The No 1-ranked teenage player opts to play under the international chess body’s flag amid a diplomatic row with TehranAlireza 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 has begun with 3.5/5, to prevent any pairings against Israelis.
At the age of 15 Firouzja was named by America’s speed specialist Hikaru Nakamura as one of the top threeone-minute 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.