Written by: Emadeldin Teama

Magnus Carlsen challenge Alireza Firouzja

The World chess championship ended few days ago. In this match , The world champion Magnus Carlsen defeated GM Ian Nepomniachtchi with a huge score of 7.5 to 3.5 defending his title yet again and outplaying Nepomniachtchi completely with 3 rounds to spare!

Magnus Carlsen stated that he is not motivated enough to defend his title next time unless the winner of the Candidate tournament is Alireza Firouzja. The world champion has been keeping an eye on the young Iranian French prodigy as he broke a record after record crossing over the 2800 fide rating barrier as the youngest ever and breaking Carlsen record in that matter!

Who is Alireza Firouzja ?

Alireza Firouzja is a very aggressive and talented player. He is achieving outstanding results in the last years . He is a creative stubborn player and he would defiantly give Carlsen hard time if there would be a world champion match between them. However, to do so he must win the Candidate tournament that he qualified for it against the best 7 players in the world!!

Magnus Carlsen with this statement puts a pressure on the young Alireza that he may not be able to handle. With this statement he motivated all other 7 players in the candidate to work very hard to win it and destroy Alireza as they know that they have a chance to automatically be world champion after they win.

Other top players in the Candidate tournament would be so angry on Carlsen statement as it underestimate their talent and skill. They would want to prove that they are better than Alireza Firouzja and that they are more than worthy to be the challengers of Carlsen. Statistics also don’t favor Alireza Firouzja vs Carlsen.

In Classical games , Magnus Carlsen beat Alireza Firouzja 4 to 0, with 2 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alireza Firouzja 14 to 3, with 7 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alireza Firouzja 10 to 3, with 5 draws. This shows that Carlsen has a huge positive score against Alireza . However, it would seem that Carlsen is afraid of the rate of development at which Alireza is getting in chess!

The rivalry between Carlsen and Firouzja since a young age :

As a young Kid. Firouzja became the champion of his country Iran. He participated in strongest chess events and worked hard to improve and improve! . in this interview with Judith Bolgar he mentioned both Carlsen and Karjakin that they are really strong and he looks up to compete with them and to becoming stronger than them!

Here is a link to it :

Later he started to quickly rise up with his rating and performance beating many strong grandmasters and becoming a super grandmaster himself with crossing the 2700 rating barrier. In order to avoid politics,he moved with his father to france and asked for the nationality for the young super talented kid.

He was devastated once when his country refused to play with certain players due to politics and he knew he could beat them up. His country politics deprived him from that chance, so his family quickly took the decision of moving to France. He continued to play under Fide flag for almost a couple of years till he was granted the French nationality only in 2020!

Ali Reza Firouzja struggle to be recognized in the world is admirable. His family did a great job understanding his talented and did everything they could to the maximum to promote him and give him enough opportunities. That Struggle can be seen in his playing style and his strength over the board. He has an amazing will power and a great talent .

Can Firouzja defeat Carlsen in a world championship match?

Carlsen is now simply a chess machine. He is the strongest player in the world and arguably of all time.It wouldn’t be easy for the young Firouzja to defeat him. However, A 14 games match between those two players would be a huge event that every single chess player would want to watch! It would be the fight between the experience and accuracy of Carlsen. Against the talent, struggle and the will power of Alireza Firouzja .

All the same, Carlsen has a huge positive score against Ali Reza Firouzja.It might not be as important now because Firouzja is getting alot of experience very quickly every single day and changing his style and methods of play dramatically on a weekly basis!. You can notice this in his old games and nowadays games and in his streams!

Recent result of the Rivals!

In the next game we will check a recent game and it would be clear how hard is it to actually play against the World champion.It is never easy against Carlsen!

In this game of the Tata Steel Tournament, Firouzja got an advantage. However, he couldn’t defend against this maniac attack of Carlsen and Carlsen went into winning the game

Here is a link to the game :

As we notice. The mistake on move 36 from black was lethal. It is understandable that they were both under time pressure. However it would have been easier to go just 36-..Kh8! making the knight Sacrifice that happened in the game useless.

For example if white continues with 37-Nxh6!? Firouzja could simply go 37-..Bh5! giving control of the 8th rank to the queen and rooks. Next black will offer a trade of queens somehow and stays a clear exchange up for a a pawn.
In addition to that, Black pawn is a passed pawn on the A file. This would cause huge problems for Carlsen. It would have been so hard to defend this endgame with white. However, under time pressure and Carlsen brilliant attack. Firouzja played one inaccurate move that caused him to collapse!

Conclusion

I think it is clear that any world champion match between those two players would be extremely exciting. Firouzja still need some time to catch up with experience to Carlsen level. However, his huge talent and determination will help him to reach there faster than usual !

Carlsen did put a pressure on Firouzja with his statement which is an act of genius it self. He made sure that all players would put pressure on Firouzja to win the world champion title automatically once any of them defeat Firouzja and emerge as the world chess challenger and at the same time, he puts a psychological pressure on Firouzja to prove himself as the current best player out of 8 candidates!

Our Estimation is that Firouzja won’t be able to handle all this pressure and he may not be able to win this Candidate. However, it would be a great experience for him and he would certainly gain confidence in his skills. We hope Firouzja proves us all wrong and win this Candidate tournament! It means that the world will see outstanding 14 game at least in the next world championship!