Chess 9LX | THE FIELD
Fabiano Caruana is the twice reigning U.S. Champion (three titles total) and the current World No. 4. He is also a former World Championship challenger (2018) and winner of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour. A perennial top-5 player, Caruana has won a number of super-tournaments in the past year, including the 2023 Sinquefield Cup, 2023 & 2024 Superbet Chess Classic, and the 2024 Zagreb Rapid & Blitz. Caruana has represented the U.S. national team as the top board since 2016, leading the team to gold and earning an individual bronze medal in the 2016 Baku Olympiad. Caruana also led the team to a silver medal finish in the 2024 Budapest Olympiad. With a peak FIDE rating of 2844, Caruana holds the third highest rating of all time.
Hikaru Nakamua is a five-time U.S. Champion and current World No. 2. He is also the reigning Fischer Random World Chess Champion, and has previously been the No. 1 ranked player in blitz and rapid time controls. A former prodigy, Nakamura earned the GM title at the age of 15, the youngest American ever to do so at the time. Nakamura is also a long-time member of the U.S. National Team, having achieved a team gold medal and two bronze medals across seven Olympiads. With a peak FIDE rating of 2816, Nakamura holds the tenth highest rating of all-time.
Leinier Dominguez is a Cuban-American grandmaster and former World Blitz Champion (2008). He is a five-time Cuban champion and the highest rated Cuban player of all time. After switching federations to the United States in 2018, Dominguez has had a string of notable results, including a third place finish in the 2022 American Cup, as well as second place finishes in the 2019 and 2022 U.S. Championships. Dominguez was also the winner of the 2021 Champions Showdown, and placed second in the 2023 Sinquefield Cup. Dominguez has also represented the U.S. in two Olympiads (2022 and 2024), earning a team silver medal in the 2024 Budapest Olympiad.
Ray Robson is an American grandmaster and one of the most recent members of the “2700” club, having crossed the barrier for the first time in November 2022. Robson’s career highlights include finishing second in the 2014 Millionaire Chess Open, finishing second in the 2015 U.S. Championship, and winning the 2023 Prague Masters. Born in Guam, Robson lived in Florida for most of his childhood before enrolling in Webster University in 2012. Robson has represented the U.S. National Team multiple times, earning a team gold and silver in the 2016 and 2018 Chess Olympiad. Ray also earned a team silver medal in the 2024 Budapest Olympiad.
Sam Shankland is a former U.S. Champion (2018) and World Junior Champion (2010). Originally from Berkeley, California, Shankland is also a multiple-time U.S. Olympic team member, winning an individual gold medal in 2014 and a historic team gold in 2016. In 2021, Shankland reached the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup, qualifying him for the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix. Shankland is also an accomplished author, having written four books thus far, Small Steps to Giant Improvement, Small Steps 2 Success, Grandmaster Training Camp 1 - Calculation!, and the recent Theoretical Rook Endgames, published in Spring 2024. Shankland’s peak FIDE rating is 2731, which he achieved in February 2019.
Garry Kasparov is a legendary grandmaster and former World Champion originally from Baku, Azerbaijan. He held the title from 1985-2000 and was the World No. 1 ranked player until his retirement in 2005. Kasparov also earned the highest FIDE rating in history (2851) until he was surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Considered by many to be the greatest of all time, Kasparov won virtually every top tournament in the chess world, including Wijk aan Zee, Linares, and many more super-tournaments. While representing the Soviet Union and then Russia in eight chess olympiads, Kasparov earned a total of nineteen medals, including the team gold in all eight olympiads he competed in.
Wesley So is a three-time U.S. Champion and two-time Grand Chess Tour Champion. Originally from the Philippines, So transferred federations to the United States in 2013, representing the U.S. in multiple Olympiads since and winning both the team and individual gold in the 2016 Baku Olympiad. So also earned the team a silver medal in the 2024 Budapest Olympiad. Currently at World No. 9, So has previously been as high as World No. 2, with a peak FIDE rating of 2822. In 2019, So defeated Magnus Carlsen in the inaugural FIDE Fischer Random World Championship, becoming the first official World Champion of Fischer Random.
Levon Aronian is an Armenian-American Grandmaster and a former blitz, rapid and Chess960 World Champion. After earning the grandmaster title at age 17, Aronian joined the world’s elite a few years later, eventually reaching a peak FIDE rating of 2830, the fourth highest ever recorded in history. Aronian’s notable tournament achievements include winning the 2005 & 2017 FIDE World Cup, the 2006 & 2007 Chess960 World Championship, the 2008 World Rapid Championship, and the 2009 World Blitz Championship. Originally from Yerevan, Aronian famously led Armenia to three gold medal victories in the 2006, 2008, and 2012 Chess Olympiads. In 2021, Aronian switched federations to represent the United States–in 2024, he earned an individual silver medal and a team silver in the 2024 Budapest Olympiad. In the past year, Aronian has won the prestigious 2023 WR Masters and 2024 American Cup.
Sam Sevian is a former U.S. prodigy and previous U12 World Champion. He became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years and 10 months, breaking the record for the youngest American player to earn the GM title. On his path to GM, Sevian also broke records for becoming the youngest Expert, National Master, and International Master in U.S. Chess history. In 2017, Sevian won the American Continental Chess Championship, the youngest ever to do so at the age of 16. Sevian crossed 2700 FIDE for the first time in April 2022, after a strong performance in the 2022 American Cup. The defending champion, Sevian won the 2023 Champions Showdown: Chess9LX tournament.
Grigoriy Oparin is a Russian-American Grandmaster currently in the FIDE top-100 list. He earned his GM title in 2013 at the age of 16, and has a peak FIDE rating of 2687, which he achieved in June 2023. He was the winner of the 2014 Russian Junior Championship and the 2016 Russian Higher League, and was the best player at the 2016 Nutcracker Match of the Generations. Oparin is a member of the University of Missouri chess team, which won the prestigious 2024 President’s Cup. This will be Oparin’s first Champions Showdown appearance.
