Firouzja Seeks Nationality Change After World Rapid & Blitz Ban By Iranian Federation

 

"Firouzja is currently living in France...and may want to play under the French or U.S. flag," Pahlavanzadeh told ISNA. 

The Iranian chess star and the country's top player Alireza Firouzja is considering changing his nationality after the Iranian chess federation withdrew its players from the upcoming World Rapid & Blitz in Moscow, according to the Iranian chess federation.

 

Update: Firouzja is now back on the World Rapid & Blitz players list under the FIDE flag.

 

The federation had objected to Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei playing games against Israeli opponents in a blitz tournament that was part of the recent Sunway Sitges Chess Festival. Subsequently, the federation decided to withdraw participation of all Iranian players from the World Rapid & Blitz, but Firouzja has not gone along with this decision.

 

"Firouzja has made his decision and has told us that he wants to change his nationality," the Iranian Chess Federation's president, Mehrdad Pahlavanzadeh, told the news agency Tasnim.

 

Firouzja is currently listed in the FIDE database as a registered player—but not an Iranian player—after the news was released, and is now recognized as "FIDE licensed" on his official profile.

 

The 16-year-old phenom is willing to play in the upcoming championship, but not under the Iranian flag, according to comments made by Pahlavanzadeh to the news agency ISNA.

 

Losing Firouzja would be a blow to the Iranian federation, which has produced two of the top juniors in recent years in Firouzja and Maghsoodloo. It is unclear where Firouzja will land if he is to renounce his citizenship, and his status for the upcoming World Rapid & Blitz is still up in the air.

 

Chess.com will have updates on this breaking story as it develops and expects to have a comment from Firouzja in the coming days.

THE REAL GRAND-MASTERS

(Top 10 since 2000)

 

 Adams, Michael ( 2000 )

 Anand, Viswanathan ( 2000 )

 Ivanchuk, Vassily ( 2000 )

 Kasparov, Garry ( 2000 )

 Kramnik, Vladimir ( 2000 )

 Krasenkow, Michal ( 2000 )

 Leko, Peter ( 2000 )

 Morozevich, Alexander ( 2000 )

 Shirov, Alexei ( 2000 )

 Topalov, Veselin ( 2000 )

 

 Bareev, Evgeny ( 2001 )

 Gelfand, Boris ( 2001 )

 Van Wely, Loek ( 2001 )

 

 Ponomariov, Ruslan ( 2002 )

 

 Grischuk, Alexander ( 2003 )

 Polgar, Judit ( 2003 )

 Svidler, Peter ( 2003 )

 

 Aronian, Levon ( 2005 )

 Bacrot, Etienne ( 2005 )

 

 Jakovenko, Dmitry ( 2007 )

 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ( 2007 )

 Radjabov, Teimour ( 2007 )

 

 Carlsen, Magnus ( 2008 )

 

 Gashimov, Vugar ( 2009 )

 Movsesian, Sergei ( 2009 )

 

 Eljanov, Pavel ( 2010 )

 Wang, Yue ( 2010 )

 

 Kamsky, Gata ( 2011 )

 Nakamura, Hikaru ( 2011 )

 

 Caruana, Fabiano ( 2012 )

 

 Karjakin, Sergey ( 2013 )

 

 So, Wesley ( 2014 )

Dominguez Perez, Leinier ( 2014 )

Giri, Anish ( 2014 )

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ( 2014 )

 

 Ding, Liren ( 2015 )

 

 Harikrishna, P. ( 2016 )

 

 Artemiev, Vladislav ( 2019 )

 Nepomniachtchi, Ian ( 2019 )

 

 

FIDE has approved the regulations for the World Championship Match 2020, as well as for the Women's World Championship match 2019-2020. The bidding procedure will last three months.

 

After extensive consultations with representatives of the chess community, some significant changes are introduced in the new regulations. These are the main ones:

 

The length of the match has been extended, from 12 games to 14. This change reflects the general opinion that the match should be slightly longer. To keep the event within a reasonable time frame, the rest days have been reduced from 6 to 5. This is a more dynamic schedule that will allow having all Saturdays and Sundays as playing days.

 

FIDE has established restrictions on the draw by mutual agreement: the players cannot settle for a draw before black's 40th move. A claim for a draw before black's 40th move is permitted only through an Arbiter in case of threefold repetition.

 

The recommendation for the prize fund has been raised to an expected minimum of 2 million euros net of any applicable local taxes. The winner will take 60% of this amount, while the runner-up gets 40% - as long as the World Championship Match ends within 14 games. In the eventuality of the title being decided in the tie-break, the prize fund will be split more evenly, with the winner receiving 55% and the runner-up 45%.

 

The time control has also been changed to the "Classical" format: the players will have 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. There is no increment whatsoever during the first 60 moves of the game.

 

As for the Women's World Championship, as it had been announced last month, the knock-out system is abandoned and this competition adopts now the same format of a Candidates Tournament followed by a title match. In this case, the final will be decided at the distance of 12 games, and both players will fight for a total prize fund of 500.000 € (after taxes). For comparison, in the last title match between Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi in Shanghai, the prize fund was 200.000 €.

 

Apart from the technical and format changes in both cycles, the main novelty respect to the past few years is that FIDE is again in charge of organizing the World Championship match. After having delegated this responsibility on a third party company for the past few editions, a top priority for the new leadership under Arkady Dvorkovich's direction was to regain the commercial rights over its flagship event. The approval of these regulations marks the completion of this plan.

FIDE

TOP 20

APRIL 2020

 

 

1 Carlsen 2863

2 Caruana 2835

3 Ding Liren 2792

4 Nepomniachtchi 2784

5 Vachier-Lagrave 2778

6 Grischuk 2777

7 Aronian 2773

8 So 2770

9 Radjabov 2765

10 Giri 2764

11 Mamedyarov 2764

12 Wang Hao 2763

13 Rapport 2760

14 Dominguez Perez 2758

15 Duda 2753

16 Anand 2753

17 Karjakin 2752

18 Nakamura 2736

19 Topalov 2735

20 Wei Yi 2732

 

FIDE 

TOP 10

U21

APRIL 2020

 

 

1 Firouzja, Alireza 2728

2 Xiong, Jeffery 2709

3 Maghsoodloo, Parham 2676

4 Esipenko, Andrey 2672

5 Sevian, Samuel 2660

6 Sarana, Alexey 2652

7 Tabatabaei, M.amin 2629

8 Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2627

9 Deac, Bogdan-Daniel 2625

10 Nihal Sarin 2620

 

 

 

CHESS ONE 

GLOBAL RANKING

DECEMBER 2019

[ (classic x 3) +(rapid x 2) + (blitz) ] / 6

1 Carlsen 2875

2 Vachier-Lagrave 2809

3 Ding Liren 2807

4 Nakamura 2788

5 Caruana 2787

6 Grischuk 2781

7 Nepomniachtchi 2770

8 Karjakin 2769

9 So 2767

10 Duda 2762

11 Giri 2762

12 Radjabov 2761

13 Aronian 2761

14 Anand 2760

15 Mamedyarov 2754

16 Yu Yangyi 2753

17 Dominguez Perez 2750

18 Artemiev 2750

19 Rapport 2748

20 Wang Hao 2746

 

 

DECEMBER 2016

FIDE TOP 20

1 Carlsen 2840

2 Caruana 2823

3 Kramnik 2809

4 Vachier-Lagrave 2804

5 So 2794

6 Karjakin 2785

7 Aronian 2785

8 Anand 2779

9 Nakamura 2779

10 Giri 2771

11 Nepomniachtchi 2767

12 Harikrishna 2766

13 Mamedyarov 2763

14 Topalov 2760

15 Ding Liren 2757

16 Eljanov 2756

17 Ivanchuk 2752

18 Adams 2751

19 Wojtaszek 2748

20 Svidler 2748

EUROPEAN CHESS CLUB CUP

FINAL STANDINGS

1 Alkaloid 6

(Ding Liren, Andreikin Dmitry, Eljanov Pavel, Jakovenko Dmitry, Yu Yangyi, Kryvoruchko Yuriy, Nedev Trajko, Pancevski Filip)

2 Mednyi Vsadnik 5,5

3 SHSM Legacy Square Moscow 5,5

4 Ashdod 5,5

5 Odlar Yurdu 5,5

6 Syberia 5,5

7 Zhiguli 5

8 AVE Novy Bor 5

9 VSK Sveti Nikolaj Srpski 5

10 Schachgesellschaft Zurich 5

...

 

TOP 10

2016

BEST CLUBS

NATIONALS CHAMPIONSHIPS

1 Mednyy Vsadnik Sankt-Peterburg ( RUS ) 2710

2 Sibir Novosibirsk ( RUS ) 2710

3 SHSM Legacy Square Capital Moskva ( RUS ) 2683

4 OSG Baden-Baden ( GER ) 2681

5 Sestao EDP ( ESP ) 2662

6 SG Solingen ( GER ) 2617

7 Wasko HETMAN Katowice ( POL ) 2617

8 1. Novoborský ŠK  ( CZE ) 2613

9 Merida Patrimonio de la Humanidad ( ESP ) 2600

10 Clichy ( FRA ) 2595

ELO

FIDE

U20

NOVEMBER 2016

 

1 Wei Yi 2706

2 Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2684

3 Xiong, Jeffery 2660

4 Artemiev, Vladislav 2658

5 Bluebaum, Matthias 2641

6 Oparin, Grigoriy 2621

7 Van Foreest, Jorden 2614

8 Vavulin, Maksim 2591

9 Sevian, Samuel 2590 

10 Gledura, Benjamin 2589

 

ELO FIDE

TOP 20

 

NOVEMBER 2016

 

1 Carlsen 2853

2 Caruana 2823

3 Vachier-Lagrave 2811

4 Kramnik 2810

5 Aronian 2795

6 So 2794

7 Anand 2779

8 Nakamura 2779

9 Karjakin 2772

10 Harikrishna 2769

11 Giri 2767

12 Nepomniachtchi 2767

13 Mamedyarov 2762

14 Topalov 2760

15 Ding Liren 2759

16 Eljanov 2757

17 Dominguez Perez 2752

18 Grischuk 2751

19 Wojtaszek 2748 

20 Adams 2748

 

RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

16-27 October 2016

 

FINAL STANDINGS

1 Riazantsev, Alex. 7

2 Grischuk, Alex. 6,5

3 Tomashevsky, Ev. 6,5

4 Svidler, Peter 6

5 Fedoseev, Vlad. 6

6 Oparin, Grigoriy 5,5

7 Goganov, Aleksey 5,5

8 Jakovenko, Dmitry 5,5

9 Vitiugov, Nikita 5,5

10 Inarkiev, Ernesto 5

11 Kokarev, Dmitry 4,5

12 Bocharov, Dmitry 2,5

FIDE

WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS

2016

 

U 14 OPEN

1 Lomasov Semen (RUS) 9

2 Esipenko Andrey (RUS) 9

3 Yakubboev Nodirbek (UZB) 8

 

U16 OPEN

1 Martirosyan Haik M. ( ARM ) 9

2 Triapishko Olexandr ( RUS ) 8,5

3 Tran Minh Thang ( VIE ) 8

 

U18 OPEN

1 Petrosyan Manuel ( ARM ) 9

2 Vavulin Maksim ( RUS ) 8,5

3 Lorparizangeneh Shahin ( IRI ) 8

 

U14 GIRLS

1 Zhu Jiner ( CHN ) 8,5

2 Maltsevskaya Aleksandra ( RUS ) 8

3 Wang Annie ( USA ) 8

 

U16 GIRLS

1 Aakanksha Hagawane ( IND ) 9

2 Alinasab Mobina ( IRI ) 8,5

3 Shuvalova Polina ( RUS ) 8,5

 

U18 GIRLS

1 Tsolakidou Stavroula ( GRE ) 9

2 Obolentseva Alexandra ( RUS ) 8

3 Lahav Michal ( ISR ) 8

ELO FIDE

TOP 20

 

OCTOBER 2016

 

1 Carlsen 2852

2 Kramnik 2814

3 Caruana 2813

4 Vachier-Lagrave 2810

5 So 2793

6 Aronian 2791

7 Nakamura 2786

8 Anand 2775

9 Karjakin 2772

10 Giri 2770

11 Harikrishna 2766

12 Ding Liren 2763

13 Mamedyarov 2761

14 Nepomniachtchi 2760

15 Topalov 2759

16 Grischuk 2752

17 Dominguez Perez 2748

18 Wojtaszek 2746

19 Adams 2745

20 Svidler 2741

ELO FIDE

TOP 10

U20

 

OCTOBER 2016 

1 Wei Yi 2717

2 Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2675

3 Artemiev, Vladislav 2663

4 Xiong, Jeffery 2647

5 Bluebaum, Matthias 2626

6 Oparin, Grigoriy 2626

7 Van Foreest, Jorden 2615

8 Sevian, Samuel 2592

9 Bortnyk O 2588

10 Gledura, Benjamin 2585

ELO FIDE

TOP 10

JUNIORS

SEPTEMBER 2016

 

1  Rapport 2752

2  Wei 2717

3  Duda 2675

4  Artemiev 2663

5  Dubov 2648

6  Xiong 2647

7  Bluebaum 2626

8  Oparin 2626

9  Nyzhnyk 2621

10  Van Foreest 2615

ELO FIDE

TOP 20

SEPTEMBER 2016

 

1 Carlsen 2857

2 Vachier-Lagrave 2813

3 Caruana 2808

4 Kramnik 2808

5 Aronian 2795

6 Nakamura 2789

7 So 2782

8 Anand 2776

9 Karjakin 2769

10 Topalov 2768

11 Mamedyarov 2761

12 Giri 2755

13 Grischuk 2754

14 Ding Liren 2753

15 Harikrishna 2752

16 Rapport 2752

17 Li Chao 2746

18 Svidler 2745

19 Gelfand 2743 

20 Navara 2742

 

 

CHESS OLYMPIAD

 

FINAL STANDINGS

 

1 United States of America 20 (+ 9 = 2 - 0 )

2 Ukraine 20 (+ 10 = 0 - 1 )

3 Russia 18 (+ 8 = 2 - 1 )

4 India 16 (+ 7 = 2 - 2 )

5 Norway 16 (+ 7 = 2 - 2 )

6 Turkey 16 (+ 7 = 2 - 2 )

7 Poland 16 (+ 7 = 2 - 2 )

8 France 16 (+ 6 = 4 - 1 )

9 England 16 (+ 7 = 2 - 2 )

10 Peru 16 (+ 7 = 2 - 2 )

...

 

CHAMPIONNAT DE FRANCE

2016

RESULTAT FINAL

 

1 Cornette, Matthieu 6

2 Gozzoli, Yannick 5,5

3 Jolly, Jean-Francois 5,5

4 Fressinet, Laurent 5

5 Bauer, Christian 4,5

6 Edouard, Romain 4,5

7 Gharamian, Tigran 4

8 Maze, Sebastien 4

9 Demuth, Adrien 3,5

10 Feller, Sebastien 2,5

FIDE 2026

PREDICTIONS !

1  Wei, Yi 2850

2  Carlsen, Magnus 2823

3  Rapport, Richard 2820

4  Caruana, Fabiano 2798

5  Xiong, Jeffery 2796

6  Giri, Anish 2794

7  Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2794

8  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2785

9  Artemiev, Vladislav 2784

10  So, Wesley 2778

11  Aronian, Levon 2767

12  Nakamura, Hikaru 2766

13  Sevian, Samuel 2763

14  Yu, Yangyi 2750

15  Ding, Liren 2746

16  Van Foreest, Jorden 2742

17  Li, Ruifeng 2740

18  Maghsoodloo, Parham 2739

19  Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2739

20  Karjakin, Sergey 2735

FIDE

TOP 10

JUNIORS

AUGUST 2016

 

1  Rapport, Richard 2752

2  Wei, Yi 2709

3  Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2675

4  Artemiev, Vladislav 2665

5  Dubov, Daniil 2648

6  Xiong, Jeffery 2633

7  Nyzhnyk, Illya 2621

8  Bluebaum, Matthias 2618

9  Oparin, Grigoriy 2617

10  Eliseev, Urii 2606

FIDE

TOP 20

2016 AUGUST

1  Carlsen, Magnus 2857

2  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2819

3  Kramnik, Vladimir 2808

4  Caruana, Fabiano 2807

5  Aronian, Levon 2792

6  Nakamura, Hikaru 2791

7  So, Wesley 2771

8  Anand, Viswanathan 2770

9  Giri, Anish 2769

10  Karjakin, Sergey 2769

11  Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764

12  Topalov, Veselin 2761

13  Ding, Liren 2755

14  Grischuk, Alexander 2754

15  Li, Chao b 2753

16  Harikrishna, P. 2752

17  Rapport, Richard 2752

18  Svidler, Peter 2751

19  Gelfand, Boris 2743

20  Navara, David 2742

TWITTER

TOP FOLLOWERS 

1 Anand 177000

2 Carlsen 125000

3 Nakamura 41600

4 Caruana 28800

5 Aronian 26900

6 Giri 23700

7 Karjakin 16900

8 Svidler 16700

9 Radjabov 10900

10 Kasparov 10700

11 Vachier-Lagrave 10200

12 Adams 10100

FINAL STANDINGS

1  Korobov, Anton 6

2  Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 5,5

3  Andreikin, Dmitry 5

4  Matlakov, Maxim 5

5  Jakovenko, Dmitry 5

6  Smirin, Ilia 4,5

7  Motylev, Alexander 4,5

8  Sutovsky, Emil 3,5

9  Kovalenko, Igor 3

10  Bologan, Victor 3

FINAL STANDINGS

1  Nepomniachtchi, Ian 6

2  Harikrishna, P. 5

3  Wang, Yue 5

4  Ding, Liren 4,5

5  Yu, Yangyi 4,5

6  Bu, Xiangzhi 4,5

7  Ivanchuk, Vassily 4

8  Leko, Peter 4

9  Hou, Yifan 4

10  Wang, Hao 3,5

FIDE

TOP 10

JUNIORS

 

 

1 Rapport, Richard 2752

2 Wei Yi 2696

3 Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2671

4 Dubov, Daniil 2661

5 Artemiev, Vladislav 2653

6 Xiong, Jeffery 2641

7 Nyzhnyk, Illya 2621

8 Bluebaum, Matthias 2618

9 Eliseev, Urii 2602

10 Oparin, Grigoriy 2597

FIDE

TOP 20

JULY 2016

1 Carlsen 2855

2 Kramnik 2812

3 Caruana 2810

4 Vachier-Lagrave 2798

5 Aronian 2792

6 Nakamura 2787

7 Giri 2785

8 Ding Liren 2778

9 Karjakin 2773

10 So 2770

11 Anand 2770

12 Mamedyarov 2764

13 Topalov 2761

14 Svidler 2759

15 Li Chao 2758

16 Harikrishna 2755

17 Rapport 2752

18 Grischuk 2747

19 Navara 2745

20 Eljanov 2737

LOUVAIN/LEUVEN

GRAND CHESS TOUR

 

 

FINAL STANDINGS

1  Carlsen, Magnus 23

2  So, Wesley 20,5

3  Aronian, Levon 20

4  Anand, Viswanathan 19,5

5  Caruana, Fabiano 17,5

6  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 17

7  Nakamura, Hikaru 16,5

8  Kramnik, Vladimir 16

9  Giri, Anish 16

10  Topalov, Veselin 14

PARIS

GRAND CHESS TOUR

 

FINAL STANDINGS

1  Nakamura, Hikaru 25,5

2  Carlsen, Magnus 24,5

3  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 22

4  So, Wesley 19,5

5  Aronian, Levon 19

6  Giri, Anish 18

7  Kramnik, Vladimir 15,5

8  Caruana, Fabiano 14

9  Topalov, Veselin 12

10  Fressinet, Laurent 10

TOP 24

EUROPEAN CLUBS

2016

 

1 Mednyy Vsadnik Sankt-Peterburg ( RUS ) 2710

 

2 Sibir Novosibirsk ( RUS ) 2710

 

3 SHSM Legacy Square Capital Moskva ( RUS ) 2683

 

4 OSG Baden-Baden ( GER ) 2681

 

5 SG Solingen ( GER ) 2617

 

6 1. Novoborský ŠK  ( CZE ) 2613

 

7 Clichy ( FRA ) 2595

 

8 Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova ( ITA ) 2589

 

9 Zhiguli Samarskaya Oblast ( RUS ) 2583

 

10 SV 1930 Hockenheim ( GER ) 2583

 

11 SK Schwäbisch Hall ( GER ) 2571

 

12 Bischwiller ( FRA ) 2569

 

13 Werder Bremen ( GER ) 2565

 

14 Bois-Colombes ( FRA ) 2553

 

15 Ladya Respublika Tatarstan ( RUS ) 2545

 

16 SV Mülheim-Nord ( GER ) 2541

 

17 USV Tu Dresden ( GER ) 2526

 

18 Worldtradinglab Club 64 Modena ( ITA ) 2525

 

19 SF Berlin 1903 ( GER ) 2523

 

20 ŠK Města Lysá Nad Labem B  ( CZE ) 2523

 

21 SG Trier 1877 ( GER ) 2521

 

22 Rapid Pardubice   ( CZE ) 2521

 

23 Circolo Scacchi R. Fischer Chieti ( ITA ) 2511

 

24 Mulhouse Philidor ( FRA ) 2510