Alireza Firouzja

Alireza-FioruzjaAlireza Fioruzja (2003-) is a young Iranian-French chess Master. He won the Iranian championship at the age of 12. Due to Iranian politics he played under the  FIDE flag until mid 2021, when he became a French citizen.

Hans Niemann

Is Hans Niemann the second-best classical chess player of 2022?

Imagine a ranking system in which defeating the World Chess Champion trumps other considerations. In this system, Hans Niemann would be #2 for 2022. Niemann is the only player with a classical chess win over World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. This imaginary system is more like sports rankings than chess rankings and is loosely based on the Morphy number. More 🡢
Ding Liren

Do favorites win World Chess Championship qualifiers?

Earlier in this World Chess Championship cycle was the 2021 World Cup. Its top two finishers earned spots in the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament. To pair its single elimination matches, the World Cup ranks each of its participants by their chess ratings. Thus, the World Cup provides data for the question, “Do ratings favorites win World Chess Championship qualifiers?” More 🡢
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; Photo courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

Queen Sacrifices by Top-Level Chess Players

Sacrificing a queen is rare in chess games. Since the queen is the most valuable piece, giving her up for lesser chessmen or for an attack is difficult to contemplate. Within the last two months, two top-level chess players have sacrificed their queens. More 🡢