“You work for a long period of time and the results don’t really show, but at some point everything just comes together and you start to play better” was how Fabiano Caruana described his performance in Stavanger this week.
Caruana followed up his first round win against Magnus Carlsen by leading all the way, and heisstill there at the start of Friday’s final round.
It has been something of a comeback. At his peak in 2014, Caruana achieved the highest ever tournament performance, rated at 3098, in the Sinquefield Cup, and he also reached his personal peak of 2851, the all-time third best after Carlsen and Garry Kasparov.
In 2018, he tied his world championship match with Carlsen 6-6, drawing all 12 classical games before losing the speed tie-break.