Alexei Shirov is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1990. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classical world championship match with Garry Kasparov. However it never took place for lack of sponsorship.
Career
Shirov became the world under-16 champion in 1988 and was the runner-up at the World Junior Championship in 1990. In the same year, he achieved the title of Grandmaster. Shirov is the winner of numerous international tournaments: Biel 1991, Madrid 1997, Ter Apel 1997, Monte Carlo 1998, Mérida 2000, Paul Keres Memorial Rapid Tournament in Tallinn, Canadian Open Chess Championship 2005. He reached second on the FIDE rating list in January and July 1994, behind Anatoly Karpov, though Garry Kasparov was excluded from those lists and was rated higher. In 1998 Shirov's ranking rose again, to number four in the PCA rating list. On the basis of this rating, he was invited to play a ten-game match against Vladimir Kramnik to select a challenger for PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov. Shirov won the match with two wins, no losses and seven draws. However, the plans for the Kasparov match fell through when sufficient financial backing could not be found. When Kasparov instead played Kramnik for Kasparov's world title in 2000, Shirov maintained that the match was invalid and he was the rightful challenger. In 2000, Shirov reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship, losing 3½–½ to Viswanathan Anand. In 2002, he played in the Candidates Tournament to choose a challenger for Classical World Champion Kramnik. He won his group of four, but lost his semi-final 2½–½ to eventual winner Peter Leko. In May–June 2007 he played in the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2007. He won his first round match against Michael Adams, but was eliminated when he lost his second round match to Levon Aronian. As of 2018, this is Shirov's last appearance at a Candidates Tournament. In November–December 2007 Shirov played in the Chess World Cup 2007, which was a qualifier for the World Chess Championship 2010. He made the final, but lost the final 2½–1½ to Gata Kamsky. In May 2009, Alexei Shirov won the category 21M-Tel Masters 2009 tournament, held in Sofia, Bulgaria. In September 2010, Shirov participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters preliminary tournament in Shanghai, where he faced world No. 4 Levon Aronian, world No. 5 Vladimir Kramnik, and Wang Hao; the top two scorers qualified for the Grand Slam final supertournament from October 9 to 15 in Bilbao against world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and World Champion Viswanathan Anand. After drawing his first two games, Shirov then won three consecutive games, including his first victory over Kramnik since 2003. Finishing with 4½/6 points, Shirov won the tournament, qualifying along with Kramnik for the Grand Slam final. In May 2011, Shirov won a strong round-robin tournament in Lublin, Poland, the 3rd Lublin Union Memorial 2011 with a score of 5/7. In December 2011, he switched back federations from Spain to Latvia. In February 2012, Shirov won the Aivars Gipslis Memorial in Riga with 8 points out of 9. In June 2012 Shirov won the Buenos AiresMasters Tournament with 5½/7. In August 2013, he played in the Chess World Cup. He won his first round match against Hou Yifan, and was eliminated when he lost his second round match to Wei Yi. In August 2015, Shirov won the 5thRiga Technical University Open edging out Robert Hovhannisyan on tiebreak score, after both players finished on 7½/9. In March 2017, Shirov won the Mikhail Tal Memorial blitz tournament in Jūrmala scoring 9½/11 points. In 2018 and 2019, he won the 5th and 6th Arica Open.
Personal life
Shirov is of Russian descent. In 1994 he married an Argentine, Verónica Alvarez, moved to Tarragona, and became a citizen of Spain. He was married to Lithuanian Viktorija Čmilytė, also a chess grandmaster, from 2001 to 2007. Shortly before the Shanghai 2010 tournament, Shirov got married for a third time to WIM Olga Dolgova. At that time he still played for Spain, but he and his wife also had an apartment in Riga, Latvia.
Playing style
Shirov is one of the greatest tactical players and is noted for his attacking style and often excels in complications, a tendency which has led to comparisons with fellow Latvian and former world champion, Mikhail Tal, under whom he studied in his youth. Shirov is also a fantastic endgame player.
Illustrative game
During the 1998 Linares chess tournament Shirov played Black against future FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov and won by sacrificing his only piece in a bishop and pawn ending:
