Alexei Shirov (Russian: Алексе́й Дми́триевич Ши́ров, romanized: Alexey Dmitrievich Shirov, Latvian: Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994.[1]
He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classical world championship match with Garry Kasparov; it never took place due to a lack of sponsorship.
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 ChampionGarry Kasparov. Shirov won the match with two wins, no losses and seven draws.[5] 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.[6]
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 (+1−1=4, won in rapid playoff), but was eliminated when he lost his second-round match to Levon Aronian (+0−1=5). As of 2023,[update] this is Shirov's last appearance at a Candidates Tournament.
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.[7] After drawing his first two games, Shirov then won three consecutive games, including his first victory over Kramnik since 2003.[8] Finishing with 4½/6 points, Shirov won the tournament, qualifying along with Kramnik for the Grand Slam final.[9]
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.[10] In December 2011, he switched back federations from Spain to Latvia.[11]
In February 2012, Shirov won the Aivars Gipslis Memorial in Riga with 8 points out of 9.[12] In June 2012 Shirov won the Buenos Aires Masters Tournament (category 13) with 5½/7.
In February 2021, Shirov won the 3rd Salamanca Chess Festival with a score of 6/7.[18]
Through February and March 2022, Shirov played in the FIDE Grand Prix 2022. In the first leg, he placed fourth in Pool D with a 1.5/6 result. In the second leg, he tied with Vladimir Fedoseev for third in Pool C with a result of 2.5/6, finishing last in the standings with one point.
Shirov is of Russian descent. In 1994 he married an Argentine, Verónica Alvarez, moved to Tarragona, and became a citizen of Spain. From 2001 to 2007, He was married to LithuanianViktorija Čmilytė, also a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest female chess players in the world.[19] Shortly before the Shanghai 2010 tournament, Shirov got married for a third time to WIM Olga Dolgova.[20] At that time he still played for Spain, but he and his wife also had an apartment in Riga, Latvia.
Shirov is noted for his attacking style, a tendency which has led to comparisons with fellow Latvian and former world champion, Mikhail Tal, under whom he studied in his youth.[citation needed]
Illustrative game
Topalov vs. Shirov, 1998
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Position after 47...Bh3!! This move is placed number one in John Emms' book The Most Amazing Chess Moves of All Time.
