Vladimir Kramnik spared no-one during commentary on the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Madrid, and in particular asked of Alireza Firouzja, “how can the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world play like that?” It’s remarkable, therefore, that we now know the 14th World Chess Champion held training camps with Firouzja in the run-up to the tournament.

A last-round win over a demoralised Fabiano Caruana saw 19-year-old Alireza Firouzja climb out of last place, but that only papered over the cracks of a disappointing performance by one of the pre-tournament favourites.

There were theories for why it happened, with Anish Giri, for instance, noting that, “he takes the draw out of the equation”, which is very dangerous against the world’s best players.

A harsh critic

One of the harshest critics was the 14th World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who said of the first five rounds for the Russian Levitov Chess YouTube channel, “I have never seen so many bad games in a top-level tournament”. In particular he said of Rapport-Firouzja.

"The amount of easily findable missed wins despite having enough time on the clock puts this game as my favourite worst game of the tournament. The fact that this game ends in a draw is deserving for both of the players."

The toughest criticism for Alireza, however, came after his loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi in Round 11.

"Let me speak plainly: for now Firouzja still understands chess very poorly. He's insanely talented, calculates well, and so on, but his understanding of the game is so flawed... How can the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world play like that? He simply shouldn't be the no. 2 or no. 3 in the world, it's absolutely not that level."

It’s all the more remarkable, therefore, that Kramnik had been working with Firouzja.

Kramnik working with Firouzja

The revelation came in the latest episode of The Chicken Chess Club podcast by Team Magnus members Peter Heine Nielsen, Jan Gustafsson and Laurent Fressinet. Laurent revealed:

"We know now with whom he prepared, it became public knowledge, it was Kramnik and Cheparinov, at the very least… [French GM Sébastien] Mazé saw Kramnik on some beach in the south of France and ok, he was a bit surprised, and then he said, sure, I’m training with Alireza, and then Mazé just visited them in their house they were renting for one of the training camps, so that’s completely public. Mazé came to my show and said it."

Laurent noted that the camp had been held shortly before the Candidates, and asked a reasonable question:

"The big question now is are they still working together, or maybe Kramnik got fired and got angry with Alireza, because he said he didn’t have the understanding of no. 2 or 3 in the world… Are they still working together? It would be a bit weird to go against your boss like that. We would never do that, that’s for sure! And we’d be fired in the same second, which actually would be pretty fair."

Kramnik’s previous praise of Firouzja

How much extra pressure did it put on Firouzja after Carlsen singled him out as a player he would play a match against? | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess

Vladimir Kramnik hasn’t always had only harsh words for Alireza. Back in January this year he called Firouzja “the biggest player of his generation” in an interview with chess24. Kramnik understood Firouzja wasn’t yet the finished article:

"It’s clear that his play is not so complete yet. He still has lots of things to improve. But it’s clear that I am impressed. And I believe he is going to play a World Championship match one day, let’s put it this way. But is it going to be now? Well, there is a chance, but he is not the favourite in the Candidates, let’s be frank, because, at minimum, he lacks experience, and so on. But there is a chance, and I guess he is going to work hard to try to make use of this chance. But even if he doesn’t, it’s not a drama. He needs to get experience, and experience playing the Candidates is really essential. It’s very important for him that he is going to play in this event."

Kramnik pointed out time was in Firouzja’s favour.

"I think the best for Firouzja, just my thinking, is not to be too concentrated on trying to win it, because he has time, he is young. There are some players in this Candidates whose time is starting to tick. They don’t have so much time left. Firouzja has all the time in the world. Of course you always want to perform immediately and now. It would be amazing if he wins it, but in any case it will be an incredible experience. Maybe then, in a couple of years, he will become a more rounded player, and learn some things. Then maybe in two years, he will be a fully ready player. Who knows? Or maybe in four years, he will just be 22-23, it’s nothing. If you want to become World Champion, there is no reason to hurry. There are not many World Champions, so even if you are 30, it’s still okay!"

Kramnik’s own troubled experience of Candidates Tournaments

It’s a curiosity that Vladimir Kramnik became World Champion despite never winning the qualifying cycle for a match, since he lost to Alexei Shirov in their match and only got to play Garry Kasparov in 2000 by invite after the organisation of the Kasparov-Shirov match collapsed.

Kramnik pushed Magnus Carlsen all the way in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, where the players ended up scoring the same points but Magnus won on tiebreaks, but Vladimir knows exactly how it feels to crash and burn in a Candidates. After winning two of the first three games in the 2018 Candidates in Berlin he then managed to lose four of the next six.

One of his seconds, Anish Giri, noted that Vladimir had often gone completely off-script despite all the work they did on openings.

What now for Firouzja?

Despite all the drama, 19-year-old Alireza ended the FIDE Candidates as world no. 4 on the live rating list and clearly has everything ahead of him. Peter Heine Nielsen commented:

"I think at some point Larsen was asked why he didn’t become the World Champion, and the answer was that there were better players than me, and so far that’s still Alireza’s problem. He’s not good enough, yet. He might become that, but we’ll see."

The experience of this Candidates should work in Firouzja’s favour, and there are some things he can put right in future. For instance, Alireza told Laurent that not playing for six months hadn’t been any kind of plan but was just down to a lack of options (after a dispute with the Wijk organisers).

We’ll likely next see Alireza in action from July 20th when he plays the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz in Zagreb, Croatia, with Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi also in the field.


See also:

Giri on Firouzja: "He takes the draw out of the equation!"
Kramnik on Carlsen's new target, what Firouzja needs to do and top young talents