With the upcoming world chess championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana there is an increased interest in the two contenders. Alexander Kalinin recently published the book Fabiano Caruana – His Amazing Story and His Most Instructive Chess Games. This book originally appeared in Russian Fabiano Caruana. Шахматные уроки (Russian Chess House) but has now been made available to a broader audience in a updated release by New In Chess. You can download a sample of the book here: sample Fabiano Caruana by Alexander Kalinin .

The author Alexander Kalinin is known from ChessOk’s Encyclopedia of the Middlegame series and more recently the book Chess Training for Candidate Masters. Alexander Kalinin helped GM Daniel Naroditsky (FIDE 2615) become world champion under 12. His book is based on his own journey in becoming a master and his training of many students. His approach is based on 1) Forming a relationship with chess as an art; 2) Perfecting analytical mastery; 3) Study of the classical heritage; 4) Drawing the lessons from interaction with one’s competitors and with more experienced players. It is clear that his collection of well selected training positions is one of the key assets of GM Alexander Kalinin as a trainer.

The book on Fabiano Caruana is divided into 2 chapters. The first part (70 pages) “The rise of an American chess star” describes Fabiano’s chess life chronologically. (The Introduction was written in July 2018 and the book does not include games from the Sinquefield Cup or the Chess Olympiad in Batumi). The second part of the book (120 pages) “Learn from Fabiano’s best games” is a collection of Fabiano’s best games structured based on themes like: “Attacking the enemy king, Attacking on the queenside, Defense and counterattack, Playing on two flanks etc”. These are quite universal themes and perhaps that is also one of the characteristics of Fabiano Caruana: he is a very universal player!

The historic overview of Fabiano’s life in Part 1 is definitely a pleasant read. I do think this is a book of missed opportunities. The interviews by Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam for New In Chess are one of the best in the chess world. It is clear that Axelander Kalinin had full access to these NIC resources. Yet, for his book he only uses Russian interviews as his source which feels limited.

The 62 games are well selected and analyzed. Alexander Kalinin complements his own analysis with notes from Fabiano Caruano for New In Chess and other GMs for Chessbase.

So overall this is a good introduction to Fabiano Caruano as a world chess championship contender.

But like I stated before, I believe it is a book of missed opportunities.

To be more specific, I would have expected the following:

An interview with Fabiano Caruana after the Candidates 2018

A more explicit strength-weakness analysis of Fabiano Caruana

An assessment of Fabiano Caruana’s chances against Magnus Carlsen in the match for the world chess championship

The use of infographics and statistical analysis to highlight some of Fabiano's key characteristics

The use of New In Chess' interviews of Fabiano Caruano

Personally, I hope that New In Chess will publish a world chess championship preview with, for instance, an assessment of a chess legend like Judith Polgar or Jan Timman, with witty humor and in depth analysis by Anish Giri and games and interviews from the New In Chess Yearbook and Magazine.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Interview Fabiano Caruana in New In Chess 2018#3 after winning the Candidates in Berlin