Shirov Alexei (04.07.1972)

Spanish Grandmaster born in Latvia. World Champion runner-up in 2001. World U16 Champion in 1988.

Student at the Botvinnik-Kasparov Chess School, by the beginning of 1990, he was one of the strongest chess players in the world. “The new magician from Riga,” was called the 19-year-old player in 1991, who was further the first ahead of top players at Biel.

His hope to surpass one day an ELO of 2700 points came true when he won the London Tournament in 1991, the Reykjavik tournament in 1992 and the Munich tournament in 1993.  His first remarkable achievements in adult chess events were in 1989 in Val Maubuee where he was equal first with Kupreichik, in 1990 in Daugavpils being among the four with the first together with Unzicker, Hoi, and Zhuravlev. The same year he shared the first prize in Lvov with Lputian, Dreev, and Yudasin, in Santiago he was equal first with Gurevich and in Stockholm, he finished also first. In 1991 he took the first prize in Gausdal, Kerteminde, Moscow, London, and Brno. He played a match the same year against the French Renet whom he defeated with a score of 5½-0½. He continued to participate in various international competitions and in 1992, he won in Oakham and Reykjavik, where he shared the first prize with Hjartarsson. That year, he beat in a match the Norwegian star Agdestein at Gausdal/Oslo with a score of 3-1. In 1993 in the Buenos Aires tournament, he was equal first with Kamsky. In 1995, he defeated Piket 5½-2½ in Aruba in a match. The same year he shared the first prize with Bareev in Leon and missed every opportunity to qualify for the FIDE and PCA World Championships, but in 1997 he emerged the absolute winner of the tournaments of the Dresden Rapid and Ter Apel.

In 1998 he played two matches, beating Kramnik with a score 4½-3½ in Cazorla and crushed Hracek 5-1 in Ostrava. Unfortunately for him, he could never play with Kasparov in the WCC final as the organization collapsed. In 1999, he crushed J. Polgar in a match and in 2000 he succeeded in Monaco. Later he qualified for the finals of the World Championship but could not stop Anand from being crowned as World Champion. Winner of Karpov’s Poikowsky Tournament in 2006 and 2008, the Rapid of Villa de Canada de Calatrava in 2007. He was also runner-up in the 2007 World Cup. In May 2009, Alexei Shirov achieved one of the greatest triumphs of his career by placing 1st in the Category 21 M-Tel Masters 2009 tournament in Sofia. In 2011, Shirov came first in the Paul Keres Memorial and won a strong GM in Lublin. Back in Latvia, in 2012, he won the Keres Memorial.

The successor to the World Champion Mikhail Tal, his play is sharp and original. Many experts say that his style is similar to Tal’s style used more than 30 years ago. Often he finishes his games after brilliant tactical moves and sacrifices. Vladimir Kramnik had learned twice when after a game, he said about Shirov’s victory: “Amazing how I lost the game with a rook up!”

The author of Fire on the Board, Shirov’s Best Games (1997).

Peak rating: 2763 in 2009, Shirov was then ranked #5 in the world.