Chess History in a Nutshell 108 – Young Star: Alireza Firouzja
Alireza Firouzja (born June 18, 2003) is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. He became the youngest player ever to reach a FIDE rating of 2800, breaking Magnus Carlsen's previous record by over five months. Although he remained part of the exclusive “2800 club” for some time, he has since dropped below that mark.
Firouzja was considered a chess prodigy from an early age. He won the Iranian Chess Championship at just 12 years old and earned the grandmaster title at 14. By age 16, he had become the second-youngest player to reach a 2700 rating. In 2021, at 18, he won the prestigious FIDE Grand Swiss tournament and claimed an individual gold medal at the European Team Championship. In 2022, Firouzja won the Grand Chess Tour—an incredible achievement. These results contributed to his qualification for the Candidates Tournaments in both 2022 and 2024.
In 2019, Firouzja left the Iranian Chess Federation in protest against the country’s policy of boycotting Israeli players. He played under the FIDE flag until mid-2021, when he became a French citizen and began representing France, where he was already residing. In March 2025, he signed with the Saudi esports organization Team Falcons.
The Dutch audience first became familiar with Firouzja during the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January 2020, where he became the first Iranian to play in the Masters section. His older compatriot, Parham Maghsoodloo, had played in the Tata Steel Challengers the year before. This was also Firouzja’s first time competing against the absolute world elite in a 14-player round-robin tournament with classical time controls.
Although he underperformed in Wijk aan Zee, he bounced back a month later at the Masters section of the Prague International Chess Festival, a 10-player round-robin (Category 19), where he entered last-minute as a replacement for Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi, who was unable to attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After five players tied for first place with 5/9, Firouzja triumphed in the blitz tiebreaks with a 2–0 win over Vidit Gujrathi, earning his first major “super-tournament” victory.
In April of that same year, Firouzja faced Magnus Carlsen in the final of the online Chess24 Banter Blitz Cup and edged out a narrow win (8½–7½), marking a major milestone: he had beaten the world number one in a tournament! Carlsen, however, got his revenge shortly after during the Magnus Carlsen Invitational—a rapid tournament hosted by Chess24 from April 18 to May 3—where he defeated Firouzja in their head-to-head matchup 2½–1½.
Later that year, Firouzja stirred controversy by trying to boost his rating through a series of short matches in a last-ditch attempt to qualify for the Candidates Tournament, potentially at the expense of American grandmaster Wesley So. Despite scoring 5½/6 in those matches, he initially fell short. He ultimately secured his qualification by winning a French tournament with a perfect 7/7 score, notably defeating former World Championship candidate Gata Kamsky. This situation highlighted shortcomings in the qualification rules, prompting changes by the Federation.
In the Candidates Tournament, Firouzja didn’t make a major impact, though he did achieve the notable feat of being the only player to defeat eventual world champion Dommaraju Gukesh. I’ll be discussing that game in this video.
In the years since, Firouzja’s performances have been a mix of very strong and inconsistently shaky results. Nonetheless, Carlsen once named him as a potential successor to the world title. He made this comment when considering relinquishing the championship—having defended it four times against Anand, Karjakin, Caruana, and Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen indicated that if a young talent like Firouzja became the challenger, he might reconsider stepping down. That scenario didn’t materialize, and Carlsen eventually withdrew, paving the way for a World Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, which Ding won.
Now, in the featured game against the world number one, Black mishandled the opening. White can now take advantage of Black’s awkward queen maneuvers. How can White capitalize on the poor coordination of Black’s pieces?
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