Alireza Firouzja

Alireza Firouzja
Firouzja at the 2024 Candidates Tournament
Country
  • Iran (until November 2019)[1]
  • FIDE (December 2019 – June 2021)
  • France (since July 2021)[2][3]
Born (2003-06-18) 18 June 2003 (age 21)
Babol, Mazandaran province, Iran
TitleGrandmaster (2018)
FIDE rating2763 (November 2024)
Peak rating2804 (December 2021)
RankingNo. 7 (November 2024)
Peak rankingNo. 2 (December 2021)

Alireza Firouzja (Persian: علیرضا فیروزجا, pronounced [æliːɾeˈzɒː fiːɾuːzˈdʒɒː]; born 18 June 2003) is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carlsen by more than five months.

A chess prodigy, Firouzja won the Iranian Chess Championship at age 12 and earned the Grandmaster title at 14. At 16, Firouzja became the second-youngest 2700-rated player. In 2021, at 18, he won the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament and an individual gold medal at the European Team Chess Championship. In 2022, Firouzja won the Grand Chess Tour. He qualified for the Candidates Tournament in 2022 and 2024.

Firouzja left the Iranian Chess Federation in 2019 because of the country's longstanding policy against competing with Israeli players.[4][5] Firouzja played under the FIDE flag until mid-2021, when he became a French citizen and began representing France, where he had already been living.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iran was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference echecasso was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference French was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ staff, T. O. I. "Iran's top chess player wants to 'change his nationality' over Israel ban". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  5. ^ Doggers, Peter (6 December 2020). "Iran Pressured By FIDE For Issues With Israeli Players". www.chess.com. Retrieved 5 March 2024.