Fabiano Caruana’s banner year continued yesterday as the American grandmaster won the 2023 edition of the Sinquefield Cup, a prestigious invitational that is the final leg of the annual Grand Chess Tour. Topping the overall standings, Caruana also nabbed himself a $100,000 bonus for his efforts.
A bronze medal at the World Cup (and with it, qualification for the Candidates), defending the U.S. Championship title, winning the first Grand Chess Tour event of the year and following it up with a triumph at the St. Lous Rapid & Blitz, then the Sinquefield Cup itself: It’s been a trophy-laden year for Caruana, even before counting the close calls at Norway Chess and the FIDE Grand Swiss. And he has now once again established himself above the 2800 Elo mark, a remarkable accomplishment in an age of rating deflation, where only he and Magnus Carlsen will reside heading into 2024.
To cap off the year, the American participated in the final events of the annual Grand Chess Tour, a prestigious private set of invitational tournaments featuring many members of the chess elite, winning across both the faster and slower time controls. With many of the other participants battling it out for the last remaining spots at the Candidates Tournament, the event that determines the next world championship challenger, Caruana still found a way to steal the show. He went undefeated in a super-strong field and locked in the undisputed first place in the final round of play with an impressive win over the struggling Richárd Rapport in what turned out to be the only decisive game of the day.
Choosing an odd sideline in the Slav Defense, Rapport’s game never really got going, and he eventually succumbed to the pressure in time trouble. This saved Caruana from having to go through a tiebreaker playoff against Leinier Dominguez-Perez, whose standout tournament performance has afforded him an unexpected outside chance for a Candidates spot.
As Caruana racked up the points and the winnings, his rivals were toiling in the background to secure themselves a spot at the tournament that determines the identity of world champion Ding Liren’s next challenger. Alireza Firouzja seemed like a lock-in for the ratings spot, but a series of catastrophic events saw him essentially drop out of contention. Now, Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez-Perez, two strong performers at the Sinquefield Cup, are in the lead.
Meanwhile, Anish Giri and Gukesh D are the most likely to qualify via the FIDE Circuit. It’s not because Caruana hasn’t been the runaway winner of that particular competition, but since he’s already earned himself his spot via the World Cup, he’s sitting pretty, watching his competitors battle it out while he’s sitting atop the summit. That’s kind of how it played out at the Sinquefield Cup, come to think of it.
