Fabiano Caruana

American GM

“I think it’s kind of a given that Magnus is playing board one, which makes a lot of sense. Although I think that we could also mix up the board order. The other boards are very — yeah, you could mix them up however you want. I don’t think we’re doing it quite by rating, although I don’t want to say what the plan is.

We all are very comparable in strength in many ways and all of us have good results. Especially recently I’ve been happy with my Blitz play. So, I hope that I’ll be able to take that good form into Blitz.

A lot of it comes down to the amateur board and that one is always… It’s not known. You don’t know a lot of these players. They could be under 2000 by rating, but maybe they’re like 2200 by strength. And then you have someone who’s basically cleaning up and delivering for the team… And that board is no less valuable than board one.

So, it’s easy to say that we’re super stacked and in some ways we are. And also, our women’s boards are — Alexandra Kosteniuk, Aleksandra Goryachkina — also two of the strongest women in the world. But it can also come down to a board that you don’t exactly know what you’re getting into.”