They name him the prince of chess. A monarch in ready, who was handpicked as a worthy successor to the chess throne by king Carlsen himself, however one who may solely watch as others minimize into the road of succession and have become world champions as a substitute.
In chess, the time period pure expertise is used incessantly. Maybe greater than in some other sport. However it’s additionally on this sport that it’s trickier to outline. Ask anybody in chess, and they’re more likely to describe Alireza Firouzja as a pure expertise, a participant whose instinctive understanding of the game might be the envy of most others. However he’s additionally the game’s largest enigma.
Nowadays you may spot Firouzja being wheeled in on a wheelchair to Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika to play on the Norway Chess match. He performs his video games with one leg caught out and planted gingerly on a chair at an odd angle for over 4 hours day by day. And by the point he’s achieved together with his recreation, he’s made his opponents squirm, like Carlsen, R Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh have within the first three rounds of this 12 months’s strongest classical match, with the primary two dropping to Firouzja within the classical format whereas the reigning world champion misplaced within the Armageddon. By no means thoughts that that is solely the second classical match he’s performed in half a 12 months and he withdrew half-way via the primary a type of (at Romania final week) with an ankle damage after simply 5 rounds.
Taking part in with black items, Carlsen erred in time hassle in opposition to Firouzja, which helped the Frenchman earn his first victory in classical chess over the Norwegian. One thing in chess positively shifted.
For a participant who actually loves his walks throughout classical chess, Firouzja has nearly been grounded by the ankle damage, which requires him to put on a leg brace. However as his ends in the primary two video games have proven, he’s making it work.
“I don’t understand how he’s even taking part in. It’s very disagreeable to play with this ache, as a result of there’s a relentless throbbing. And it’s swollen too. And if he doesn’t preserve his leg up, it hurts even worse. In chess, you want full focus. While you’re slightly bit distracted, it’s type of not simple,” says Ivan Cheparinov, the Bulgarian grandmaster who has been his coach for the final 4 years which makes him the proper decoder for Firouzja’s expertise.
Cheparinov has labored with world championship contender Veselin Topalov. He was a second for Zhu Jiner on the latest Girls’s Candidates. He confronted Carlsen amongst others in his youthful days. However he’s prepared to stay his neck out and say that Firouzja is the ‘most gifted participant ever’ he’s seen. The phrase ‘pure expertise’ in fact is talked about greater than as soon as within the dialog.
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“Issues come very simple to him,” says Cheparinov. “I’ve performed fast and blitz video games with him, and I can struggle with him, however when the time on the clock is below 20 seconds, it’s not possible to play in opposition to him. That is what occurred within the Carlsen recreation in spherical 1. Once they have been in time hassle, he was simply higher.”
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Ask him what the French-Iranian grandmaster must do to get to the extent that the world as soon as thought him able to, and Cheparinov says: “He must imagine extra in himself and try to take it extra significantly. He’s tremendous good, however generally I really feel like he’s probably not doing the job that he must.”
With Gukesh turning into a world champion at 18 and Javokhir Sindarov turning into a challenger at 19, it would appear to be a 22-year-old is already too previous to problem for the highest prize within the sport. However Cheparinov is aware of that Firouzja has it in him to bend conference to his will.
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Firouzja can also be a research in distinction to the opposite gamers within the sport like Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa who work tirelessly day in day trip on their chess and averaged 15 tournaments in 2025. Cheparinov says that Firouzja can spend 5 to 6 hours on chess “when he must”.
“Once I was younger I used to work 10 hours a day on chess. However for me, it was needed. For him, it’s simpler,” he shrugs.
He learnt early of their affiliation that Firouzja was totally different. A lot totally different than Topalov, the opposite generational expertise he helped grow to be a world beater. There are some types of genius that you simply can’t impose deadlines on.
“While you push him, it doesn’t work,” says Cheparinov, who says that firstly of their affiliation he tried — and failed, a lot to his frustration — to get the Frenchman to do issues his approach.
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Firouzja, for a quick whereas, stopped focussing on chess and redirected his energies on constructing a profession in vogue.
“Topalov was a lot totally different. He would work rather a lot, went to the health club rather a lot. But when Alireza did the identical as Topalov, it in all probability gained’t work for him,” he says.
Did the Carlsen remark after the Norwegian had gained his fifth world championship title — ‘if somebody apart from Firouzja wins the Candidates Match, it’s unlikely that I’ll play the following world championship match’ — put a brilliant glare of highlight on him that he was not prepared for?
“Alireza claims it didn’t. However I’m unsure. Possibly subconsciously it did,” says Cheparinov.
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Earlier than the dialog ends, Cheparinov has an essential disclaimer concerning the Frenchman: “don’t overlook, he’s simply 22. Now, you may see that he’s again. Typically with age, you might have extra management of your self.”
His ends in the primary two rounds at Norway Chess point out that the prince is able to problem for his throne once more.
Or it is perhaps one other false daybreak.
(The author is in Oslo on the invitation of Norway Chess)