Video: Iranian Chess Prodigy Defeats World Champion
Sports and Entertainment News Blog, Kodoom.com
Iran's self-exiled 16-year-old Chess prodigy and Grandmaster, Alireza Firouzja (FIDE rating of 2723, Iran's top ranked chess player), defeated the world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, to win the Banter Blitz Cup. Carlsen calls the match by far his biggest (chess) challenge!
The cup was hosted by Chess24, and featured nearly 109 grandmasters competing for a $14,000 prize. After 7 months consisting of 131 matches, both Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen rose to the top in a game that many people called a "dream final." After 16 matches, both Carlsen and Firouzja were tied 7.5 - 7.5. In the final match, Firouzja held is own against the World Champion and won 8.5 - 7.5. Carlsen was so impressed that he invited Alireza to next compete in the Carlsen Invitational which is composed of the world’s best 8 chess players with a prize of $250,000.
The teenage grandmaster, currently ranked # 21 in the world, moved to France at the end of 2019 with his father and now plays under the flag of the global chess organization in objection to Iranian law forbidding competitions against Israelis. In December, Iran's Chess Federation objected to Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei, two other Iranian chess Grandmasters, playing games against Israeli opponents in a recent blitz tournament. Despite their victory over Israeli opponents, both Grandmasters were reprimanded in Iran because of the hardliners' policy of not recognizing Israel as a legitimate government, but an occupied land (news source). Subsequently, the federation decided to withdraw participation of all Iranian players from the World Rapid & Blitz, but Firouzja did not go along with this decision.
Related:
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