There’s a petition drive to get the president to invite the world championship challenger to the White House.
Like it or not, linking US Chess in any way to the present occupant of the Oval Office is anathema and disgusting to me and many of my chess playing friends. I would hope that Caruana would follow the example of a number of Philadelphia Eagles players and refuse to go to the Trump White House.
Then again, maybe Trump could cut a deal for US Chess with a Russian oligarch or two. Paging Carter Page…
Politics aside, what’s the upside for Caruana of visiting the White House BEFORE the match? Isn’t it likely to be a distraction? It might even be considered an admission that he won’t win the match.
Given the state of politics in the USA now, Caruna would have to be brain dead to do something like this.
Caruana has dual citizenship, as I recall. Not sure if he was born in the US or in Italy. So far, no tariffs have been placed on Italy. The new immigration policies are aimed at other countries and ethnicities. Caruana has the blessing and support of a benefactor who is involved in conservative politics, so he would be a shoe in to get an invite to the White House as a shiny bauble to deflect attention from more important matters. Usually, though, you have to actually win something to get a White House invite. At this point, it is premature.
According to Wikipedia, he was born in Miami.
Alex Relyea
The chances that any thread involving President Trump will remain civil for long are not encouraging, but I’ll give this a chance anyway.
Should Caruana win, I would certainly like to see him get an invite, which he could accept or decline according to his preference. I’m not going to sign a petition for it, though. It just seems that there are so many more important causes to pester the big man about. 
One thing that would make this interesting would be that (I think) it would be the first such invitation issued by a U.S. President to the winner of the World Chess Championship. Some checking seems to indicate that even Fischer never got an invitation from President Nixon, although I believe he did send his congratulations.
By all means correct me if I’m wrong, which may well be the case. And who was the strongest player to get an invitation to the White House on the strength of his chess successes?
“Big man?” Well…he does look like he’s gained mucho weight since the election.
i thought the US didn’t have any GMs? lol. as for caruana-trump, i would have to go with caruana in a straight -up match.
…scot…
I imagine the result would be similar to the Sting-Kasparov match back in 2000.
Under the current political climate, it would best if the USCF abstains from any sort of politics. Something as mundane as having a chess player visit the President, under any other president, would be a good thing, but right now, the national mood about politics is extremely polarizing.
Caruana might not even like Trump, and if he was invited and decided to decline the invitation, it would just be bad press for the USCF. Something entirely avoidable.
Sigh. After staying away from this forum for months, I check in tonight, and here we go. Can’t we stick to something every single one of us loves and can agree on…chess? I come here to GET AWAY from that man…his name has no place in a chess forum OR a chess magazine. These are not normal times in the United States, especially for people of color. Let’s use this place to share our enjoyment of chess.
I need a glass of wine before my head explodes…
“lighten up, Francis”.
…scot…
Sure. Check out Powerful Monarch Chess.
Bill Smythe
Why???