Alexei Shirov
| Alexei Shirov | |
|---|---|
Alexei Shirov in Heraklion, 2007
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| Full name | Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov |
| Country |
Soviet Union (1972–1991) Latvia (1991–1995) Spain (1995–2011) Latvia (2011–present) |
| Born |
4 July 1972 Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Title | Grandmaster (1990) |
| FIDE rating | 2691 (March 2017) |
| Peak rating | 2755 (January 2008) |
| Peak ranking | No. 2 (January 1994) |
Alexei Shirov, Latvian: Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian chess grandmaster. He was ranked number two in 1994.
Shirov became the world under-16 champion in 1988, the world under-20 vice-champion in 1990 (second on tiebreaks to Ilya Gurevich), and achieved the title of Grandmaster in 1990. 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, Paul Keres Memorial Rapid Tournament in Tallinn (2004, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013),Canadian Open Chess Championship 2005.
In 1998 Shirov's ranking rose to number four in the world. On the basis of his rating, he was invited to play a ten-game match against Vladimir Kramnik to select a challenger for 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 the 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.
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