Alexei Shirov

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**Alexei Shirov**

Full name	Alexei Shirov
Country	Spain
Born	July 4, 1972 (age 34) Riga, Latvia

Title	Grandmaster


Rating	2699 (No. 20 on the April 2007 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2751 (January 2000)

Alexei Shirov (Aleksejs Širovs, Алексей Широв) (born July 4, 1972 in Riga, Latvia), is one of the top chess grandmasters in the world today. In the April 2007 FIDE rating list he was ranked number twenty in the world with an ELO rating of 2699.

Shirov became the World Champion (under 16) in 1988, the World Vice-Champion (under 20) in 1990, and achieved the title of International Grandmaster in 1992. Shirov is the winner of numerous international tournaments: Biel 1991, Madrid 1997 (shared first place with Veselin Topalov), Ter Apel 1997, Monte Carlo 1998, Mérida 2000, two time winner of the Paul Keres Memorial International Chess Tournament in Tallinn, Estonia, with victories in 2004 and 2005 just to name a few. In 1998 he defeated Vladimir Kramnik in a ten-game match that was intended to select a challenger for World Champion Garry Kasparov. Unfortunately, the plans for the Kasparov match were squelched when sufficient financial backing could not be found.

In 2000, Shirov lost in the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship to Viswanathan Anand.

In 1994 Shirov married an Argentine Verónica Alvarez, moved to Tarragona, and became a citizen of Spain. Although he still plays for Spain, he currently resides in Latvia, married to Lithuanian IM/WGM Viktorija Čmilytė.

Shirov is noted for his attack style and for seeking complications, a tendency which has led to comparisons with fellow Latvian and former world champion, Mikhail Tal.

Shirov has written two books of his best games.

[edit] Sample game

The position after 47. ... Bh3, the move that is placed number one in Jonathan Emms' book The Most Amazing Chess Moves of All Time

During the 1998 Linares chess tournament Shirov played black against future FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov and won with a piece sacrifice in a bishop and pawn ending. The moves are given in algebraic notation.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bb5+ c6 8.Ba4 O-O 9.Ne2 Nd7 10.O-O e5 11.f3 Qe7 12.Be3 Rd8 13.Qc2 Nb6 14.Bb3 Be6 15.Rad1 Nc4 16.Bc1 b5 17.f4 exd4 18.Nxd4 Bg4 19.Rde1 Qc5 20.Kh1 a5 21.h3 Bd7 22.a4 bxa4 23.Ba2 Be8 24.e5 Nb6 25.f5 Nd5 26.Bd2 Nb4 27.Qxa4 Nxa2 28.Qxa2 Bxe5 29.fxg6 hxg6 30.Bg5 Rd5 31.Re3 Qd6 32.Qe2 Bd7 33.c4 Bxd4 34.cxd5 Bxe3 35.Qxe3 Re8 36.Qc3 Qxd5 37.Bh6 Re5 38.Rf3 Qc5 39.Qa1 Bf5 40.Re3 f6 41.Rxe5 Qxe5 42.Qa2+ Qd5 43.Qxd5+ cxd5 44.Bd2 a4 45.Bc3 Kf7 46.h4 Ke6 47.Kg1 Bh3! (See diagram) 48.gxh3 Kf5 49.Kf2 Ke4 50.Bxf6 d4 51.Be7 Kd3 52.Bc5 Kc4 53.Be7 Kb3 0-1

[edit] External links

FIDE rating card for Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov download 976 of his games in pgn format.
Alexei Shirov at ChessGames.com

[edit] Further reading

Shirov, Alexei (1995). Fire on Board: Shirov's Best Games. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-150-8.
Shirov, Alexei (2005). Fire on Board, Part 2 : 1997-2004. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-382-9.