Chasing Caruana

[Jack Maguire]

The U.S. is evidently making concerted efforts to get Caruana to switch federations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/sp...om-abroad.html

[Hans Jung]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Its going to be interesting to see how much money is finally offered and if he accepts.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Done deal!

http://en.chessbase.com/post/caruana...-back-to-u-s-a

[Hans Jung]

Re: Chasing Caruana

This sure is hot news! Makes me more eager to get back to St. Louis!

[Victor Plotkin]

Re: Chasing Caruana

From my article about 2014 Olympiad (Sept 2014): " Probably, W.So will be available for USA next time. I heard something about Caruana's intention to change the federation from Italy to USA; he is a citizen of US and was born there. However, I am not sure about this."

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Done deal!

http://en.chessbase.com/post/caruana...-back-to-u-s-a

I wonder who is paying the rather hefty ransom, er Fide fee? I did not see mention of that
- just the implication that he can play rather soon for the U.S. so I presume the fee is to be paid.
Perhaps Rex Sinqufield (spelling?) is coughing up the cash?

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Chasing Caruana

There's little doubt that Caruana was well compensated but the exact particulars are still unknown.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-applies-play/

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Chasing Caruana

Press Release from the U.S. Chess Federation
Jean Hoffmann

Fabiano Caruana to Join U.S. Chess Federation

SAINT LOUIS (May 12, 2015) - The United States Chess Federation (USCF) today announced that Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana has initiated the application process to change chess federations, which, when approved, will allow him to play for the United States. Fabiano, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Italy, has been playing for the Italian Chess Federation for a number of years.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to be representing the United States again and working with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. I'd like to thank everybody who has made this possible, and I look forward to this exciting new partnership," said Fabiano Caruana."In addition, I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude for the support given to me over the past ten years by the Italian Chess Federation. I wish them all the best for the future."

When complete, this change will unite Fabiano Caruana, who is ranked third in the world, with Hikaru Nakamura, the world's fourth ranked player and Wesley So who is ninth, under the United States flag.

"The addition of Fabiano Caruana to the United States' roster is historic. For the first time in history the United States will have three of the top ten players in world " said Jean Hoffman, Executive Director of the USCF, "Over the past several years, we have made tremendous strides to increase the awareness of, and appreciation for, the great game of chess in the United States. The return of Fabiano to the USCF is another large step toward achieving our goals."

Caruana hopes to compete in his first tournament as a United States player on the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis, Missouri. The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events for the world's best players. The 2015 Tour was created in partnership between the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (Sinquefield Cup), Tower AS (Norway Chess 2015) and Chess Promotions, Ltd. (London Chess Classic).

http://www.uschess.org/content/view/13060/141/

Comments:

- Wow! Great news! Thank you --- just curious though: will he even live in the USA some of the time (in addition to playing for us)?

- Outstanding news. And what a great top 3 on next year's Olympiad team. The burning question now is who will be the added pair to round out the team? Robson and Shankland? Sam has already assembled a great resume as a member of a US International Team. What a great thing to have a team with the oldest just 28 years old, and the average age below 25.

A first place Olympiad finish would be greatest PR accomplishment for US Chess since RJF in 1972. Putting the cart before horse, but once the Olympiad dates are nailed down, and the US team composition is known, it might be worth organizers to plan events, concurrent with the Olympiad or in the subsequent months. Anyone else remember the glorious chaos at tournaments in 1972?

- Or maybe Alex Lenderman on board 4. He just had a stupendous performance at the World Team competition in Armenia.
Last year he also tied for first with Kamsky and Akobian before it was decided in that unfair nonsense rapid playoff.

- Still with the axe to grind about the 2014 playoff, I see. What part of "the playoff has to end in one day" is so difficult to comprehend?
Getting back on topic...I suspect both Kamsky and Onischuk will be at least intrigued about making this team now, which will make those last two spots that much harder to forecast.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Chasing Caruana

Probable Cost of the Transfer

Brian Towers on the English Chess Forum:

I make the USCF bill to be €55,250 based on the FIDE Transfer Rules –

https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.h...&view=category.

That should be €250 payable to FIDE for notification plus €5,000 to FIDE for transferring a GM plus €50,000 payable to the Italian federation in compensation for a player rated over 2700.

Any advance on €55,250?
___________

55250 euros at today’s exchange rate is US$62,123.65

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Chasing Caruana

'The Chess Mind' has an updated story. The 4th and final link (chess24.com) is particularly good.

http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/201...a-updated.html

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Chasing Caruana

Two interesting comments on the transfer from readers on chess.com:

(Mozekgames) -

Its funny how people are complaining about Caruana doing something for money and how this isn’t how real sports should be run.

1) Caruana left the US Chess Federation because they couldn’t/wouldn’t support him financially as well as the Italian Federation. [There might have also been some politics since Nakamura was the chosen child at the time, this was 10 years ago mine you. Naka was a clear talent and quite the Internet sensation gaining lots of attention by the chess community, justifiably so too at the time. During the ensuing 10 years [wow its been that long?!] US chess has had a relative renaissance funded and managed by Rex Sinquefield who has moved past the petty internal squabbling of the USCF board and helped provide broader support for more players. It makes a lot of sense for Caruana to change federations where he can become part of a larger media system, gain potential sponsors and be managed as part of a team by arguably one of the best financial mangers in the world.

2) The complaint that a player should stay loyal to their selected federation and can never move makes zero sense. Any person can move countries. It might surprise you that there is a long history of players changing federations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...sfers_in_sport

3) Italian players did not make this same complaint when Caruana transferred from the US to Italy (and yes people did complain about it but it was short lived and understood in the end that the USCF could simply not support that many players.)

4) Players that complain about the money involved have to think that really they likely only have a few years of play at the top level. They have to support themselves with air-travel, food, trainers, managers, and family. They are the top 10 in the world so deserve that. Compare this to the top 10 or even top 100 in football or any other sport and its not even close.

(inselschaker) -

Caruana's two federation changes are entirely different stories, so it's at least not absurd if some people understood the first and criticize the second one. Moreover (elaborated upon by Mozekgames) the USCF could be blamed the first time, while the Italian federation cannot be blamed now.

Ten years ago it wasn't just about Italian money, but also about European coaches. I say "European" rather than Italian, because Italy didn't, and probably still doesn't have the chessic resources to fully help a talented player like Caruana. BTW I also see Karjakin's controversial federation change in this light: Given reason was that he wanted to work with top Russian coaches - never mind that there were also rumors about personal financial benefits for Karjakin, and only later he emphasized that he is ethnic Russian from Crimea.

As to money: Yes, chess players should earn money - it's a bit debatable whether just a few should earn a very comfortable living, while those only slightly below may already be struggling, but that's a different story. In the given context, it's only "funny" that some people claim/pretend that money doesn't play a major role, or even that there is no money involved.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Chasing Caruana

Chasing Caruana

Doing a Caruana - i.e. changing federations, not the winning seven-games-in-a-row thing.

From chessdom.com

Top rated German chess player Arkadij Naiditsch is set to change the federation and play for Azerbaijan in the future, Stefan Loffler reports for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Naiditsch is the only German player rated over 2700 FIDE and he defeated the World Champion Magnus Carlsen twice in six months.

Naiditsch has long been at the odds with the German Chess Federation, even if in between he led the national team to the amazing victory in the 2011 European Team Chess Championship. At some point he even contemplated switching to play for Serbia. FAZ mentions that the recent Congress of the German Chess Federation in Halberstadt did not even discuss Naiditsch’s situation. The move is coming at the time when the top chess federations are looking to strengthen their teams for the 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku.

According to the rumors, Azerbaijan tried to sign Fabiano Caruana, but the Italian/American national accepted the offer to move to the US Chess Federation. Asked about an offer from Azerbaijan, Caruana said: “Yeah, there was some interest, but I really think I shouldn’t discuss it”.

http://www.chessdom.com/arkadij-naid...or-azerbaijan/

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: Chasing Caruana

50k€ for a simple transfer?

Does the Italian federation or FIDE can actually enforce that? What if the player just leaves the country and decides to play elsewhere.

I seriously doubt these figures. Of course, somebody in the US will pay a few k's for the administrative fees to get Caruana over. But 50k to the Italian federation? I don't know... sounds unrealistic.

Just here in Canada it would probably cost 100k in lawyers fees just to get that kind of stuff enforced.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Chasing Caruana

50k€ for a simple transfer?

Does the Italian federation or FIDE can actually enforce that? What if the player just leaves the country and decides to play elsewhere.

I seriously doubt these figures. Of course, somebody in the US will pay a few k's for the administrative fees to get Caruana over. But 50k to the Italian federation? I don't know... sounds unrealistic.

Just here in Canada it would probably cost 100k in lawyers fees just to get that kind of stuff enforced.

FIDE is a dictatorship, run by IllusionOf, so if they don't pay the 50K euros, FIDE can just boot all Italian federation players out of FIDE rated or sponsored events. The onus would be on the Italian federation to sue FIDE I think and I'll bet they don't have much more money than the CFC...

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Chasing Caruana

50k€ for a simple transfer?

Does the Italian federation or FIDE can actually enforce that?

They player would be not transferred from ITA to USA in FIDE papers, and most likely he would be not allowed to play for the US team.

CAN had a fight with ARG for A.Kovalyov over similar transfer fees.