Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French chess grandmaster who is a former World Blitz Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2819, Vachier-Lagrave is the seventh-highest rated player in history. A chess prodigy, Vachier-Lagrave earned the title of grandmaster in 2005, at age 14. In 2007, Vachier-Lagrave won the French Chess Championship, and in 2009, won the World Junior Chess Championship and the Biel Grandmaster Tournament. He repeated as French Chess Champion in 2011 and 2012 and as the winner of the Biel Grandmaster Tournament in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Vachier-Lagrave won the Sinquefield Cup in 2017 and 2021 and competed in the Candidates Tournament 2020–21, placing second. Vachier-Lagrave has participated in the Chess Olympiad and in the European Team Chess Championship, representing France. 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 (8½/11), third in the U-12 championship in 2001 (8/11), second in the U-14 event in 2003 (9/11) and third in U-16 section in 2005 (8½/11). 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 2004: Winner of the French Junior Championship (U20). In 2005, Vachier-Lagrave finished in third place at the French Chess Championship with 7/11. Besançon 2006: finished 5th at the French Championship with 6 points out of 11 and a TPR of 2608. Winner of 2007 French Championship after beating GM Vladislav Tkachiev in tiebreak match. In the main tournament he collected 7.5 out of 11. Winner of the 2011 and 2012 French Championships. Classical international tournaments 2006: Aeroflot Open, Moscow: played the A1 (main) tournament, reserved for