Fabiano Caruana, world No 2 and reigning US champion, defended his title last Wednesday with an impressive score of 7/10 in St Louis. He has attained the title four times throughout his career. Upon receiving the grand prize of $62,000, Caruana simply remarked “This is one of my favourite tournaments to play,” and expressed his intent to obtain a fifth title next year. The runners up, which included the infamous Hans Niemman, were solidly behind Caruana by one and a half points, resulting in a six way 5.5/10 tie on second place.

These included notable players; such as the aforementioned Hans Niemann, the tournament favourite Wesley So (who drew every game and dropped out of the top 10) and grandmasters Levon Aronian, Ray Robson and Leinier Domínguez. The tournament’s proceedings were interrupted by the 4th degree assault charges levied on Christoper Yoo.

Photograph: Chess.com

By winning his fourth US champion title, Caruana has joined the likes of Bobby Fischer, Hikaru Nakamura and Samuel Reshevsky. Though without counting Fischer, Caruana stands as the strongest player out of all of them. His all-time peak of 2851 puts him third after Carlsen and Kasparov, and he has come the closest to winning the world champion title in 2018. His recent performance is elevated by his win at the 9LX, beating chess titans Gary Kasparov and Hikaru Nakamura.

In a stunning performance Caruana has cemented his position as one of the top chess players in the world, and it will be captivating to watch his later performances as he gets closer and closer to Fischer’s record of 8 US Champion titles.