3 min readUpdated: May 21, 2026 02:59 PM IST
After playing two rounds of the Super Chess Classic Romania tournament from a hotel bed with a leg propped up on pillows due to an ankle injury, French grandmaster Alireza Firouzja pulled out of the classical tournament mid-way. Alireza had picked up the ankle injury after his third round game. Alireza’s pull out has not gone well with some, including FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky.
“Mixed feelings about Alireza. I praised him a couple of days ago. We all saw he really is finding it difficult/impossible to sit and play, but he’d better quit then than now. It is simply too unfair towards Pragg and Sindarov. And actually also other players who had to work to beat him, not having an extra free day (one may argue though, they got rating points as a compensation),” Sutovsky said on X.
Alireza Firouzja plays Javokhir Sindarov from his bed after injuring his ankle. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)
Sutovsky meant that Alireza’s mid-event pull out would mean that besides the three games he lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana, he would give a point to the other four players in the field as forfeit. It would only be India’s R Praggnanandhaa and world championship contender who he held to draws, thereby costing them half a point.
While announcing his decision to withdraw mid-way through the event, Alireza said: “Unfortunately, due to an ankle injury sustained during the event, I have decided to withdraw from the tournament. Thank you to the organizers for their support and accommodations, and thank you to everyone following the games. I wish the players and organizers the best for the rest of the tournament.”
Sutovsky also pointed out a parallel from history, comparing the pull out to former world champion Bobby Fischer’s.
“Another parallel from chess history. Fischer led the Interzonal in Sousse (1967), but quit due to the disagreement with organizers. Not entering the dispute whether that was justified – but he set an ultimatum – it must be decided by the start of round 11, because had he dropped after, the impact on the fellow players would be too big – and if he dropped after round 10 (as it happened), all his results were void. Fischer quit with 8.5/10. All his results were void.”
