Maxime Vachier-Lagrave


Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a French chess player, the top ranked of his country.He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2005, at age 14. His peak Elo rating of 2819 makes him the seventh-highest rated player of all time. He is often referred to by his initials, MVL.
He was world junior champion in 2009 and is a three-time French champion. Vachier-Lagrave is a five-time winner of the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, and won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting in 2016 and the Sinquefield Cup in 2017.
He participated in seven Chess Olympiads and four European Team Chess Championships as a member of the French national team and has been a member of the winning team of the French Team Championship multiple times.

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, third in the U-12 championship in 2001, second in the U-14 event in 2003 and third in U-16 section in 2005.
From 2001 to 2008, his FIDE rating increased steadily from 2198 in January 2001 to 2637 in January 2008. Vachier-Lagrave 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.

Chess career

French Championships

during the Alekhine Memorial in Paris, 2013
On March 6, citing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the 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..
The current standings have Maxime in first place, tied with Ian Nepomniachtchi, on 4.5/7.

Grand Chess Tour tournaments

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, SOCAR Baku, Clichy Échecs 92 and Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova.

Rapid and blitz rankings

In addition to his strength in classical time controls, Vachier-Lagrave is very skilled at rapid and blitz chess. As of June 2019, Maxime ranked 4th on the FIDE rapid list and 1st on the blitz list.

Personal life

Outside of chess, Vachier-Lagrave holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, which he earned in 2010. He also teaches chess on his personal YouTube channel, .