Bengaluru: The player whom Magnus Carlsen terms his favourite opponent, the one considered his heir apparent —21-year-old Alireza Firouzja—has little doubt about the source of his motivation and drive for hustle. It’s not so much the fellow 18- to 21-year-olds shaking up the chess world order; rather, it’s the five-time world champion. Though Carlsen has stepped away from the World Championship cycle and distanced himself from classical chess in many ways, the Iranian-French Grandmaster hopes that someday they will compete against each other in a battle for the world title. It’s a wish Carlsen expressed before he chose not to defend his title because he wasn’t happy with the format.

“I get a lot of motivation playing Magnus,” Firouzja told HT in an interview. “Whether it’s our online games or the ones we play over the board. He drives me to play better and whenever I play him, I also get an insight into the things I need to improve.”

In the span of a week, Firouzja defeated Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, and Carlsen at the Global Chess League in London. “Magnus and I have a mutual respect for each other. He has seen me play since I was a kid, and he knows I’m capable of playing good chess. I admire his style, and I hope we can compete against each other in a World Championship someday. I’m not sure if that will happen, given the format, but I certainly hope it does.”

In some ways perhaps, there are apparent parallels between Carlsen and Firouzja. For one, they both are extraordinary talents who belong to countries with no chess legacy - Iran and Norway. Firouzja became the youngest-ever to reach the 2800 rating three years ago. Somewhat bafflingly, he is yet to have a good streak at a Candidates tournament. In 2021, he had risen as high as No 2 in the world and ahead of the 2022 Candidates tournament, Carlsen declared that if anyone other than Firouzja won, it was unlikely he would be interested in defending his title.

Ian Nepomniachtchi became champion, Firouzja ended up having a tough debut (6/14), finishing sixth in the eight-player field and Carlsen walked away from the world title. At this year’s Candidates, which India’s Gukesh won, Firouzja had a disastrous run, ending the tournament second from the bottom (5/14). Does he think pressure counts for something?

“It’s a very special tournament and it’s not always easy to place a finger on why you aren’t having the results you need. For the Candidates, you have to be in very good shape at that moment… Players are extra motivated during the tournament and you have to be lucky to be really good for those two to three weeks. I hope I can do well and win it in the years ahead.”

During this year’s Candidates when he was asked in what way he thinks he differs from the Indian bunch of top prodigies, Firouzja’s response was pretty clinical – focus. For the World Championship match in November, Firouzja calls Gukesh the “favourite”.

Unlike Gukesh, Praggnanandha and Arjun Erigaisi, the Iran-born player has been given to whimsy. Like pulling an all-nighter playing over 300 bullet chess games online after his Round 10 loss at the 2022 Candidates. Soon after, he disappeared briefly from chess tournaments to pursue an alternative career in fashion designing, and slid in the rankings.

“Yeah, it was a big change the one year I was away… but now I really want to focus on chess. I like that part of stuff too (fashion designing), but now I really want to achieve things in chess.” He’s now ranked 7 in the world and in a show of absolute dominance, he won the Sinquefield Cup at St Louis unbeaten in August this year, half a point clear of world No 3 Fabiano Caruana.

Firouzja won on time against Carlsen recently, leaving the Norwegian shaking his head and smirking in disbelief. With the no-increment rule in place at the Global Chess League, games have become chaotic, and drawn criticism. “I think playing fast is very exciting,” days Firouzja, “when you play such chess online you have more control over the pieces. This kind of chess I think gives you a feeling of some kind of action going on and I guess people like to watch it too.”

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