Cover Story / Golden Age
Hikaru Nakamura, who sent out a tweet that stated Robson’s win over strong Polish GM Bartek Macieja “bodes well for our future.” Shankland’s success was more meteoric as he managed to go +8 and take the gold medal on board five in the 2014 Olympiad in Norway. While Naroditsky hasn’t yet played in an
Olympiad, he did just represent the U.S. in the World Team Championship (see article on p. 30), held in Armenia in April of this year. He finished +1 playing on board four. As things stand now we have six players
representing the United States in the top 100 in the world: Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Ray Robson, Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, and Samuel L. Shankland. Yaroslav Zherebukh, Aleksandr Lenderman, and Varuzhan Akobian are each within 20 rating points of making that list. We also rank fourth in the world, behind
only Russia, China, and Ukraine, amongst world chess powers. FIDE derives this list from the average rating of the top ten players of each country. The ratings are as follows: Russia 2743, China 2710, Ukraine 2692, and the USA at 2677. Those interviewed for this article were
asked who they see as the next great American talents. Some of the names that came up included Awonder Liang, Jeffery Xiong, and Darwin Yang. GM Fedorowicz also named Conrad Holt, saying that while Holt may not be as young as someone most people would name, he demonstrates a strong understanding of the game and seemingly has quite a lot of potential. Historically if an American chess player
wanted to pursue serious growth and international titles they had to take a long hard look at leaving the United States and going to Europe—in some cases making it a permanent move. For instance, Fabiano Caruana, cur rently
number three in the world, was born in New York, and until the age of 12 played the bulk of his chess in the USA. However, in 2004 his parents realized that his best bet for continued chess develop ment was to move overseas and change federations from the U.S. to Italy (a move made easier by the fact that Caruana was born a dual citizen.) The main reason for this move was the almost complete lack of events in which Fabiano would be able to earn performance norms towards the international master and grandmaster titles. On May 12, it was announced that
Caruana has initiated the application process to change chess federations, which, when approved, will allow him to play for the United States. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be representing the United States again and working with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis,” said Caruana. When the move is complete, the U.S. will have three of the top-10 players in the
44 July 2015 | Chess Life
world (along with Nakamura and So) for the first time. “The addition of Fabiano Caruana to the United States’ roster is historic,” said Jean Hoffman, Executive Director of the USCF. “Over the past several years, we have made tremendous strides to increase the awareness of, and appreciation for, the great game of chess in the United States. The return of Fabiano to the USCF is another large step toward achieving our goals.” Perhaps if they were making that same
decision today Caruana’s parents wouldn’t feel compelled to move overseas as there are so many opportunities here that didn’t exist at that time. Practically every month sees at least one closed norm event hosted somewhere in the U.S. by organizers such as the CCSCSL, the Metropolitan Chess Club in Los Angeles, and Sevan Muradian in Chicago, among others. Hopefully, the parents of the next
Caruana won’t have to make the same decision to move to another country in order to see them continue to grow and improve as they climb the chess ladder. With all of the growth in the game we
are currently experiencing it is an exciting time to be an American chess player, chess fan, or both. Combine that with the explo - sion of chess on the Internet and gone are the days when it was hard to follow the game unless you lived in a major city where you were lucky enough to have a chess column in the local paper. All of these factors indicate we are now
enjoying a second golden age of American chess. Whether or not we are just at the beginning or are a considerable way through it is arguable. What could make this golden age any better for American chess? How about a world championship for Caruana, Nakamura, or So—or one of our other rapidly-improving, young GMs?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76