Alireza FirouzjaBENGALURU: A 22-year-old grandmaster, one of the strongest players on the planet, lying flat on a hotel bed with his leg propped up on a pillow, calculating variations against a World Championship challenger sitting upright across the board. That was Alireza Firouzja's reality for a stretch of tournaments earlier this year, a fallout from an ankle injury.

It was surreal." com, recalling the moment that caught the chess world's attention during the Super Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania, earlier this year in May.

" I wanted to come down from the stage, and I stepped wrongly, and I twisted my ankle." Just a wrong step off a stage, except this time it happened to someone with a full tournament calendar and no real option to simply rest up.

The injury first sidelined his movement during the Grand Chess Tour leg in Romania, which he described as the low point of the entire saga. " Romania was the most annoying part, because I had to lie on the bed and keep the feet up," he added.

Things improved slightly by the time he reached Norway Chess, where he was on crutches but was at least able to sit behind the board again." In Norway already I could sit behind the table," he said.

But Romania was the stretch that tested him most. Among those opponents was Javokhir Sindarov, now the World Championship challenger who will face Gukesh later this year.

Asked directly what it actually felt like, calculating chess from a horizontal position, leg elevated, unable to sit up properly, he didn't hide his annoyance." It was very unpleasant," he revealed.

" But I just wanted to play, because it was a good opportunity. But after two rounds, I just said, it's enough.

It was impossible to play." He's since made a full recovery.

" It's fully recovered," he confirmed. Back in India, and clearly enjoying itThe bed-and-pillow chapter is behind him, but Firouzja's relationship with Indian crowds has become one of the more consistent threads of his year.

This is his second trip to the country in the space of three to four months. He won the Chennai Grand Masters tournament in July before arriving for the Global Chess League (GCL) here in Bengaluru, where he plays for two-time champions Triveni Continental Kings."

India, always, whenever I come, people are very interested in what we do, and it's very good," he said, when asked about the reception. " I've been this year two times already, I was in Chennai, now here, and last year I was in Mumbai (for GCL)."