 He's often referred to as the machine due to his superhuman calculation ability. He's one of the strongest potential challengers to the world championship. I'm very happy to have with us world number two US champion Fabiano Caruana. Welcome to Gibraltar. Thanks for having me. And you were coming back here, Fabi, after 2011. Yeah. So after all these years, what made you come back? I wanted to experience something a bit different from the tournaments I usually play. Open tournament is a different challenge. It's not a new experience, but it's something which I don't normally face. And it's interesting for me. It's also, I think, more fun to play different players. And it's one of the most reputable open tournaments in the world. So it was a good choice, I thought. And do you personally enjoy an open tournament or a closed tournament more? What's your personal preference? I think because it's different, I prefer open tournaments. I mean, in closed tournaments I usually play the same, you know, dozen players. Usually you have the same repertoires or some variations of that and you have to try to find something new against the Brulein or against the Petrov or against the Knight or a Fendt. It can get pretty tiring and very difficult to find something which your opponent doesn't expect. You know, playing these guys all the time does sometimes get a bit monotonous. Talking about opening preparations now, that is one of your strengths. Now, there's a lot of criticism and admiration for opening preparation. A lot of people say it's taking over the game. What do you think? I mean, it's true that a lot of openings are very well analyzed now, especially if you go into, like, huge mega variations like the Marshal or the Bishop G5, but there's a lot of unexplored areas. And I really don't think we see that problem of, like, preparation killing chess. If they can't find advantage in the main lines of long theory, then they'll just deviate from the very start. And so you'll get interesting chess either way. Let's go back a little bit to how it all started for you. When you were 12, you moved from the U.S. to Madrid. And purely, I mean, the main reason for it was your game. Now, that's a big commitment for the whole family to relocate. Yeah. I mean, my parents made the decision at the time to go to Europe. They wanted to see Europe. They wanted me to experience a different culture and a different sort of life. So I left school in the United States and I went to Spain. And I started playing chess very consistently and studying chess a lot more. Along the way, you had a lot of coaches that you worked with, a lot of different trainers. Now, how do you decide that right now you're working with Rustam Kazemzano? I mean, I've worked with a lot of coaches. And, for the last two and a half years, I've been working with Rustam Kazemzano before that with Vladimir Tutolov. I mean, I've worked with a lot of coaches and also other players who are, like, you know, less consistently than my main coaches. I've worked with a lot of grandmasters over the years, which has been very helpful because every player has a different way of viewing the game and of working on chess. And I mean, in terms of, like, my current situation, I just find it very comfortable to work with Rustam. I think we get along well and we also achieve a good amount of work. And I think we have a pretty high level in terms of our analysis and our work ethic. Now, of course, computers are indispensable in today's time when it comes to preparation. What is the right way for a player to use the computer? How would you advise them that they should use the machine? I think it's just more something that you practice and then you get better at it. But in general, the stronger you are, the better you will be at noticing the times when you should press the computer a bit more to analyze this position rather than just take his word for it. A lot of it is just assessing which is the most practical way. Like, if something is objectively not that great or leads to a draw, but you know that your opponent just won't be able to find that. And a lot of our analysis I do just ends with, like, okay, this is new. It's a new idea. They won't expect it because the computer doesn't show it. And you have to make a ton of difficult moves. And that's enough for me. So it's not important for it to be the top move of the computer, but just a practically difficult option for your opponent to deal with. Yeah, I mean, if I think at the end of the day that something will work, I don't really care if it's good or not. It doesn't really matter to me if this is going to be novelty of the year or if, you know, people will write online that it's already refuted, that it's so obvious that it's dead lost. And then in 2015 you decided to move back to the U.S. So what made you do that? Well, that was a more personal decision from my side. U.S. chess, like, changed very dramatically over the 10 years that I left the Federation in 2005 and came back in 2015 and U.S. chess just kind of exploded after that. And now we see that it's one of the strongest, even arguably the strongest chess nation in the world. We just won the Olympiad a few months ago. And I wanted to get back to the place which felt most like home to me. And it also seemed like just a perfect time to come back when chess is booming in the U.S. What would you say is your biggest trend? I think that my positional understanding is pretty solid. I think I've grown very practical in my approach to chess over the years. I think that in general I'm a well-rounded player. I mean, all aspects of my game there aren't huge weaknesses. There are some things that I definitely have to work on. But nothing which makes me a huge target for another player. And so it's not so easy for other players to get the better of me. Now, also when you're playing, you're quite a poker face. That's quite a great quality to have. Is that something that you worked on? No, I haven't worked on it. I mean, there are players who are very expressive like Nakamura. Kasparov was, of course, notoriously. I mean, when he didn't like his position, I think you could easily tell. Even if you're not a chess player? Yeah. I mean, I heard that he would curse in Russian when he realized he made a mistake. There were famous videos of his game against Bishi where he blundered. And once he realized that the shock in his face was very obvious. Against Bishi, I made a similar, I mean, a terrible blunder. I was lucky I wasn't losing on the spot, but somehow I drew an end. And after the game he asked me if I blundered or if I sacrificed. Because you were still expressionless? Yeah, he couldn't tell. I was surprised because I thought it was pretty obvious that I had blundered. I don't know. I mean, I don't think it makes a huge difference. Because you see players who have bad poker faces who do pretty well on chess. The distance between, say, a world number two and even a world number eight, nine is not really that much. It's a few points and a few good tournaments here and there. Do you keep an eye out in competition? Do you ever feel any sort of insecurity or something when it comes to players who are around you? Do you follow that game? I do follow other games. I definitely don't feel happy when they do well. There are actually players who I kind of, you know, I kind of enjoy seeing them lose, which sounds very sadistic, but I can't help it. But I don't think it's because of rating. It's just... I mean, okay, right now I'm counting on ratings. So who are these players? I can't say that. I mean, I'm counting on rating to qualify for the game. So I have a pretty safe level. If I manage to maintain it, then it should be enough. So I prefer... I mean, I don't like to see players coming very close to my rating. I mean, if I keep doing well, I shouldn't care about anyone else's results. All right, so your focus is more just on your performance. You know, if I do well... Except the ones who you feel happy when they don't do that well. No, that's just some pure sadistic enjoyment that I get. With the US team, as it was in Baku, it's one of the strongest teams in the world. Which other country do you think is... I think India is... I'm not just saying that because you're saying it across from me. But India is really improving a lot. And, you know, in Olympia, they always do well. I think they got fourth, yeah, and in the last one. They are a very strong team, and probably will continue to get stronger in the future. China, despite their bad results in the last Olympiad, are of course very strong, and they're still improving. And you never know, because there are so many young Chinese players who are up and coming, and you haven't even heard of them. And then you, like, at some point see them pop up into some tournament and gain, like, 100 points. You know, we saw some surprising results from, like, Iran. They're very young. They had a teenage team, and they scored very well. Or even like, I mean, Norway, with Magnus leading it, and then... They did really well as well. Yeah, I mean, if their younger players continue to improve, like Tari, or I'm not sure who else is very promising, but yeah, they get some players closing in on 2700, they could also be a contender for medals in the future Olympiad. Right, now there's been a lot of talk about how the gap in rating between you and World Number One is getting really close. You're 13 points behind him. Is that something that you think about? Is that part of your goal? It is a goal. I mean, I do want to, at some point, catch up to him in rating or overtake him. If I continue playing well, then at some point it might happen. We wish you all the best for the trade-wise Gibraltar Chess Festival. Thanks. And can't wait to see you in action. Thank you.