They call him the prince of chess. A monarch in waiting, who was handpicked as a worthy successor to the chess throne by king Carlsen himself, but one who could only watch as others cut into the line of succession and became world champions instead.In chess, the term natural talent is used frequently. Perhaps more than in any other sport. But it’s also in this sport that it’s trickier to define. Ask anyone in chess, and they are likely to describe Alireza Firouzja as a natural talent, a player whose instinctive understanding of the sport can be the envy of most others. But he’s also the sport’s biggest enigma.These days you can spot Firouzja being wheeled in on a wheelchair to Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika to play at the Norway Chess tournament. He plays his games with one leg stuck out and planted gingerly on a chair at an odd angle for over four hours daily. And by the time he’s done with his game, he’s made his opponents squirm, like Carlsen, R Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh have in the first three rounds of this year’s strongest classical tournament, with the first two losing to Firouzja in the classical format while the reigning world champion lost in the Armageddon. Never mind that this is only the second classical tournament he’s played in half a year and he withdrew half-way through the first one of those (at Romania last week) with an ankle injury after just five rounds.Playing with black pieces, Carlsen erred in time trouble against Firouzja, which helped the Frenchman earn his first victory in classical chess over the Norwegian. Something in chess definitely shifted.For a player who really loves his walks during classical chess, Firouzja has almost been grounded by the ankle injury, which requires him to wear a leg brace. But as his results in the first two games have shown, he’s making it work.“I don’t know how he’s even playing. It’s very unpleasant to play with this pain, because there’s a constant throbbing. And it’s swollen too. And if he does not keep his leg up, it hurts even worse. In chess, you need full concentration. When you’re a little bit distracted, it’s kind of not easy,” says Ivan Cheparinov, the Bulgarian grandmaster who has been his coach for the last four years which makes him the perfect decoder for Firouzja’s talent.Cheparinov has worked with world championship contender Veselin Topalov. He was a second for Zhu Jiner at the recent Women’s Candidates. He faced Carlsen among others in his younger days. But he’s ready to stick his neck out and say that Firouzja is the ‘most talented player ever’ he’s seen. The phrase ‘natural talent’ of course is mentioned more than once in the conversation.Story continues below this ad“Things come very easy to him,” says Cheparinov. “I’ve played rapid and blitz games with him, and I can fight with him, but when the time on the clock is under 20 seconds, it’s impossible to play against him. This is what happened in the Carlsen game in round 1. When they were in time trouble, he was just better.”ALSO READ | ‘Don’t think it’s such a big win’: Praggnanandhaa after defeating Magnus CarlsenAsk him what the French-Iranian grandmaster needs to do to get to the level that the world once thought him capable of, and Cheparinov says: “He needs to believe more in himself and try and take it more seriously. He’s super good, but sometimes I feel like he’s not really doing the job that he needs to.”With Gukesh becoming a world champion at 18 and Javokhir Sindarov becoming a challenger at 19, it might seem like a 22-year-old is already too old to challenge for the top prize in the sport. But Cheparinov knows that Firouzja has it in him to bend convention to his will.Story continues below this adFirouzja is also a study in contrast to the other players in the sport like Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa who work tirelessly day in day out on their chess and averaged 15 tournaments in 2025. Cheparinov says that Firouzja can spend five to six hours on chess “when he needs to”.“When I was young I used to work 10 hours a day on chess. But for me, it was necessary. For him, it’s easier,” he shrugs.He learnt early in their association that Firouzja was different. Much different than Topalov, the other generational talent he helped become a world beater. There are some forms of genius that you cannot impose deadlines on.“When you push him, it doesn’t work,” says Cheparinov, who says that at the start of their association he tried — and failed, much to his frustration — to get the Frenchman to do things his way.Story continues below this adFirouzja, for a brief while, stopped focussing on chess and redirected his energies on building a career in fashion.“Topalov was much different. He would work a lot, went to the gym a lot. But if Alireza did the same as Topalov, it probably won’t work for him,” he says.Did the Carlsen comment after the Norwegian had won his fifth world championship title — ‘if someone other than Firouzja wins the Candidates Tournament, it is unlikely that I will play the next world championship match’ — put a bright glare of spotlight on him that he was not ready for?“Alireza claims it did not. But I’m not sure. Maybe subconsciously it did,” says Cheparinov.Story continues below this adBefore the conversation ends, Cheparinov has an important disclaimer about the Frenchman: “don’t forget, he’s just 22. Now, you can see that he’s back. Sometimes with age, you have more control of yourself.”His results in the first two rounds at Norway Chess indicate that the prince is ready to challenge for his throne again.Or it might be another false dawn.(The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess)