The Field

Fabiano Caruana is an American chess Grandmaster. He played for the United States until 2005, then transferred his chess federation affiliation to Italy. While playing for Italy, Caruana was a four time Italian Champion, winning the championship in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011. In the 2014 Sinquefield Cup, Caruana won with a score of 8.5/10 and a performance of over 3000, achieving a FIDE rating of 2844, becoming the third highest-rated player in history. In 2015, Caruana transferred back to the United States, and then won the 2016 U.S Championship. Caruana continued his stellar career with wins in 2017 London Chess Classic, 2018 Grenke Chess Classic, and tying for first in 2018 Sinquefield Cup. Also in 2018, Caruana won the Candidates tournament, becoming the first American to challenge the World Champion since Bobby Fischer. After drawing all classical games, Caruana lost the match in rapid tiebreaks. He won the 2020 Tata Steel Masters, and placed second in the 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss, qualifying him for the 2022 Candidates Tournament.  

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 is a American chess Grandmaster. As a child chess prodigy, Robson won many national scholastic titles and represented the U.S. in international scholastic events.  In 2008, Ray won his first major tournament at the Miami open, and later that year broke Hikaru Nakamura's record for youngest American GM when he achieved his title at age 14 years, 11 months, and 6 days. Robson's notable achievements include 2009 U.S. Junior Champion, 2009 Pan American Junior Champion, 2012 SPICE Cup Champion, 2014 Millionaire Chess 2nd place, and 2015 U.S. Championship 2nd place.

Samuel Sevian is an American chess Grandmaster. He earned the title of Grandmaster in 2014 at the age of 13. In 2012, he became the World U12 Champion. 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 represented the U.S. national team at the 2019 World Team Championships, winning an individual bronze medal for his performance on the second board. In 2021, Sevian took third place in the U.S. Chess Championship.

Awonder was born in Madison, Wisconsin on April 9, 2003, and has lived there his whole life.  He currently attends the University of Chicago. Awonder is also a two-time World Youth chess champion, as well as creator and keeper of many youth chess records. Liang is the second youngest US player ever to achieve the International Master title, and the third youngest to achieve the GM title.  

Elshan Moradiabadi is an Iranian-American chess Grandmaster. He won the 2001 Iranian Chess Championship at the age of 16. Moradiabadi moved to the U.S in 2012 to attend Texas Tech University and play on the school chess team. While at Texas Tech, he won the Final Four of collegiate chess with Texas Tech University in 2012, and won the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship in 2015. As a coach, Elshan coached US national team at the world team in 2019, Pan Am team in 2019 in Ecuador, and was the head of delegates of the US team at the world youth the Mumbai, India.