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Chess: Firouzja wins in Zagreb as Carlsen passes 15-year milestone at the top

The Frenchman is ranked world No 12, but that is a disappointment after he became the youngest ever 2800-rated player at 18 years and five months

Alireza Firouzja is shaping up to be one of the nearly men of grandmaster chess. The Iran-born Frenchman, 23, has just won the St Louis-organised Croatia Super Rapid and Blitz in Zagreb. He was far ahead at the start of the last day, but had a poor run of 2/7 during the final rounds before a successful Armageddon tie-break.

Firouzja’s career has been limited by his below-par performances in the Candidates. In 2022, he spoiled his chances by playing blitz into the small hours; in 2024, he did worse still, finishing seventh out of eight. He made a major effort to qualify again in 2025, hiring the late Daniel Naroditsky as his coach for the Grand Swiss in Samarkand, but finished third when only two qualified. At the victory ceremony, the bronze medal podium was conspicuously uninhabited.

Super Rapid and Blitz

Alireza Firouzja jokingly described the final day of the Super Rapid and Blitz, held in Croatia earlier this month, as the ‘worst of his life’ – and yet somehow he won the tournament anyway. The rapid event was held over the first three days, which left Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa in joint first place, and an impressive game from the latter is shown below. Firouzja followed that up with a crushing 8/9 score on the first day of blitz chess, building up a lead which looked unassailable. But his feeble start of 2/7 on the final day put the tournament win in jeopardy. He scraped into the tiebreaks thanks to a dramatic turnaround in the penultimate round against Gukesh (below), and went on to win a tense ‘armageddon’ game against Abdusattorov which decided the event.

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