It’s quite a week for Fabiano Caruana. He finished playing in Norway Chess yesterday, starts in Dortmund tomorrow and has only just officially completed his switch from the Italian to the US Chess Federation. To cap it all, he now has a manager, International Master Lawrence Trent. The top chess commentator and our colleague here on chess24 notes the opportunity was, “just too good to turn down”.

No-one has worked harder than Fabiano Caruana to get to the very top of world chess, but so far he’s done it without a formal manager to handle all the logistics involved in being a professional sportsman. Lawrence Trent will now perform the same role Espen Agdestein does for Magnus Carlsen, liaising with tournaments, sponsors, the media and making sure nothing gets in the way of Fabiano’s sporting success.



Lawrence is currently in Dortmund for the start of the 2015 Sparkassen Chess Meeting, and told us:

I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to be given the opportunity to work with Fabiano – a decent, hard-working guy I believe has all the attributes you need to become World Champion, and in the not so distant future. I will do everything in my power to make sure he has all the support he needs to give reaching the pinnacle of the sport his very best shot. Naturally I feel sad to be leaving my post at chess24, where I enjoyed my work immensely. I am certain the site will go from strength to strength and continue to revolutionise the way chess is broadcast, taught and played online. This opportunity, as many can imagine, was just too good to turn down.

Why Lawrence? Well, aside from his years of experience of the chess world as both a player and commentator, and the fact he obviously gets on well with Fabiano, we suspect it’s down to the English IM’s bullet skills

Although Lawrence will no longer have a permanent role here at chess24 we hope to work together on an occasional basis, and Premium Members will continue to have full access to well over 100 videos, including Trent's critically acclaimed French Repertoire for White.

Fabiano Caruana is top seed in Dortmund, where he’ll play seven rounds against an exciting field that includes Vladimir Kramnik, Wesley So and women’s no. 1 Hou Yifan. In the first round the world no. 2 has Black against Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi:

The action is here on chess24 from 15:15 CEST (the Dortmund broadcast has a 15-minute “anti-cheating” delay) on Saturday 26th June. Lawrence won’t be commentating, but Jan Gustafsson and assorted guests will!

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