Guildford chess team player reaches 2800 rating

[Matt Mackenzie]

I assume MVL is the strongest French player ever

Do the French claim Alekhine (French citizen from 1927) as one of their own?

No idea, but he's clearly far stronger than Alekhine ever was.

Ah, not this old chestnut again

[Mick Norris]

Ok how about strongest French born player if that helps

[David Sedgwick]

Ok how about strongest French born player if that helps

Q. Name a French born chess player who was at one time regarded as the second strongest player in the world.
A. Vachier-Lagrave

Q. Name four French born chess players who were at one time regarded as the strongest player in the world.
A. Philidor, Deschapelles, La Bourdonnais, Saint-Amant

[Mick Norris]

MVL drew game 1 with Svidler, but won game 2 to take his live rating to 2814.8

This takes him above Grischuk to 9th in the highest all time list (while a draw and a win in the final 2 games would take him above Kramnik to 8th)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

MVL won game 3, though the computer had Svidler winning at one point in a complicated position.

MVL's live rating is at 2819, less than 40 points behind Carlsen... (but still 'only' 11 points ahead of 3rd place).

[Mick Norris]

That puts MVL up to the 7th highest all time live rating, above Nakamura, only 1.4 points behind Anand in that list