Chess: Iran’s Alireza Firouzja, 16, bypasses ban on playing Israelis
Alireza Firouzja, the 16-year-old Iranian, who ranks as the world’s top teenager, is competing this weekend under the international chess body Fide’s flag rather than obey directives from Tehran. Officials wanted to bar him from the $1m, 206-player world rapid and blitz championships now under way in Moscow, where Magnus Carlsen is the No 1 seed and Firouzja began with 3.5/5, to prevent any pairings against Israelis.
After round 10 (of 15) on Friday Carlsen led, unbeaten, on 8/10, half a point ahead of three others including France’s No2 seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who he meets in Saturday’s 11th round (noon GMT start). Firouzja has 6/10, scored against a strong field including four world title candidates.
At the age of 15 Firouzja was named by America’s speed specialist Hikaru Nakamura as one of the top threeoneminute bullet chess players in the world, alongside himself and Carlsen. GM Ivan Sokolov, the 2018 Iran coach, compared Firouzja to the young Vishy Anand for his speed of thought and predicted that he can become world champion.
Last week Iran’s best two grandmasters after Firouzja played an Israeli during a blitz side event during the international open at Sitges in Spain. Their explanation that this was an accident, where they did not know the opponent, was accepted but a ban for the prestigious Moscow event followed.
Fide, which has over 180 affiliated countries, has stiffened its own approach. There used to be tacit approval for Israel-Iran pairings to be altered but this practice has been stopped and now refusal to play an opponent on political grounds is likely to mean at least expulsion from the tournament. Judo has already banned Iran following a similar incident.
The official name of the valuable Moscow event is the King Salman world rapid and blitz championship. After Israelis were refused visas for its 2017 staging in Riyadh it was moved next year to Russia, still with Saudi backing. Carlsen won the blitz in 2018, though Firouzja made a brilliant start of 6.5/7 before falling back after Carlsen outclassed him in round eight.
Six Israelis, led by the national No 1 and former world title challenger Boris Gelfand, are in Moscow for the 2019 open blitz while Iran has entered players in the women’s event only, where Israel has no competitors. Firouzja is taking part under the Fide flag. The UK has zero entrants, explained by high travel and hotel costs, a clash with the annual Hastings congress and the small chance of a prize in such a strong field.
Carlsen was sharp at the start in Moscow on Thursday and crushed the Scandinavian 1 e4 d5 in 26 moves: Firouzja defeated Russia’s 2016 world title challenger Sergey Karjakin, but a loss left him in 3.5/5, half a point behind Carlsen, at the end of Thursday’s play. There were 10 rounds of rapid left on Friday and Saturday, then 21 rounds of blitz on Sunday and Monday.
Whatever happens in Moscow this weekend, the rising star will have another chance against the elite at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee starting 10 January, where Carlsen and the US world No 2 Fabiano Caruana head the 14-man invited entry while Firouzja is among several young GMs making their Wijk debut.
Firouzja and his father have already left Iran and are currently living in Paris. It is unclear yet whether his next permanent allegiance will be to France or elsewhere. Could he end up at St Louis, receiving special coaching by Garry Kasparov and boosting US billionaire Rex Sinquefield’s dream of another American world champion to follow Fischer?
There are major obstacles to this scenario. A few weeks ago the Guardian highlighted increasing entry difficulties to the US for Iranians.
Firouzja himself was unable to obtain a US visa when invited for the World team in the 2017 Match of the Millennials at St Louis, where the global selection defeated America’s best teenagers. Sinquefield paid for the transfer of Fabiano Caruana from Italy and Wesley So from the Philippines, but that occurred only after they became top 10 GMs.
A permanent move to France might be Firouzja’s more practical option, as most major tournaments are staged in Europe. The government-supported French federation would have the opportunity to make France one of the strongest chess nations by including Firouzja in its team alongside the world No 4 Vachier-Lagrave.
Meanwhile Vachier-Lagrave’s own hopes of finally becoming a world title candidate appear at an end after Russia confirmed that its player Kirill Andreenko, 22, would receive the wildcard place reserved for allocation by the Ekaterinburg hosts. Andreenko qualified at the Isle of Man last month. Russia will now have three players in the candidates, China two, and the US, Netherlands and Azerbaijan one each. Caruana and China’s world No 3 Ding Liren are the clear favourites.
The annual Hastings congress, which starts on Saturday, is in its 95th year and the longest running international tournament in chess. Its new sponsor, Caplin Systems, specialises in desktop and mobile trading technology. The Hastings Masters entry of 122, its largest for many years, is headed by the three-time British champion GM David Howell, whose family home is in Sussex at nearby Seaford.
Games from Moscow and Hastings can be watched free and live daily online, with grandmaster and computer move by move commentaries.
3651 1 Rc8 (threat 2 Rc5 mate) Rxe1 (so that if 2 Rxe1 Be4 and Black fights on) 2 Ra4! with mate or decisive material gain.