Alireza Firouzja has won the 2019 European Fischer Random Championship, edging out Andrew Tang by scoring an impressive 8 out of 9 . With his victory, he's won an invite into the Knockout Qualifier round of the 2019 FIDE World Fischer Random Championship.
Two months before turning 16, the Iranian GM Firouzja has already become a household name in the chess world. Only a few weeks ago he put up a great fight against Hikaru Nakamura in the Bullet Chess Championship, and has now staked his claim as one of the top Fischer Random Chess players in the world.
In the Reykjavik Open taking place directly after the European Fischer Random Championship, the rising star of Iran was sharing the lead together with GM Robert Hovhannisyan, GM Sergei Movsesian (both Armenia) and GM Constantin Lupulescu (Romania) after five rounds. After the rest day, four more rounds were played where Firouzja eventually finished runner-up to eventual champion Lupulescu.
The Reykjavik Open was held for the 33rd time this year. The tournament winners of this long-running event include Mikhail Tal (the first edition in 1964), Fridrik Olafsson, Vasily Smyslov, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri and, last year, Baskaran Adhiban.
Once again the beautiful concert hall Harpa in the harbor of the Icelandic capital his hosting the tournament, which ran from April 8-16.
Having won the 2018 and 2019 Iranian Chess Championship and establishing himself along with fellow Iranian wunderkind Parham Maghsoodloo as one of the top juniors in the world, Firouzja is performing at his peak FIDE rating of 2669 and hasgained nearly 70 points since October 2018.
Firouzja heads into the 2019 Fischer Random Championship in fine form off of his recent run of impressive performances both over-the-board and online including a recent second-place finish in the Arena Kings Season 3 and will be looking to win his Knockout Qualifier group and join the seeded quarterfinalists Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura.