Learn Russian: Командир слишком умён, чтобы поручить миссию этому кандидату. - The commander is too smart to entrust the mission to this candidate.

While you could use умный, short adjectives like умён are heavily preferred when linked to a чтобы result clause. The short form emphasizes a state or characteristic that leads directly to a consequence—in this case, being too smart to make a bad decision.

Why is the verb поручить in the infinitive after чтобы?

When the subject of the main clause (командир) is the exact same person performing the action in the чтобы clause, Russian requires the infinitive. If someone else were performing the action, you would use the past tense, as in чтобы мы поручили (for us to entrust).

Why use the perfective verb поручить instead of the imperfective поручать?

The commander is deciding whether to entrust one specific mission to this particular candidate. Because it refers to a single, concrete action with an expected result rather than a repeated habit or ongoing process, the perfective aspect is required.

What cases are required by the verb поручить in this sentence?

The verb поручить (to entrust or assign) takes the accusative case for the direct object being assigned (миссию) and the dative case for the indirect object receiving the assignment (этому кандидату).