Alexei Shirov

Grand Master - Spain.
From 1994 Alexéi Shírov settles in the elite of the world chess by reaching the third position in the FIDE ranking. He won several tournaments and in 1998 he was second, just 0.5 points behind the winner, Viswanathan Anand in the International Chess Tournament Ciudad de Linares, considered the Wimbledon of Chess, which brought together the top seven players in the FIDE ranking and which many consider to be the strongest in its history.


In 1994 and 1995 he had already been third in that same tournament. In 1998, he managed to win, for 5.5 to 3.5 points, in the PCA Candidates Match against Vladimir Krámnik, played in Cazorla, Jaén, in May-June, so he qualified to play as challenger for the classical World Championship Match with Garry Kasparov. However, Kasparov puts up a lot of obstacles in the way and prevents the title from being disputed, in a maneuver known as The Cazorla scam, and then finally doing it with Kramnik, who would be proclaimed World Champion in that category. His greatest success to date has been to reach the final of the FIDE World Championship in Tehran in 2000, where he lost to Viswanathan Anand. In 2002 he was proclaimed Spanish champion in Ayamonte, beating the grandmaster Francisco Vallejo Pons.

In 2007 he lost the final of the World Chess Cup to the American Gata Kamsky.

In 2021, in his participation in the international tournament VII Cidade de Pontevedra, he obtains the victory with 7.5 points out of 9, receiving also the prize for the best attack game in his confrontation with GM Róbert Ruck in the last and decisive game.

He has played in León in half a dozen occasions winning the Magistral in 2004.