Fabiano Caruana! The Historic Candidate from the US!

That was ages ago. Nowadays, Magnus Carlsen will shred anybody in rapid and blitz and will do so with a relative ease.

Caruana's best bet is to defeat Carlsen in the classical time controls. In the rapid/blitz segment, his chances will drop dramatically. Just take a look what happened to Sergey Karjakin in 2016. He was destroyed in the faster time controls and Sergey is a great fast player while Fabiano not so much.

Hell, even here on chess.com Carlsen reigns supreme as far as quick chess goes. Here is the link to the leaderboard where Carlsen is still #1.

https://www.chess.com/leaderboard/live

This is a great time for chess in the USA  I was here for the Fischer Boom in the 70 s { I am 71 } and  I hope for the same Chess Wave now. I do not know GM Fabiano Caruana but all I hear about him is good. I wish them both all the best and look foward to a great match  Ed Voehl

Difference is that back then there was the Cold War and the US vs USSR rivalry. Nowadays it seems like US vs Russia in some ways but the World Chess Champion is not a Russian but a Norwegian, LOL!

But I do hope that you are right at least partially and it turns out to be a great deal and a new boom of popularity for the game in the US. Because the US is the richest country in the World, having chess popular here is a big deal and that's why I am really happy with Caruana's win. 

Seems like some news agencies start reporting it and there are people commenting. Here's one link:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/mar/27/fabiano-caruana-magnus-carlsen-candidates-tournament#comments

Yup, good to see. Here's more

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fabiano-caruana-vs-magnus-carlsen-world-chess-championship-2018-match/

The Times of India has a chess section too and I'm sure things will be updated there soon as well. Alas, you have to click on chess in the sports section. I wish the chess headlines were visible in the sports section right away. All you see is stupid football. And yes, it is stupid. I liked football as a teenager and in my early 20s but come on, at some point you have to outgrow that stuff, LOL. 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/chess

He asked for the game i gave it to him lol 

Official according to FIDE. Just like North Korea is officially a democratic country.

Edit: Oh, I didn't realize it was you. Good one.

The moment Caruana becomes the Challenger. Gets wrapped up in the US Flag. Now the burden and the honor are on his shoulders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyxG-R5n0Vw

LOL. I guess there must have been a history between the two of you folks.

Really cool. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome, Spirit. I saw these related items. 

He played for the Italian federation because they offered him support at the time. The USCF did not (they were throwing all their support behind Nakamura). Fabi's far from the only player to switch between federations, but for some reason he seems to be the only player criticized for it. And he's never not been American.

Nationalism: a pernicious invention of two 19th-century philosophers, Fichte and Herder. Einstein was asked about his nationality. He quipped: "Because I'm famous, the Swiss say I'm Swiss, the Germans say I'm German and the Americans say I'm American. If I was a nobody, everyone would say I was a Jew."

And me? Born in Sweden, Swedish father, Polish-Jewish mother, grew up in England, Canadian citizen, eligible for Israeli and Polish citizenship by maternal descent, can claim permanent resident status in Sweden and the UK with citizenship in 5 years. 

So excuse me if I don't get too excited about whether Caruana plays for Italy or the US or Zimbabwe.

Bobby Fischer, great Icelandic champion.

Caruana, who earned the winner’s share of €95,000 ($117,827)
Sigh.

While your sentiment is somewhat understandable, one has to appreciate the fact that individuals have their own interests too. At that time, being an American chess player was perhaps not in Caruana's best interest. While we can find fault in that he was not being patriotic towards the USA, we have to appreciate the fact that the USA did NOT offer good conditions for him to grow as a chess player while Europe was a better deal for him at the time. And it was a good thing that he left and it was a good thing that later the USA became a good place for chess players to be. And once that happened, not only Caurana, but also W. So started to represent the American flag. I mean a healthy good of patriotism and nationalism is a good thing but you cannot feed people on ideals alone.  And this is why people migrate from one place to another. I can definitely relate to that myself. 

You're excused for not being to excited.  But a healthy dose of nationalism and pride can be a good thing also. We may get sidetracked into a long debate about the whole thing but this is not the time and place. Have a nice day.

I do agree with you that nowadays there's no politics and perhaps that's a good thing. Everybody played a fair game in the Candidates. Russian players did NOT have the pressure from their home federations to collude and neither did the Americans. It was a fair match and Caruana won.

That being said, I think there will still be some press exposure because an American has reached to such heights. There's a good deal of healthy nationalism that generates support and Fabiano's becoming the Candidate for the first time in a long time will not go unnoticed. This can lead to growth of chess in the United States and more money into the game. And because the US is still the richest country in the World, it will mean more money into the sport in general, so it's good for everyone. Heck, I suspect (I'd say I'm almost sure) that Kasparov - Short match generated a lot of interest for chess back in 1993 in the UK. And that interest inspired a lot of people to take up chess and also some to sponsor the game. And because the UK was (and still is) one of the financially powerful countries, it was a good deal for all the chess players. I think you get my points. Have a good one.