Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Vachier-Lagrave at the Candidates Tournament 2020–21
CountryFrance
Born (1990-10-21) 21 October 1990 (age 33)
Nogent-sur-Marne, France
TitleGrandmaster (2005)
FIDE rating2732 (June 2024)
Peak rating2819 (August 2016)
RankingNo. 19 (June 2024)
Peak rankingNo. 2 (August 2016)
Medal record
Representing  France
Men's Chess
European Championship
Silver medal – second place 2013 Warsaw Team

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (French pronunciation: [maksim vaʃje laɡʁav]; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French chess grandmaster who is a former World Blitz Champion.[1] With a peak rating of 2819, he is the seventh-highest rated player in history.

A chess prodigy, Vachier-Lagrave earned the title of grandmaster in 2005 at age 14. In 2007, he won the French Chess Championship, and in 2009, won the World Junior Chess Championship and the Biel Grandmaster Tournament. He repeated as French Chess Champion in 2011 and 2012 and as the winner of the Biel Grandmaster Tournament in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. He won the Sinquefield Cup in 2017 and 2021 and competed in the Candidates Tournament 2020–21, placing second.

He has participated in the Chess Olympiad and in the European Team Chess Championship, representing France.

Early life

From the age of six, Vachier-Lagrave competed in numerous sections of youth tournaments, winning the French Under-8 championship in 1997, U-10s in 1999, U-12s in 2000, U-16s in 2002, runner up in the U-18s in 2003 and won the U-20s in 2004 scoring 8/9.

He also took part in the World Youth Chess Championship, coming third in the U-10 division in 2000 (8½/11), third in the U-12 championship in 2001 (8/11), second in the U-14 event in 2003 (9/11) and third in U-16 section in 2005 (8½/11).

From 2001 to 2008, his FIDE rating increased steadily from 2198 in January 2001 to 2637 in January 2008. He passed 2600 in October 2007 and 2700 one year later.

He became an International Master in 2004 and achieved the Grandmaster title in 2005 at the age of 14 years and 4 months[2] after sharing first in the 2004 Paris Championship with 6½/9, winning the NAO GM tournament in 2004 with 6/9 and coming second in the Évry GM tournament in February 2005 with 7½/9.[3]

Chess career

This section is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this section, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (April 2018)

French Championships

Classical international tournaments

Vachier-Lagrave playing against Viswanathan Anand during the Alekhine Memorial in Paris, 2013

FIDE Grand Prix and World Cups

Candidates Tournament 2020–2021

On 6 March, citing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament. His replacement was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, as he was next on the qualifier by rating list. FIDE decided to postpone the second half of the tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic.[12] The tournament was resumed on 19 April 2021, and ended on 28 April 2021.[13]

Maxime ended the tournament with 8/14 points (4 wins, 8 draws, and 2 losses) getting second place, half a point behind the winner Ian Nepomniachtchi.[14]

Grand Chess Tour tournaments

Rapid, Blitz and Bullet tournaments and matches

Vachier-Lagrave (left) chatting with Vladimir Kramnik at the World Blitz Chess Championship, 2015 in Berlin. (Alexander Grischuk is on the right).

Teams

Vachier-Lagrave played in the French team championship with the NAO Chess Club teams since 1997. Team results include:

He played for the Évry Grand Roque chess club in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Since 2011, he plays for the Clichy club chess team in the Top12.

In the European Chess Club Cup, he played with SV Mülheim Nord (in 2008), SOCAR Baku (in 2010), Clichy Échecs 92 (in 2013) and Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova (2014–2016).[22]

Rapid and blitz rankings

In addition to his strength in classical time controls, Vachier-Lagrave is very skilled at rapid and blitz chess. He won the World Blitz Chess Championship 2021, and was the only player to defeat eventual winner Magnus Carlsen during the 2023 edition. As of January 2024, Maxime ranked third on the FIDE rapid list[23] and tenth on the blitz list.[24]

Tournament and match results (2003–2008)

Legend
Classical international and national individual and team tournaments
Tournaments organized by FIDE (Olympiads, World Championships, World Cups, FIDE Grand Swiss and Candidates tournaments)
Non classical (rapid and blitz) rated and blindfold competitions (Grand Chess Tour, Amber and Lindores Abbey tournaments, Champions Showdown matches)
Internet competitions (Internet Chess Club, Chess.com, chess24.com, Lichess, Champions Chess Tour and FIDE online tournaments and matches)

TPR (Tournament Performance ratings) of FIDE-rated events calculated according to FIDE.[25]

Year City Tournament Time control Wins Losses Draws Points Place TPR
2003 Kallithea World Youth Chess Championship 2003 - Boys U14 Classical 8 1 2 9/11 2nd 2537
2004 Hersonissos World Youth Chess Championships 2004 - Boys U16 Classical 4 1 6 7/11 13th 2450
2005 Belfort World Youth Chess Championships 2005 - Boys U16 Classical 7 1 3 8½/11 3rd 2531
2006 Turin 37th Chess Olympiad, Open event, France Board 5 Classical 3 1 6 6/10 7th (Team) 2563
2007 Heraklion 16th European Team Chess Championship, Open section, France Board 4 Classical 3 1 4 5/8 9th (Team) 2661
2008 9th European Individual Chess Championship 2008 Classical 6 1 4 8/11 8th 2750
Sixth Marx György Memorial Classical 4 0 6 7/10 First 2763
24th European Chess Club Cup, Open section Classical 1 1 5 3½/7 2586
38th Chess Olympiad, Open event, France Board 2 Classical 3 1 7 6½/11 22nd (Team) 2666
Year City Tournament Time control Wins Losses Draws Points Place TPR

Personal life

Vachier-Lagrave also teaches chess on his personal YouTube channel, MVL Chess, and maintains a blog.

References

  1. ^ Federations Ranking: France Archived 8 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine. FIDE.
  2. ^ "Chess prodigies and mini-grandmasters". ChessBase. 10 January 2006. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  3. ^ GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Chessdom.com
  4. ^ "Susan Polgar Chess Daily News and Information: Vachier-Lagrave tops SPICE Cup". Susanpolgar.blogspot.com. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  5. ^ World Cities team championship, theweekinchess.com"
  6. ^ A bit of history : A bit of history : The Al Ain Classic started as a side event of the 2012 World Cities Chess Team Championship. On that occasion it introduced a unique format: players eliminated from the knock-out team competition could join, carrying over their points total to the individual Swiss. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who was eliminated by Romain Edouard in the main event, was the winner of the first Al Ain Classic.
  7. ^ "Aronian and Gelfand win Alekhine Memorial 2013". ChessBase News. 1 May 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  8. ^ Staff writer(s) (9 April 2018). "GRENKE Chess Classic 2018: Pairings & standings". Grenke Chess. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  9. ^ Doggers, Peter (7 June 2018). "Caruana Wins Norway Chess". Chess.com.
  10. ^ Yermolinsky, Alex (14 November 2018). "Vachier-Lagrave awarded Shenzen (sic) Masters win after three-way tie". Chessbase. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  11. ^ Shah, Sagar (22 September 2017). "FIDE World Cup 2017: And then there were two!". Chessbase.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Breaking News: FIDE stops the Candidates Tournament!". Chess News. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  13. ^ "FIDE resumes the Candidates Tournament". www.fide.com. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  14. ^ "FIDE Candidates Tournament 2020".
  15. ^ Venkatachalam Saravanan (22 August 2017). "Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at the Sinquefield Cup 2017 - a look at his games". Chessbase.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  16. ^ Crowther, Mark (31 August 2018). "6th Sinquefield Cup 2018". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  17. ^ Pereira, Antonio (17 December 2018). "Nakamura deservedly wins the 2018 Grand Chess Tour". Chessbase.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  18. ^ "Results and Standings | Grand Chess Tour".
  19. ^ "St. Louis Rapid & Blitz Winners & Losers". chess24. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  20. ^ "European Blitz Championship 2010". FIDE. 18 December 2010. Archived from the original on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  21. ^ "European Blitz Chess Championship 2012: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave takes gold medal". Chessdom. 14 December 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  22. ^ EUROPEAN MEN'S CHESS CLUB CUP, olimpbase.
  23. ^ "PERIOD: JANUARY 2024 – RANK RAPID RATING WORLD". FIDE.
  24. ^ "PERIOD: JANUARY 2024 – BLITZ RAPID RATING WORLD". FIDE.
  25. ^ FIDE Title Regulations 1.48 and 1.49 Archived 16 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Fide.com