of games on YouTube with commentary! I was introduced to two characters: Magnus Carlsen, reigning champion as well as undisputed best in the world, and on the other side of the board, the resilient underdog, a soft-spoken, curly haired Fabiano Caruana. As many of you know, Fabi came as close as anyone to usurping Magnus’s throne with twelve straight draws in regulation, but fell short in the ensuing rapid tie-breaks.
During the pandemic, Fabi fell off the map. He is not a natural showman like his fellow American Hikaru Nakamura, making streaming a nonstarter and was strangely missing from most of the Chess24 online events throughout 2021. But in 2022, Fabi began to resurface, winning the first of his back to back US Championships. In 2023, he had arguably the best year of anyone in chess: winning the Grand Chess Tour, the Sinquefield Cup, qualifying for the Candidates by placing third at the World Cup, and reestablishing himself as number two rated player in the world. Fabi was on a mission to get back to the World Championships.
When he started his podcast with his second, Cristian Chirila, we got a glimpse of Fabiano as a person. What I appreciate about Fabi is the way that he is clear about his goal: world championship or bust. Sure the conversation can get caught up in the drama, but it is clear the drive and energy he puts into winning. While Hikaru claims to be playing “for the content”, Fabi is unapologetic about his desire to be the World Champion. He is what we all wish to be: calm, calculating, and a killer on the board.
Going into the 2024 Candidates Tournament, everyone who was anyone was predicting that Fabi would win, and after the year that he’d just had, who could blame them? But two weeks in, the tournament seemed to be slipping away from him. With three rounds to go, he was a point and a half off the mark and needed a miracle. Then after winning a masterpiece against Praggnanadhaa in the penultimate round, and a few other games going his way, the miracle moment was placed before him.
The series of unexpected events set the stage for the most insane chess game that any of us will ever see. Including my own games, I have never wanted a particular chess result more than I wanted Fabi to defeat Nepo. One look at the up and down evaluation graph will give anyone a glimpse of the emotional rollercoaster that was the final game of the candidates. Move after move through overwhelming time pressure, Fabiano deftly navigated the complications with accuracy and poise. Then immediately after a heart-exploding scramble to get to move 40 before running out of time, just when you thought he had survived, Fabi made his first big mistake: he went to a1 with his king instead of a2 and somehow that one square made all the difference. However, the position was so complex that Nepo couldn’t capitalize on the moment, giving Fabi two more very real opportunities to win.
I was screaming at my TV trying to will my chess hero to somehow, someway find the most impossible moves. Even the commentators, normally doing their best to present a neutral stance, clearly wanted Fabi to be the one that came out of the deep, dark forest intact. But when the dust settled, the queens of both players remained along with pawns on the same side of the board. A legendary game, in which both players needed a win for a chance to achieve everything that they ever wanted, ended in a devastating draw. That’s chess for you.
There are many reasons to be excited about the results of the Candidates. For one, Gukesh D is the type of fearless, hardworking, and kind player that we all deserve to usher the sport into the next era. In terms of entertainment, we got fireworks throughout one of the most anticipated tournaments in history. However, for Fabi fans (and those supporting Nepo or Hikaru), we watched our favorite player walk right up to the glorious moment, a world championship opportunity within grasp, but fall short.
What will happen in the next two years? Did this moment signal the beginning of the new era that Gukesh and his cadre of youngsters seem so determined to bring forward? Will Ding be able to hold off Gukesh now that he is no longer the nice guy in the room? Will Fabiano be able to muster the type of year that led to the moment that slipped through his fingers? A lot is in store for the future of chess, and all of us are on the edge of our seats.
But a couple of days removed from the insanity, I am still crushed for Fabiano. I can’t imagine the depths of his anguish, though every chess player knows a little about being a heartbeat from victory only to lose it all. I am left with only the cold hope that the world championship is still in reach for Fabiano Caruana before his career is over.
