It felt like a return to the work-from-home aesthetic of the coronavirus pandemic. Alireza Firouzja, the French grandmaster who’s made a name for himself for his chic sartorial sense, lay sprawled on a hotel room bed sporting red boxing shorts and a black T-shirt, wearing a sock in one leg while the other foot was propped up on four pillows, the shadow of a bruise visible on the ankle. Sitting across from Alireza on an office chair by the bed was his opponent for the day, Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov.
It was over-the-board chess at the elite level like it has rarely been seen before.
When Alireza hurt his ankle after his third round game at the Super Chess Classic 2026 tournament in Bucharest, organisers of the Grand Chess Tour knew they would have to get creative if they wanted to ensure the French grandmaster’s continued participation in the remaining rounds of the classical tournament in the Romanian capital.
So, they came up with this never-before-heard solution: Alireza was asked to play from a bed in a hotel room with his opponent sitting across a physical board and an arbiter designated in the room to keep a mindful eye on them. The rest of the tournament will continue in the designated playing hall, with players in immaculate suits squaring off while Alireza will play in the hotel room until his ankle heals.
After suffering an ankle injury, Alireza Firouzja is playing against Javokhir Sindarov from a special room at the hotel during Round 5 of the Superbet Chess Classic.
A truly historic moment in elite chess!#Grandchesstour pic.twitter.com/0g37YkW5n5— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) May 18, 2026
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Despite being in crippling pain, Alireza managed to hold the Uzbekistan grandmaster to a draw on a day when all five contests ended in stalemates.
“After the third round, Alireza suffered an ankle injury. Fortunately, the ankle was not broken or fractured. After consulting with his team and the tournament organisers, he has decided to continue the tournament in a special room with the agreement of his opponents and the presence of an arbiter,” veteran grandmaster Yasser Seirawan announced on the live broadcast before the start of round 5 of the tournament. “We are thrilled that Alireza remains in the tournament and is willing to continue to play.”
Alireza Firouzja plays Javokhir Sindarov from his bed after injuring his ankle. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)
The ankle injury meant that Alireza had to skip his fourth round game against American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana. But the organisers, considerate of the physical injury that prevented the youngster from playing, have also allowed Alireza to face Caruana in a game on Tuesday, when the rest of the players will have a rest day.
Story continues below this ad
Alireza Firouzja plays Javokhir Sindarov from his bed after injuring his ankle. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)
Alireza’s draw with Sindarov ensured that he ended the fifth round with a single point to his name and was marooned at last spot in the 10-player standings, but with one game left to play. Sindarov, who was in red-hot form at the Candidates tournament, sweeping to the title with an unbeaten run in 14 games, has had a wretched run at Romania, going winless in five rounds. For the record, this is the second instance in recent times that Sindarov has played an opponent lying in bed: he had recently faced Daniil Dubov in an online tournament where the Russian GM was lying down while commandeering his pieces.
Alireza Firouzja plays Javokhir Sindarov from his bed after injuring his ankle. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)
“Well, game 3 of the 1972 Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky world championship match in Reykjavík was also played in a special back room, but that was for psychological injuries,” joked former world champion Garry Kasparov pointing out how Fischer’s paranoia about psychological methods being used to rattle him during the 1972 World Championship in Reykjavik had made him arm-twist the organisers of the event to hold one game of the match in a backroom.
The visual of Alireza lying on the bed playing in a competitive tournament brought back memories of British grandmaster Tony Miles who had famously played chess while lying face downwards on a massage table during the 1985 Interpolis tournament in Tilburg.
The story goes that Miles’ spine had locked up in the middle of the Interpolis tournament, which used to be one of the strongest invitational competitions on the circuit a few decades ago. And while he was on the verge of withdrawing from the event — since he could not sit on a chair without experiencing shooting pains in his back — the organisers offered him a unique solution: he could play from a massage table.
Story continues below this ad
Initially, the rest of the field agreed. Then, as the wins started coming, the murmurs began. Reportedly, many of the players submitted a written complaint to the organisers that the sight of Miles sprawled in front of them was a source of distraction. The organisers were having none of it though and rejected the complaint.
Distraction or not, what was remarkable was that the new perspective that lying prone during games provided Miles with actually helped him win the tournament over a field that included players of the calibre of Viktor Korchnoi.
That’s the kind of luck that Alireza will be hoping to summon with his new situation.
