What is Fabiano Caruana’s IQ?
No IQ test is public. What is on record: grandmaster at 14, and a 2018 world title match with Carlsen.
Fabiano Caruana’s IQ has never been published: no test result is on record, and the “145 to 170” that circulates rests on the words “according to reports.” This site’s estimated IQ level for him is 140–155, inferred from a chess record that includes a 2844 peak FIDE rating, third-highest ever, and 2784 as of October 2026 (world No. 3).
Fabiano Caruana’s estimated IQ
- Grandmaster in 2007 at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days, the youngest grandmaster in the United States and Italy at the time (Chess.com).
- Peak FIDE rating of 2844 in October 2014, after he won that year’s Sinquefield Cup with 8½/10 and a 3098 performance rating; only Magnus Carlsen (2882) and Garry Kasparov (2851) have peaked higher. As of October 2026 FIDE lists him at 2784, No. 3 in the world.
- Winner of the 2018 Candidates Tournament in Berlin (9/14). In the world championship match against Carlsen in London (November 9–28, 2018) all 12 classical games were drawn before Carlsen won the rapid tiebreak 3–0; the two were rated 2832 and 2835 going in.
- US Chess Championships in 2016, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, the 2020 Tata Steel Masters (10/13) and the 2025 Grand Chess Tour; at the Candidates he was second in 2016 and third in 2026.
- An Elo rating is a published, continuously updated record of results against other rated players. It is strong evidence of chess strength and says nothing directly about reasoning on other tasks.
The range is an inference from a performance record, not a measurement: an Elo rating compares chess results with other rated players and does not convert into an IQ. His own closest remark is a line in a 2015 Interview magazine profile, “I was never really interested in mathematics,” which is about interest, not ability.
- Born
- July 30, 1992, Miami, Florida
- Field
- Chess; grandmaster since 2007, at 14 years, 11 months, 20 days
- Peak rating
- 2844 FIDE (October 2014), third-highest on record
- Rating, October 2026
- 2784 FIDE standard; world No. 3
- US Chess Champion
- 2016, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- Candidates Tournament
- Won 2018 (Berlin, 9/14); third in 2026 (7½/14)
- World title match
- London, November 2018, vs Magnus Carlsen: 12 classical draws, lost the rapid tiebreak 3–0
- Circulating IQ figure
- 145–170 “according to reports” (famouspeopletoday.com); no test named
What an IQ of 140–155 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Fabiano Caruana is
Fabiano Luigi Caruana, a chess grandmaster born in Miami, Florida, on July 30, 1992, is the player people mean when they search “fabiano caruana iq.” He learned the game at about age 5 in an after-school program in Park Slope, Brooklyn, around 1997, and National Master Bruce Pandolfini was his first chess coach. He later worked with Grandmaster Miron Sher and Grandmaster Alexander Chernin. In 2004 he moved to Europe, first to Madrid, where he devoted himself to chess full time (Interview magazine, 2015; amNY, 2018).
How to read the numbers. On the usual scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15), the circulating top figure of 170 is 4.7 standard deviations above the mean, about 1 in 650,000 by the normal curve (our arithmetic); a result that rare would need a verified test, and none is published. This site’s range of 140–155 is 2.7 to 3.7 standard deviations, about 1 in 260 to 1 in 8,100, from an IQ of 140 to a little above an IQ of 150; how rare a high IQ score is explains the arithmetic.
Fabiano Caruana IQ versus Magnus Carlsen IQ is the comparison people search most, and neither has a published test. Several other chess players are profiled here: Carlsen is estimated at 145–160, Hikaru Nakamura and Viswanathan Anand at 140–155, Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgár at 135–155, Gukesh Dommaraju at 135–150 and Bobby Fischer at 160–180, against Caruana’s 140–155. The ranges do not follow the rating lists: a rating compares a player with the field of its own time, so Caruana’s 2844 peak, below Carlsen’s 2882 and Kasparov’s 2851 and above every other player’s, does not decide an IQ range.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
Fabiano Caruana: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1992Born July 30 in Miami, Florida.
- c. 1997Learns chess at about age 5 in an after-school program in Park Slope, Brooklyn; Bruce Pandolfini becomes his first coach.
- 2007Becomes a grandmaster at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days (Chess.com).
- 2014Wins the Sinquefield Cup with 8½/10 and a 3098 performance rating; in October reaches his peak FIDE rating, 2844, ranked No. 2 in the world.
- 2016Wins the US Chess Championship on his first appearance, 8½/11 and undefeated; finishes second at the Candidates Tournament in Moscow (7½/14).
- March 2018Wins the Candidates Tournament in Berlin on 9/14, earning the title match against Magnus Carlsen.
- November 2018In London (November 9–28), all 12 classical games with Carlsen are drawn; Carlsen wins the rapid tiebreak 3–0.
- 2022–2025Wins the US Chess Championship in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025; also wins the 2025 Grand Chess Tour.
- 2026Finishes third at the Candidates Tournament with 7½/14.
- October 2026FIDE lists him at 2784, world No. 3.
Where the 145–170 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Fabiano Caruana’s IQ has no test behind it: no result, tester or date is on record, and the 145–170 that circulates is a single line, “According to reports, Caruana’s IQ ranges between 145 to 170,” in the Trivia section of famouspeopletoday.com. The line names no report. Any Fabiano Caruana IQ score is therefore an inference from his chess record, and a range that ends at 170 reaches well beyond what a rating list can support. That matches what this site has found about where celebrity IQ numbers come from: a figure appears without its source attached and is then repeated, as the 190 is for Magnus Carlsen.
Is Fabiano Caruana smart in the way a test would show? The closest first-hand remark is in a July 27, 2015 Interview magazine profile by Christopher Bollen. The writer notes the assumption that Caruana must have been “some sort of calculating supercomputer in teenage form,” and Caruana answers with an admission: “I was never really interested in mathematics.” That is a statement about interests, not a score, and it does not say whether he was ever tested. The piece mentions no IQ.
What is measured, and public, is chess. Chess.com’s player profile and Wikipedia give his grandmaster title in 2007 at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days. His peak FIDE rating of 2844 (October 2014) is the third-highest on record, behind only Carlsen’s 2882 (May 2014) and Garry Kasparov’s 2851 (July 1999); it followed his 2014 Sinquefield Cup win, 8½/10 with a 3098 performance rating. FIDE’s October 2026 list puts him at 2784, No. 3 in the world, behind Carlsen (2823) and Hikaru Nakamura (2792).
The titles are dated. Caruana won the Candidates Tournament in Berlin in March 2018 (9/14) and played Carlsen for the world title in London from November 9 to 28, 2018: all 12 classical games were drawn, and Carlsen won the rapid tiebreak 3–0. He won the US Chess Championship in 2016, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, won the Tata Steel Masters in 2020 with 10/13 and the 2025 Grand Chess Tour, and finished second in the 2016 Candidates, fifth in 2022 and third in 2026.
What does research say about chess grandmaster IQ? Burgoyne, Sala, Gobet, Macnamara, Campitelli and Hambrick (Intelligence, 2016) found an average correlation of r = .24 between chess skill and cognitive abilities, corrected to r = .22 in 2018. That is a modest relationship, and an average over many players cannot say what one player’s IQ is. More at chess ratings and IQ and chess and IQ.
How we read a number →Carlsen 2823 (No. 1), Nakamura 2792 (No. 2), Caruana 2784 (No. 3), Sindarov 2782 (No. 4).
Label “Fabiano Caruana,” description “Italian-American chess player”; born 1992-07-30; FIDE ID 2020009. The entity is the player.
Born July 30, 1992 in Miami; grandmaster in 2007 at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days; peak 2844 in October 2014 (highest ranking No. 2), “third-highest-rated player in history”; US champion 2016 (8.5/11, undefeated, first participation) and 2022–2025; peak list: Carlsen 2882 (2014-05), Kasparov 2851 (1999-07), Caruana 2844 (2014-10); a 100-point rating edge is an expected score of 64%, 200 points 76%.
London, November 9–28, 2018: 12 classical draws, rapid tiebreak won by Carlsen 3–0, ratings 2832 (Caruana) and 2835 (Carlsen). Candidates: 2016 second (7.5, Moscow), 2018 first (9/14, Berlin, March 10–28), 2022 fifth (6.5), 2026 third (7.5, Pegeia, Cyprus). Sinquefield Cup winner 2014 (8½/10, 3098 performance) and 2023; Tata Steel Masters 2020 (10/13); Grand Chess Tour 2025 winner; Freestyle World Championship February 13–15, 2026: Carlsen beat Caruana in the final.
Grandmaster at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days, youngest in the United States and Italy; peak 2844 after the 2014 Sinquefield Cup; FIDE Master 2002, International Master 2006; first coach Bruce Pandolfini, later Miron Sher and Alexander Chernin. amNY: chess at about age 5 in Park Slope, around 1997; the move to Europe dated to 2004.
Caruana: “I was never really interested in mathematics.” The writer’s narration, not Caruana’s words, refers to a “calculating supercomputer in teenage form.” After the move to Madrid he devoted himself to chess full time. No IQ is mentioned.
Average correlation r = .24 between chess skill and cognitive abilities (r = .22 in the corrected analysis).
24 studies (40 effect sizes), 2,788 children taught chess and 2,433 controls, overall g = 0.338; almost none of the studies compared chess-taught groups with an active control group (the 2017 review by Sala, Foley and Gobet).
Trivia section: “According to reports, Caruana’s IQ ranges between 145 to 170.” No report, test, tester or date is named.
None of Wikipedia, Chess.com’s profile, the 2015 Interview magazine profile or the pages above shows a score, tester or date; the 145–170 is attributed to “reports” only.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Fabiano Caruana, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
“According to reports, Caruana’s IQ ranges between 145 to 170,” in the Trivia section of famouspeopletoday.com, with no test, tester or date. People search for it as “fabiano caruana iq,” “what is fabiano caruana’s iq” and “fabiano caruana iq vs magnus carlsen.”
No IQ test result for Caruana has been published, and the 145–170 has no source. The page that prints it, famouspeopletoday.com, gives it as one trivia line introduced by “According to reports” and names no report, test, tester or date. Neither Wikipedia nor a July 27, 2015 Interview magazine profile gives an IQ figure for him.
The circulating 145–170 starts inside this site’s 140–155 range and runs 15 points above its top. A 170 would be 4.7 standard deviations above the mean, about 1 in 650,000 by the normal curve (our arithmetic), and no rating list or tournament table can show that.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Fabiano Caruana — frequently asked
What is Fabiano Caruana’s IQ?
Fabiano Caruana has no published IQ test result. The “145 to 170” that circulates is a one-line “according to reports” item on famouspeopletoday.com that names no test. This site’s estimated IQ level for him is 140–155, inferred from his chess record: a 2844 peak FIDE rating, and 2784 (world No. 3) as of October 2026.
Is Fabiano Caruana smart, or a genius?
His record shows exceptional strength at one demanding task: grandmaster at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days, 2018 Candidates winner, US champion in 2016 and from 2022 to 2025. That is documented achievement, not a test score, so it supports a range (140–155), not a single IQ. Whether that counts as genius depends on the definition; no test is on record.
Has Fabiano Caruana taken an IQ test?
No result has been published, and he does not discuss one in the interviews cited here. That does not say he was never tested. Neither Wikipedia nor a 2015 Interview magazine profile gives an IQ for him, and the only number in circulation, 145–170, cites no test, tester or date.
How does Fabiano Caruana’s IQ compare with Magnus Carlsen’s?
These are this site’s estimated ranges, not test scores: Caruana 140–155 and Magnus Carlsen 145–160, which overlap. On FIDE’s October 2026 list Carlsen is rated 2823 and Caruana 2784, a 39-point gap that the Elo formula turns into an expected score of about 56% (our arithmetic). Neither has a published IQ test result.
Is Fabiano Caruana’s chess rating his IQ?
No. An Elo rating turns results into an expected score: a player rated 100 points higher is expected to score 64%, 200 points higher 76%. Caruana’s 2784 compares his results with other rated players and cannot be converted into an IQ. Chess skill and cognitive ability correlate only modestly (r = .22 in a 2016 meta-analysis, as corrected in 2018).
Do chess grandmasters have high IQs?
The link is modest. A 2016 meta-analysis in Intelligence found an average correlation of r = .24 between chess skill and cognitive abilities, corrected to r = .22 in 2018. That is a modest link, and it does not settle the IQ of any elite grandmaster.
Does chess increase IQ?
The evidence is weak. A 2016 meta-analysis of school chess lessons (24 studies, 2,788 children taught chess, 2,433 controls) found a moderate average effect (g = 0.338), but almost none of the reviewed studies compared chess-taught children with an active control group, so the effect on IQ itself is not settled.
What is Fabiano Caruana’s chess rating?
As of October 2026 FIDE rates him 2784, No. 3 in the world behind Magnus Carlsen (2823) and Hikaru Nakamura (2792). His peak is 2844 (October 2014), the third-highest on record behind Carlsen’s 2882 and Garry Kasparov’s 2851. He became a grandmaster in 2007, at 14 years, 11 months and 20 days.
How does my IQ compare with Fabiano Caruana?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other athletes profiles, starting with Magnus Carlsen.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More athletes profiles — same field, same method
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Portrait © Frans Peeters, CC BY-SA 2.0. The background-removed portrait above is a derivative work and is likewise offered under the same licence. · Photograph by ChessKelly, CC BY 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Fryta 73 (2015), CC BY-SA 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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