This Guy Named Fabiano

The 2014 FIDE Grand Prix is well underway in Baku, Azerbaijan and one again, all eyes are on the incredible performances of Fabiano Caruana, who drew his match against Hikaru Nakamura earlier today (game post below). Fabiano (so hard not to write FABIO), is fresh off of one of the most stunning performances in chess history at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis where he won seven consecutive games including a game against World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Recently, Magnus has not enjoyed the crushing victories that the chess world has come to expect from him and this has somewhat resulted in attention turning to Fabiano and his continued domination. As reported by [Chessbase](http://en.chessbase.com/post/october-2014-ratings-faby-faby-faby), Fabiano’s stunning victories in Saint Louis and continued success in other tournaments has resulted in him being listed as the world’s #2 chess player according to the October 2014 FIDE ratings list.


Man or Machine?

When Magnus Carlsen was on the rise to become the World Champion, many believed that he would break the coveted 3000 ELO mark and forever remain the strongest chess player in history. However, his recent struggles have given rise to discussions over who will eventually rise to succeed him as champion and to how long he can hold on to his crown. With the publication of the October FIDE ratings, Fabiano Caruana is only 19 ELO points under Carlsen and has been performing at an average ELO rating of 3000! I believe that this is representative of the greatness of our game. Magnus Carlsen is a chess playboy and is often spoken of in magazines like *New In Chess* as an invincible man whose destiny is to join the ranks of chess performance ability on par with the world’s strongest chess computers. However, Fabiano Caruana has proven that in chess, anything can happen. It is like that moment in Rocky IV when Rocky wounded Drago for the first time. When he returned to his corner, his assistant pumped him up for the rest of the fight by reminding him that Drago was not a machine, but was instead a man who could be hurt and ultimately defeated. Will Fabiano be the “Rocky” that brings down the Norway chess machine? Only time will tell.

[pgn]
[Event “FIDE Grand Prix Baku 2014-15”]
[Site “Baku”]
[Date “2014.10.04”]
[Round “3”]
[White “Nakamura, Hikaru”]
[Black “Caruana, Fabiano”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “D31”]
[WhiteElo “2764”]
[BlackElo “2844”]
[Annotator “Robot 6”]
[PlyCount “100”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[EventCountry “AZE”]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bf4 c6 6. e3 Bf5 7. g4 Be6 8. h4
Nd7 9. Bg3 Nb6 10. f3 Bd6 11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. Qc2 h5 13. g5 Ne7 14. Bd3 O-O 15.
Nge2 Rac8 16. Rd1 g6 17. Kf2 a6 18. b4 Bf5 19. Bxf5 Nxf5 20. e4 Ng7 21. Qb3 Nc4
22. e5 Qe6 23. Nf4 Qe7 24. Ne4 dxe4 25. Qxc4 Ne6 26. Ne2 exf3 27. Ng3 a5 28. a3
axb4 29. axb4 Ra8 30. Ne4 Ra3 31. Rd2 Nf4 32. Rb1 Kg7 33. Rb3 Rfa8 34. Nf6 Ra2
35. Rxa2 Rxa2+ 36. Kxf3 Ng2 37. Kg3 Ne1 38. Re3 Nc2 39. Qxa2 Nxe3 40. Qa8 Qf8
41. Qxb7 Nf5+ 42. Kh3 Nxd4 43. Qd7 Qxb4 44. Qd8 Qc3+ 45. Kg2 Qd2+ 46. Kh3 Qd3+
47. Kg2 Qf3+ 48. Kh2 Qf2+ 49. Kh3 Qf1+ 50. Kh2 Qf2+ 1/2-1/2
[/pgn]