World No. 28 Fabiano Caruana represents the new computer-assisted generation of chess players who are threatening to bring down the longevity of the careers of those who preceded them.
This 18-year-old World junior No. 1, holder of dual citizenship of the US and Italy, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the past four years since become the youngest Grandmaster in the two countries.
Caruana, who caught the eye of the world in January 2010 when he held World champion Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Vassily Ivanchuk in the Corus championship, now visits India for the first time to justify his seeding in the select six-player field of the AAI Grandmasters chess championship beginning here on Wednesday.
“It is an excellent choice of players,” says Caruana as he speaks about the field consisting of Czech Republic's Viktor Laznicka, K. Sasikiran, Filipino So Wesley, National champion Parimarjan Negi and the reigning Women World champion Hou Yifan.
Four players, barring Negi and Yifan, are from the World top-100 list.
Competitive
No wonder, Caruana expects the event to be “very competitive.” He finds his challengers “relatively young, quite strong and well known.”
Ahead of his maiden visit to India, Caruana says, “My mother spent a few weeks in India when she was a young lady. To this day, she treasures her Indian experience.”
The chess world truly took note of Caruana's talent when he won the 2008 Corus ‘C' – by beating Parimarjan Negi in the final round – and the 2009 Corus ‘B' to gain an entry into elite field of 2010 Corus ‘A' where he finished 10th with 5.5 points in the 14-player round-robin format at Wijk aan Zee. In fact, the youngster remains the only player to win Group ‘C' and ‘B' in successive years at the annual Dutch destination.
Double round robin format
The youngster favours the double round robin format that will be adopted in the AAI tournament. This choice is understandable since it allows the players to prepare with both colours against every player in the field. For obvious reasons, the stronger players prefer this format which is increasingly finding more takers, among the players and the organisers alike.
Talking of Indian chess, Caruana says, “The Indian chess is growing in terms of number and level of players.”
Over the next fortnight, Caruana will get a taste of Indian hospitality and some not-so-friendly rivals across the board.
