With four rounds to go in the European Team Championship 18-year-old Iranian-French wunderkind Alireza Firouzja has jumped into third on the live rating list, passing Fabiano Caruana and now trailing only World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren. Moreover, he's only six points behind Ding, and 6.2 points away from becoming only the second 18-year-old 2800 in chess history (after Carlsen). It's a fantastic achievement, as his incredible month finds him jumping from one peak to another.
Firouzja began the month with a 2770 rating, and has padded that already lofty number with an additional 23.3 rating points. That's tops among players in the top 100, but the player with the second-largest rating gain this month deserves serious credit as well: Alexei Shirov. Like Firouzja, he had a fantastic result in the FIDE Grand Swiss last week, and while his European Team Championship performance hasn't been as strong as Firouzja's, it has been good enough - his rating has continued to climb. For almost two decades he was at or near the top of world chess, and with an incredible attractive, Tal-like style. He fell below 2700 some years back, but with 22 points in his pocket this month alone he's nearing that level once again, reaching 2695 with his win in the last round.
Will their successes continue? Will Firouzja break 2800 before Shirov returns to 2700? We'll see. For now, here are their wins from round 5, with my comments.