Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (French pronunciation: ; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French chess grandmaster who is a former World Blitz Champion.
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 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.
Besançon 2006: finished 5th at the French Championship with 6 points out of 11 and a TPR of 2608.
Winner of 2007 French Championship after beating GM Vladislav Tkachiev in tiebreak match. In the main tournament he collected 7.5 out of 11.
Winner of the 2011 and 2012 French Championships.
Classical international tournaments
2006: Aeroflot Open, Moscow: played the A1 (main) tournament, reserved for players having a rating superior to 2550. He finished sixth with 6 points out of 9 and a TPR of 2775.
Young Masters, Lausanne 2006: being the youngest player invited, won the tournament with a TPR of 2630.
Winner of the 2021 Sinquefield Cup with 6 points out of 9 (+4–1=4), being the first person to win clear first place twice and the first to win the event after losing one game.
Winner of the 2022 Bucharest Superbet classic after a tie-break against Wesley So and Levon Aronian
Winner of the 2019 Paris Rapid and Blitz Grand Chess Tour tournament with a score of 21/36
Second-Fourth place in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz event with a score of 21.5/36. The second place was tied and shared with Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi.
Second place at the London Chess Classic 2019 (beats Magnus Carlsen in the semi-final).
2023: Sixth Place at the World Rapid Championship in Samarkand with 9 points out of 13.
2023: Fourth Place at the World Blitz Championship in Samarkand with 14.5 points out of 21.
Teams
Vachier-Lagrave played in the French team championship with the NAO Chess Club teams since 1997. Team results include:
U16 French championship 2004–2005: first board for NAO Chess Club, 7 points from 7 games. NAO-CC earned the title
U16 French championship 2005–2006: first board for NAO Chess Club, 7 points from 7 games. NAO-CC again earned the title
Top 16 2006: NAO team, 6½ points from 8 games. NAO-CC won the championship for the fourth time in a row (2003 to 2006)
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).
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,[update] Maxime ranked third on the FIDE rapid list and tenth on the blitz list.
Personal life
Vachier-Lagrave also teaches chess on his personal YouTube channel, MVL Chess, and maintains a blog.
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