Alexei Shirov


Alexei Shirov, 2011
Association	Soviet Union Soviet Union (until 1991) Latvia (1992 to 1994, 2011 to 2018) Spain (1995 to 2011, since 2018) Latvia Spain
Born	July 4, 1972 Riga
title	International Master (1989) Grand Master (1990)
Current Elo rating	2647 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2755 (January 2008)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Alexei Schirow ( Russian Алексей Дмитриевич Широв ; Latvian Aleksejs Širovs , English and Spanish Alexei Shirov ; born July 4, 1972 in Riga ) is a Latvian chess player of Russian descent. From 1995 he lived in Spain and represented Spain internationally until December 2011; since April 2018 he is again eligible to play for the Spanish association.

Chess career

Alexei Schirow achieved the title of chess grandmaster in 1990, where he achieved the three norms required for the title within only nine months; his first norm in April 1989 at a tournament in France, his last in January 1990 as fourth at the "Gausdal Troll Masters" (Norway). At the age of 17 he was the fifth youngest grandmaster in chess history. In 1990 in Santiago de Chile he finished second behind Ilya Gurevich at the U20 World Cup .

In 1998 he won a competition against Vladimir Kramnik in Cazorla with 5.5: 3.5 , which was organized by the World Chess Council founded in April of the same year . This victory should have allowed him to play a title fight against Garry Kasparov for the classic world title. This match did not take place, however, because Kasparov, who felt himself clearly superior to Shirov and even described him as an "amateur", was allegedly unable to interest sponsors. Instead, he chose Vladimir Kramnik as an opponent, to whom he surprisingly defeated. After that the relationship between Shirov and Kasparov was very bad. Shirov repeatedly criticized Kasparov's behavior in public, games against each other went on without the usual handshake (it was not until 2005, when the two last met, Shirov should shake hands with Kasparov).

In 2000, Shirov was vice world champion of FIDE . In the final in Tehran he lost against Viswanathan Anand with 0.5: 3.5. He won the Spanish championship in Ayamonte in 2002 .

In May 2007, Shirov took part in the candidates' tournament for the 2007 World Chess Championship . In the first round he was able to eliminate Michael Adams after a tie- break, but failed in the second round with 2.5: 3.5 (+0 = 5 −1) to Lewon Aronjan . In Khanty-Mansiysk he lost the final of the World Cup against Gata Kamsky with 1.5: 2.5 on December 16, 2007 . He narrowly missed the candidate final for the 2010 World Chess Championship , but won $ 80,000 in second place .

He is considered one of the world's best tacticians . A collection of his games published in 1996 is aptly titled Fire on board (Brett in Flammen). However, his tournament results show form fluctuations. In May 2009 he won the M-Tel Masters in Sofia undefeated with 6.5 points from 10 games, in June he was last at the less occupied tournament in Poikowski with 2 points from 9 games. In 2002 he played for the world selection in the match between Russia and the rest of the world and got 7 points from 10 games.

Alexei Schirow was ranked 4th in the world for a long time.

National team

Shirov took part in twelve Chess Olympiads : 1992 and 1994 for Latvia, 1996 , 1998 , 2000 , 2004 , 2006 , 2008 and 2010 for Spain and again in 2012 , 2014 and 2016 for Latvia. He also represented Latvia at the World Team Championship in 1993 and the European Team Championship in 2015 and Spain in the European Team Championships in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009 and 2011 . At the European team in 1999 he achieved the best result on the top board.

societies

Schirow has been registered in the German Chess League since 1991, from 1991 to 1993 he played for Hamburger SK , with whom he also took part in the European Club Cup in 1993, and from 1993 to 1997 for SV Empor Berlin , with whom he played twice at the European Club Cup took part, in the 1997/98 season for the Dresdner SC (with which he was also registered in the 1998/99 season, but remained unused), from 1999 to 2003 for the Lübeck chess club from 1873 , with which he was 2001 , 2002 and 2003 became champion, since 2003 he has been playing for OSG Baden-Baden , with which he became German team champion in 2006 , 2007 , 2008 , 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2017 , 2018 and 2019 and in 2011 on European Club Cup participated. His winning game against Łukasz Cyborowski was voted the best of the 2008/09 season. In the 2010/11 season he won this award again for his win against David Baramidze . The British Four Nations Chess League won Shirov in 2005 and 2006 with the team from Wood Green , for which he also played in the 2012/13 season, the Hungarian team championship in 2009 , 2012 and 2018 with Aquaprofit NTSK and the French team championship in 2002 with CEMC Monaco . From 2003 to 2005 he played in France for the Association Cannes-Echecs . In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Shirov played for ŠK Bosna Sarajevo from 2002 to 2004 , with whom he was Bosnian team champion in all three years and also won the European Club Cup in 2002. In the Czech Extraliga he played for the ŠK DP Holdia Prague in the 1999/2000 season , since 2012 he has played for the 1. Novoborský ŠK , with whom he was Czech team champion in 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2016 , 2017 and 2018 , as well as at the European Club Cup 2016 participated. In the Russian team championship , Shirov played from 2006 to 2009 for the team from Ural Yekaterinburg , with which he was champion in 2006 and 2008, in 2012 for Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk , since 2013 he has played for Malachit Oblast Sverdlovsk , with which he was champion in 2014. With these clubs he also took part in the European Club Cup and won it in 2008 with Ural Yekaterinburg . Other clubs he represented at the European Club Cup are Polonia Warsaw , SOCAR Baku and the Zurich chess society .

In Spanish Team Championship Shirov played in 1998 for the master CA Epic Barcino Terrassa , 2000 for the master CA Palm Oasis Maspalomas , 2001 for the master CA Tiendas UPI Mancha Real , from 2006 to 2010 for the team of CA Linex-Magic Mérida , with which he won the title in 2006 , 2007 and 2009 , as well as 2011 for the master Gros XT and 2018 for Solvay . In the Austrian Bundesliga , Schirow played for SK Sparkasse Jenbach in the 2016/17 season and in the Swedish Elitserien for the Stockholm club Wasa SK in the 2018/19 season .

Private

Viktorija Čmilytė

Olga Dolgova

In 1994 he married the Argentine Verónica Álvarez. From 2001 to 2008 he was married to the Lithuanian chess player Viktorija Čmilytė (then IM , later GM ). Shortly before the 2010 Bilbao tournament, he married a third time, this time the Russian chess player WIM Olga Dolgowa , who has been playing for Latvia since 2014 .

Positions from his chess games

In the 1998 Linares tournament he played against Wesselin Topalow a move that was voted the most spectacular of all time in a poll by British Chess Magazine :

Black to move has two more pawns, but because of the bishops of different colors, winning is not trivial. For example, the game ends after the obvious move 47.… Bf5 – e4 draw , since after 48. g2 – g3 Ke6 – f5 49. Kg1 – f2 the white king on the e3-square has an ideal blocking position. ( Diagram 1 ) Schirow therefore played the move 47, which at first glance seems absurd.… Bf5 – h3 !! . With this bishop sacrifice the black king reaches the e4-square and the passed pawns decide. This was followed by 48. g2xh3 (the rejection of the victim also saves don't know) Ke6 – f5 49. Kg1 – f2 Kf5 – e4 50. Bc3xf6 d5 – d4 51. Bf6 – e7 Ke4 – d3 52. Be7 – c5 Kd3 – c4 53. Bc5 – e7 Kc4 – b3 and Topalow resigned.

Kramnik - Schirow , Linares 1994

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Diagram 2: Black to move

Schirow played a daring combination against the world champion of the years 2000-2007, Vladimir Kramnik, in Linares 1994. Schirow had black and sacrificed a bishop early on and offered a whole rook in the critical position in the diagram ( diagram 2 ): he moved 31. … Re8 – e4 !? what he called Black's only chance. The rook can be captured by the pawn f3 or the knight c3, which would involve complicated entanglements. However, Kramnik opted for 32. Sc3xd5 to the queenside to get counterplay. After 32.… c6xd5 33. c5 – c6 Re4xf4 (Rf6xc6? Loses after 34. fxe4 fxe4 35. Rd3 – h3) 34. c6xb7 Rf4 – e4 35. Ra1 – c1 Kg8 – h7 the position was won objectively for the attractive player, However, after a few mistakes, White lost the game on move 43. Subsequent analyzes showed that even after 32. Nc3 – e2! got the better game. Schirow wanted to play 32 ... Ng4 – e3 + 33. Rd3xe3 Rf6 – g6 34. Ne2 – g3 Re4xe3 35. Qd2xe3 Qh2xg3, but in this variant White is winning. Also 32. f3xe4 f5xe4 33. Bg2 – f3! was possible to simplify the position by exchanging figures and returning the extra material . The consequences of the generous play were difficult to calculate with limited thinking time on the chessboard.

Works

Fire on Board, Shirov's Best Games . Everyman Publishers, 1996, ISBN 1-85744-150-8 .
Fire on Board, Part 2: 1997-2004 . Everyman Chess, 2005, ISBN 1-85744-382-9 .

For ChessBase he produced numerous instructional videos on DVD.