Polgar Blog reports today that GM Fabiano Caruana has received an invite to play In the US CHAMPIONSHIP and that he intends to accept barring scheduling conflicts with the FIDE GP.
How does he qualify?
Fabiano Caruana was born in Florida and is a US citizen, and he is a USCF life member.
The invitational requirements say in part:
I’d find it strange were he to become the US Champ but then choose to represent Italy internationally.
I knew a woman who was born in Berlin, acquired U.S. citizenship through naturalization of her parents, and got her Swiss passport through a parent’s birth nationality. Her objective was to be employed in Switzerland when employment opportunities dried up here. At one time she was dating a Canadian man.
That’s nice.
Italy pays their European league players fairly well, it seems, and there really isn’t an equivalent professional league in the USA.
Many of the best American soccer players go to Europe to play in the leagues there, too.
Seems that St.Louis and FIDE and USCF are sending out conflicting stories.
Why do you say that?
NBA Champion players have often represented other international teams, haven’t they?
Uh, chess not soccer or basketball.
Some might consider FIDE’s rules for what country someone can represent more honest than the IOC’s.
In order to represent a country in the Olympics, one must have a passport from that country (or citizenship.)
FIDE doesn’t care about that, pay them enough money and you can switch your country of registry scant months before an Olympiad.
But it is still true that it is far easier for someone to earn a living playing chess in Europe than in the USA, and that’s not the only sport for which that is true.
That may well be true but what does it have to do with the topic of the thread? Has he been invited and by whom? Apparently Fabiano believes he has been invited by the organisers in St. Louis. USCF Pres says not. FIDE’s Guadalup somewhere in between.
One item that I am curious about would be if GM Caruanu would go based on Rating or Wildcard? Personally, I think it would be a great addition to the U.S. Championship and given the fact that he still maintains his U.S. citizenship while living in Italy, I really don’t see a problem with this. I did write some time back about GM Ramirez not having obtained his US citizenship and why GM Ramirez was being considered for an invite to a previous U.S. Championship, when his U.S. Citizenship was not finalized.
This case in my mind is pretty clear cut, why not? It also depends what the format is going to be for the 2013 U.S. Championship and I don’t believe that GM Caruanu has been to the club in St. Louis, but I could be mistaken.
GM Ramirez is registered with FIDE as a USA player, so he also meets the rule posted upthread.
I don’t think the dates or the precise format of the 2013 US Championships have been announced yet, but if the USCF (or possibly the tournament sponsor/host club) is in the process of offering invitations, it seems likely that is something that will be announced soon.
Seems to me that over the past 40 years I had heard of more than one case of U.S. players living overseas, playing in overseas events and leagues, and then coming back here for the U.S. Championship (not even necessarily coming back every time they were eligible) and that this was necessary for them to make a living. Wasn’t Larry Christiansen the prime example of this?
U.S. Professional Chess players averaged income of $34k in 2011 according to simplyhired.com, certainly not an overwhelming amount. I think chessplayers deserve to earn a living, and I’ve always tried to encourage the possibilities of them doing so. If this is what players need to do to earn a living, so be it.
So I guess I’m having a hard time seeing the issue here.
I think Yasser did it more recently, but as far as I know, neither he nor Christiansen ever had their FIDE registry changed to another nation, even if they held dual citizenship with that other nation (as Caruana does.)
Incidentally, there is a precedent of sorts. Back in the 80’s, USCF Senior Master Loren Schmidt (born in Nebraska) was living and working in Japan. He played in the Japan Championship more than once and even played for Japan on their 1988 Olympiad team in Thessaloniki Greece. (I think he was their first board.)