Introducing the official Chess player profile of Iranian-French Super Grandmaster, Alireza Firouzja. Alireza currently has a classical FIDE rating of 2804, making him #3 in the world. For more information on FIDE ratings, see the step-by-step guide on how to get a FIDE rating.
Full name: Alireza Firouzja
Title: Grandmaster
Born: June 18th, 2003
Place of Birth: Iran
Ratings
Fide rating: 2804
Rapid: 2670
Std: 2791
Peak World Ranking: #2
Profiles
Biography
Alireza Firouzja was born in 2003, June in Babol (Iran). He’s one of the best youngest players with a lot of achievements. The leading French chess player and 3rd rated Iran player. The world number 12 world chess player has been living in Chartres in France since 2019. He was recently granted citizenship in France. Before Firouzja was transferred, he was still playing with the Fide flag. After the transfer, he joined the French federation of Chess, which presented him with opportunities, like participating in the world cup chess match with Javokhir Sindarov on July 15th.
Alireza was 15 years old when he moved to France. Under the Fide flag, he played for the world championship(rapid) in 2019 and was awarded a silver medal. He also received an individual gold medal in one of his leagues. He was granted the title of Grandmaster in the year 2018. He also scored high ratings in the games he played, the outstanding one with the peak ratings of 2804.
The Beginning
Firouzja learned to play Chess by playing Chess on the internet more frequently. At the tender age of 12 in 2016, he won the national-level Iranian championship. Also, the best player on board 4 in the Asian champ’s team played in 2016. He also participated in the Sharjah Masters in 2016, and he performed well. Also represented his country at the Olympiads chess in 2018. Further, he managed to make a significant rating of 2018 in January and was also a champion in the Iranian Chess for the 2nd time with impressive points of 9/11. In 2021- France chess announced the naturalization of Firouzja in France.
At 15 years old, he was termed by America’s specialist Hikaru as a three-minute top Chess player in the universe. While at the age of 16, Alireza won against Russian Daniil and was the first chess player in Iranian to advance for world cup, FIDE the third time. Experts of the match termed him as a superstar. Levon from Armia barred him from participating with his fellow citizens after he won in Iran’s Parham. Carlen, the world champion, was impressed with the Iranian’s tactics, and he said he was a good chess player. Alizera defeated Carlen in 2019, and the winners termed the world championship win. Arbiter explains that was the best thing to do according to the game’s rules.
Arbiter also won the Asian championship with 7.5/8 points, with javokhir having 7.5/8 points and 6.5/8 points. The two were also declared winners. Other players who also participated in the game were confident to be at the top at the end of the game. However, they couldn’t manage the tactics displayed by Alizera and the other two winners. However, some did not disappoint. For instance, Bharat, India’s chess player, won the open u-8, China’s Wei, winning in the U -14, and Vaishali, who has frequently dominated u-14 (girl’s section), had a draw in the U-18.
At 16, he won the Prague masters by defeating Vidit in the blitz Chess. It took a lot of struggles for Alireza. Visit had dominated David and qualified to play with Azera. However, Vadit lost twice to Alireza at the end. Firouzja, at the age of 16, decided not to participate in the country’s Chess due to the complaint of the Islamic religion about the competition with the Israelites. However, he won a silver medal when he participated in the rapid Chess and blitz chess champions carried out in Moscow in a contest of FIDE.
Also, in the Fide world Swiss tournament, he scored a good point of 8/11 ahead of his opponent Fabiano which made him qualified for the match. In the year 2020, Firouzja participated in the tata chess steel In January. With that, he was the first man to take part in the master’s bracket. It was a first experience for him. Firouzja played with experienced elite chess players, and he finished with six and a half points out of thirteen. As questioned in the interview, his aim was not all about winning the game but gaining the experience. In 2020 he also participated in the Chess of Norway held at Stavanger which he ended up scoring 3points, a point to getting a draw.
Faroudja also won an opening-round match with Markus Ragger and escalated to number 4 in live ratings, making England have a poor day. The woman of England lost by scoring o-4 to Spain. However, Howell shared the lead at Riga before losing to Firouzja and finished with 7/11 points.
Achievements
In 2016 at 12 years old, Firouzja dominated the Iranian championship with two other youths. The achievement ranked him as the youngest Chess player champion. While at 14 years old, at a tender age, he earned the title of Grandmaster in the year 2018. In 2018 Iran topped the Asian Nations, with Firouzja, the best performer. He was 15 years old. he scored 6/7, which was equivalent to a rating of 15 points. In the same year also Firouzja won gold at the World U-16 Youth Chess Olympiad organized by a federation known as Turkish Chess. The event was carried out in a Turkish city.
He defeated Martinez in the junior championship, and that’s where his fame began to rise. Also, at the age of 16, he makes history by crossing the 2700 rating bracket, becoming one of the few players on the list of Super Grandmasters. Alireza defeated Norwegian during the final knockout contest. They played the game with each player saying their next move to the opponent. The winner was awarded $14000. In general, Alireza contributed greatly to the chess performance in Italy. After that, he relocated to France, where he participated in the world chess champions and won.
Did you enjoy reading about Alireza Firouzja? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, and Daniil Dubov.
Sources
1. https://en.mehrnews.com/news/140146/Iran-s-Firouzja-wins-gold-at-World-Youth-U-16-Chess-Olympiad
2. https://en.chessbase.com/post/asian-nations-2018
3. https://en.chessbase.com/post/12-year-old-alireza-firouzja-is-iranian-champion
4. https://en.irna.ir/news/83475405/Iranian-chess-player-cruises-to-FIDE-World-Cup-third-round-for https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/dec/27/chess-iran-alireza-firouzja-ban-israel
5. https://chess24.com/en/read/news/prague-masters-9-firouzja-wins-1st-supertournament
6. https://en.chessbase.com/post/alireza-firouzja-to-play-for-france
7. https://chess24.com/en/read/news/alireza-firouzja-is-now-the-french-no-1
8. https://www.chess.com/news/view/junior-speed-chess-championship-firouzja-martinez
9. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/17/sport/alireza-firouzja-beat-magnus-carlsen-iran-chess-spt-intl/index.html
10. https://www.chess.com/news/view/magnus-carlsen-defend-world-chess-title-alireza-firouzja