Firouzja Overtakes Wesley So To Grab Candidates Rating Spot

GM Alireza Firouzja has likely wrapped up qualification for the 2024 FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto after winning the Rouen Open with a perfect 7/7. He beat GM Gata Kamsky along the way and picked up sufficient rating points that even if the World Chess Federation (FIDE) chooses not to rate the matches he played in Chartres, France, he’ll still be ahead of GM Wesley So on the all-important January 2024 rating list.

You can’t criticize Firouzja’s never-say-die attitude. When he fell just short of So’s rating after some controversial matches in Chartres, it looked like the end of the road. The 20-year-old was supposed to be heading to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to play in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, where he was the number-seven seed in the Rapid and number-two in Blitz. Plans change, however, with FIDE tweeting about “personal reasons.”

GM Alireza Firouzja has withdrawn from the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships due to personal reasons. #RapidBlitz

Photo: Anna Shtourman pic.twitter.com/uBWjL60tHE

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 23, 2023

It soon turned out, to nobody’s great surprise, that the personal reason was a burning desire to play in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. If Firouzja wins that event in April, he’ll get the chance to play GM Ding Liren in a match and potentially become the youngest-ever undisputed world chess champion, ahead of GMs Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen.

So instead of taking up his pre-booked flights and hotel to play for up to $120,000 in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand, Firouzja traveled a couple of hours north to the less exotic French city of Rouen to play in an open tournament for the €700 ($775) top prize. It was a quixotic plan that could have ended in a fiasco, either on the chessboard or from a lack of the required opponents. Instead it went like a dream, as Firouzja scored 7/7 and picked up 8.3 rating points.

Firouzja is seven points ahead of So, which crucially means that even if the 5.6 points he gained in Chartres are taken away, he will still take the Candidates spot. The likely lineup is as follows:

GM Anish Giri is the last player who can stop GM Gukesh Dommaraju from qualifying for the Candidates via the FIDE Circuit, but to do that he now needs to win the World Blitz. Two losses toward the end of the first day have made that look even more like a mountain to climb. However, since he trails by just 1.5 points with nine rounds to play, it’s not impossible. 

Clever strategy, lose games first in order to start farming at day 2 ☝️💪

— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) December 29, 2023

Things came together perfectly for Firouzja, who played a dream event in Rouen and ended 1.5 points clear of the field.

Rouen Open Final Standings (Top 10)

Full standings here.

It was a typical Swiss, as Firouzja went from playing a 1686-rated opponent in the first round to playing ever stronger players, culminating in 49-year-old former World Championship Challenger Kamsky in round six. Normally you wouldn’t want to encounter someone so dangerous when on a mission to win all your games, but in this particular situation, 2634-rated Kamsky was the perfect challenge to pick up the required rating. What followed was a fine game from Firouzja.

There was, for the second event in a row, a potential banana skin, since despite having gained the rating he needs to surpass So, Firouzja decided to play the last round anyway and risk his rating. That failed in Chartres, but this time Firouzja made no mistake as he beat another legend, 71-year-old IM Kamran Shirazi, who, like Firouzja, was born in Iran but then moved, first to the U.S. and then to France. You can replay all the remaining games below.

That means that while we, and GM Peter Leko, can regret that Firouzja missed Samarkand…

Leko: "I'm a very big Alireza fan, I'm happy to see him in the Candidates... only the way it happened was not to my liking. I would much rather have seen him here at the World #RapidBlitz & be covering his incredible games vs Carlsen & others rather than much weaker opposition" pic.twitter.com/gGxMRSeoQc

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 29, 2023

…it’s also possible to admire his remarkable 12.5/13 score over the past two weeks, playing under the intense pressure of having much of the chess world watching him and many willing him to fail. The €700 top prize in Rouen was a little icing on the cake.

The most important 700 Euros Firouzja has ever won! https://t.co/OsFqH5SnZB

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 29, 2023

Will there be any late drama? It had felt as though FIDE would do anything in its power to prevent Firouzja’s bid, and when it came to the matches in Chartres, there were potential arguments. In fact, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich was filmed in Samarkand in a light-hearted discussion with Giri about Candidates qualification:

Dvorkovich: Good luck!
Giri: Thank you!
D: You’ve got a chance. 
G: The main chance is that you cancel the Indian tournament. You’re my hope! (laughs)
D: There’s much less justification there… [than Firouzja’s matches in Chartres].
G: But there weren’t 30 days, after all… According to the new rules, you could cancel it. 
D: Well, but we won’t change it retroactively, after all. It’s simply that Firouzja’s matches, they were registered as a Swiss and then… it was simply crazy. 
G: Yes, they wanted to [lead you astray].
D: It wasn’t pleasant at all. They actually presented the matches first as a Swiss, then a two-player double round-robin. Well that’s… it was just a total mockery! (laughter)

Замечательная сценка. Первое за пять лет настоящее интервью удалось взять у дворковича Анишу Гири сегодня.
(Видео: ChessBase India)

Для англоязычной публики далее - текстовая расшифровка. 👇 pic.twitter.com/rPUuO1BZB6

— Chess-News Шахматы без цензуры (@Chess__News) December 26, 2023

The mention of 30 days refers to a new rule that was seemingly rushed in to prevent any Firouzja-friendly events from suddenly appearing.

The FIDE Council reviewed the tournament registration procedure and approved some changes, effective immediately. These changes primarily concern the tournaments, with at least one of the participants having a rating of 2700+.

Read more👇
🔗 https://t.co/XalTO0sftR pic.twitter.com/kVYZQ06jLu

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 25, 2023

Events now have to be registered 30 days in advance (and not three) if even one player is rated over 2700, though enough exceptions are included that events not involving Firouzja would likely be able to go ahead as planned.

If the plan was to stop Firouzja, however, it failed, since the Rouen Open had been registered in early November, and there’s no reason to think it shouldn’t count. The tournament also finished on the last possible day to be registered for the January 1 rating list, and it seems the organizers met the deadline to submit the games.

Results from Rouen received by FIDE in due time and @AlirezaFirouzja is officially a candidate. pic.twitter.com/zRWlphr9IA

— Mathilde Choisy (@MChoiz) December 29, 2023

That means only a huge late surprise—for instance, the revelation that So has managed to play a game or two somewhere himself—could prevent Firouzja from taking a spot in his second Candidates tournament. He can almost book his tickets to Toronto, while we can expect some changes before the next Candidates qualification cycle begins!