The Field
Fabiano Caruana
The No. 2 ranked player in the world, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days. He was the youngest grandmaster in the history of the United States until his record was beaten in 2009 by Ray Robson. After winning the 2014 Sinquefield Cup with a score of 8.5/10 and a performance of over 3000, he achieved a FIDE rating of 2844, becoming the third highest-rated player in history. Caruana has represented the United States in two Olympiads, winning team gold in 2016 and team bronze as well as individual bronze in 2018. He had a phenomenal showing in 2018 winning the Grenke Chess Classic, Norway Chess, and tying for first in the Sinquefield Cup with Carlsen and Aronian. Caruana won the 2018 Candidates tournament thus becoming the first American to challenge the World Champion in a unified match in 46 years. After drawing all classical games, Caruana lost the match in rapid tiebreaks.
Wesley So
So is a former chess prodigy who became the youngest player to pass the 2600 threshold in October 2008, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen. In February 2015 he entered the world top-10 after tying for second place at the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The following year he returned and tied for second place, just a half-point behind Magnus. 2016 saw the American GM earn first place in the Grand Chess Tour by winning the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic. He represented the US in the 2016 Olympiad, winning team gold and individual gold on board three. In 2017, Wesley won the Tata Steel Masters tournament and became the eleventh player in history to surpass 2800 FIDE. He was crowned the 2017 US Champion after defeating Alexander Onischuk in the playoffs. Wesley So is a two time US Champion, Fide ranked #6 in the world, and the current reigning Chess 960 World Champion. He is the winner of the 2021 Paris Rapid & Blitz, as well as the winner of the entire 2021 Grand Chess Tour.
Leinier Dominguez
Leinier Dominguez is a 5 time Cuban Chess Champion who completed his transfer to the United States Chess Federation in December 2018. He is currently the 4 highest rated player in the US and placed joint-second behind Hikaru Nakamura in his first US Chess Championship in May 2019. Leinier is a former World Blitz Champion having won the title in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2008. In June 2013 he won the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, Greece while in 2016 he earned an individual silver medal playing on board 1 for Cuba in the 42 World Chess Olympiad in Baku. His 2019 accomplishments include winning second in the 2019 U.S. Chess Championship and becoming the co-winner of the Netanya Masters in Israel.
Jeffery Xiong
This young super star has achieved many impressive results since his start at seven years old. In 2010, he won the Under 10 North American Continental Championship, and then a silver medal in the Under 10 World Championship. Xiong was the 2016 US Junior Champion, and then continued on to become the 2016 World Junior Champion. Xiong’s most impressive trait is his ability to handle losses. No matter how painful the loss was he always sees his losses as an opportunity to improve. This mentality has separated him from other grandmasters by keeping calm and collected after games, often analyzing them to find where he could improve. This mentality has pushed him over 2700 after a string of impressive results in 2019. In September of 2019, Xiong competed in the World Cup where he defeated grandmasters such as Anish Giri and Jan-Kryzystof Duda, pushing him to the quarterfinals.
Sam Shankland
In 2010, Shankland won the US Junior Championships which qualified him for the US Championship the following year. He took third place in that 2011 Championship, and then went on to achieve the biggest upset at the FIDE World Cup later that year by defeating Super-GM Peter Leko. Two years later, Shankland was part of the US National Team that won the Pan-American Championship that year, where he had a performance rating over 2800. He then received the 27th Samford Chess Fellowship, later that year. In 2014, Shankland became one of the top 100 players in the world. He also won a gold medal at the 41st Olympiad for best reserve board player. He was undefeated ending with a score of 9 out of 10 in that Olympiad. He also defeated GM Judit Polgar in her last ever rated game during that tournament. Due to that performance, he played board one in the World Team Championship 2015, taking down some of the top fifteen players in the world at the time. In 2018, Sam Shankland had a stellar performance at the U.S. Championships. He won the tournament with 8.5/11 and crossed the 2700 barrier for the first time.
Ray Robson
Since being taught how to play chess by his father at the age of three, Robson has had many impressive results. He was the Supernationals champion in 2005 and then placed top ten in the World Youth Chess Championship starting in 2004 continuing until 2007. In 2007, he broke Nakamura’s record of youngest IM-elect ever after achieving his final GM norm at the University of Texas, Dallas (UTD) GM invitational tournament. He achieved his Grandmaster title in 2009 athe the age of 14, after winning the Pan-American Youth Championship that year. The same year, he was the US Junior Champion, one of the youngest to ever win the US Junior Championship. He also broke Nakamura’s record of youngest American Grandmaster by achieving it at 14 years, 11 months, and 16 days. Robson took second place in the 2014 Millionaire Chess Championship, and then again at the 2015 US Championships. Robson was a member of the Webster University SPICE Chess team, and has helped that team to several national titles, three in a row, throughout his time there. He was a Olympiad gold medalist in 2016 and Olympiad silver medalist in 2018. His future goals include crossing 2700 FIDE and winning the US Championship.
Dariusz Swiercz
Dariusz Świercz American chess Grandmaster. He earned his grandmaster title at the age of 14 years and seven months in 2009. In 2011, Świercz won World Junior Chess Championship. In 2018 he switched his national federation to the United States. He is currently a student at Saint Louis University and plays on the school chess team.
Sam Sevian
This American chess prodigy holds some of the top records in the United States. As a child, he received training from the legendary Garry Kasparov and Grandmaster Alexander Chernin. In 2012, he became the World U12 Champion. Sevian is credited as the youngest American Expert level player and American Grandmaster, getting his GM title at 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days old. This achievement also puts him in the top ten youngest Grandmasters in the world. During his appearance at the 2015 US Championship, Sevian defeated Wesley So, one of the top ten Grandmasters in the world. In 2017, he won the American Continental Chess Championship, being the youngest in history to do so. Recently, Sevian played in the Junior Speed Chess Championship, making it to the quarter finals.
Lazaro Bruzon
Lazaro Bruzon Batista is a Cuban grandmaster, a title that he earned in 1999. As a youth, he proved his ability to defeat tough competition after winning several national tournaments and championships: the World Junior Chess Championship in 2000 (qualifying him for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002); the Lausanne Young Masters, a knockout event, in 2001; the 37th Capablanca Memorial (Elite group); tied for first in the 2002 North Sea Cup; the Corus B tournament in 2004; the 12th Guillermo Garcia Memorial in Villa Clara; the Cuban Chess Championship in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010; the American Continental Championship in 2005 and 2013; the 2010 Magistral Casino de Barcelona round-robin tournament; tied for first with Kamil Mitoń, Bojan Kurajica, Yuri Gonzalez Vidal, Evgeny Gleizerov and Bartłomiej Heberla in the 4th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de La Laguna, placing second on countback in 2010; placed equal first in the 2013 World Open; the 8th Edmonton International Tournament in 2013; the Carlos Torre Repetto Memorial Cup in 2013, 2014 and 2015; the 5th Latin American Cup in 2014; and the Iberoamerican Chess Championship in 2006 and 2015. He has made appearances at the Chess World Cup in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015; however, he has faced elimination early on at each event.
Alex Lenderman
Grandmaster Lenderman’s chess career began in Brooklyn, New York when he was four years old. He improved quickly, and by the time he finished high school, he had led his team to four straight national titles. In 2008, Lenderman scored numerous small victories throughout the US Chess Grand Prix to secure him first place overall - a feat which he repeated the following year. He also won the 2009 Atlantic Open and co-championed the 2019 US Open. Lenderman is no stranger to championship titles. He won the International Bavarian Chess Championship in 2014. In 2015, he was on the US team for the World Chess Team Championship where he took home a gold medal for the second board with a score of five out of seven. He also won the World Open that same year with a score of seven out of nine. Lenderman had a brilliant performance in the Isle of Man tournament in 2017, where he had a performance rating over 2750. Recently, he has been in top form with a current rating of 2632 FIDE, just two points below his all time highest rating.
Daniel Naroditsky
Daniel Naroditsky is a three-time U.S. Scholastic champion, earning a gold medal at the World U12 championship in 2007 and winning the U.S. Junior championship in 2013. Naroditsky received the prestigious Frank P. Samford Jr. Chess Fellowship, which provides access to top level coaching, study material and competition. Through 2014, Naroditsky traveled and competed in several elite tournaments around the world, including the London Chess Classic and the Qatar Masters, and turned in an impressive performance at the 2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival.
John Burke
John Burke is an American chess grandmaster. Burke played his first tournament in 2008, when he was 7 years old. A chess prodigy, Burke achieved the FIDE Master title in August 2015, and the International Master title in January 2016. He was awarded his Grandmaster title in January 2018. Some of his best tournament victories are the US Masters 2018, Foxwoods Open 2019, and 2020 US Junior Championship (held online). Burke is a member of the SPICE program and will be starting his Junior year at Webster University in the fall. Outside of chess, Burke enjoys listening to and creating music, as well as writing.