FoxyChess › Grandmasters › Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

1980s – PresentWorld Champion —Peak rating 2755213 games

Latvian-Spanish grandmaster celebrated for uncompromising attacking chess, tactical imagination and spectacular sacrificial play.

How Shirov plays

Shirov's chess is about fire on the board: wild sacrifices, extreme calculation and an unwillingness to settle for a draw. His collection 'Fire on Board' is one of the best attacking game collections ever written, and he was world number two in the 1990s.

What to learn from Shirov

Shirov's games show that the attacking style of Tal still works at the very top. Study how he keeps his pieces active and how he sacrifices pawns and pieces to open the position when he has more pieces in play.

A game to play through

Shirov, Alexei vs Carlsen, Magnus - Sofia MTel Masters 5th 2009 1-0 — the final position. A Shirov win with White, in his fearless attacking style.

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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 Bg7 11.Bd3 Ne7 12.Nxe7 Qxe7 13.c4 f5 14.O-O O-O 15.Qh5 Rb8 16.exf5 e4 17.Rae1 Bb7 18.Qg4 Rfe8 19.cxb5 d5 20.bxa6 Bc6 21.b3 Kh8 22.Nc2 Be5 23.Be2 d4 24.Bc4 Rg8 25.Qh3 Rg7 26.g3 Rbg8 27.Qh6 Qc7 28.Nb4 Ba8 29.Nd5 Qd8 30.Rxe4

Alexei Shirov games on FoxyChess

Watch each game move by move, or play the winner's moves yourself and see how close you get.

• Carlsen, Magnus vs Shirov, Alexei - Sofia MTel Masters 5th 2009 Draw
• Shirov, Alexei vs Carlsen, Magnus - Sofia MTel Masters 5th 2009 1-0
• Shirov, A. vs Carlsen, Magnus - Corus A 2010 Draw
• Shirov, Alexei vs Carlsen, Magnus - Grand Slam Final Masters 2010 Draw
• Carlsen, Magnus vs Shirov, Alexei - Grand Slam Final Masters 2010 1-0
• Shirov, A. vs Carlsen, M. - 73rd Tata Steel GMA 2011 Draw
• Shirov, Alexei vs Lapinski, J. - Daugavpils 1990 1-0
• Moutousis, Konstantinos vs Shirov, Alexei - Wch U20 1990 0-1
• Shirov, Alexei vs Thorhallsson, Throstur - Reykjavik 1992 1-0
• Frolov, Artur vs Shirov, Alexei - Biel Interzonal 1993 0-1
• Shirov, Alexei vs Short, Nigel D - Koop Tjuchem 1996 1-0
• Shirov, Alexei vs Lillo Ferrer, JM. - Villarrobledo rapid op 1997 1-0
• Hracek, Zbynek vs Shirov, Alexei - Ostrava Match 1998 0-1
• Becx, Cesar vs Shirov, Alexei - Dordrecht FPO 1999 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Piket,Je - Amber Blindfold 2002 1-0
• Adams,Mi vs Shirov,A - Hrokurinn 2003 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Navara,D - Blitz Match 2005 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Andreikin,D - TCh-RUS 2008 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Fedorchuk,S - World Cup 2009 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Liu Jiaxin - Scarborough CC Shirov simul 2010 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Kurkowski,Ken - Scarborough CC Shirov simul 2010 1-0
• Mahoney,Ian vs Shirov,A - Scarborough CC Shirov simul 2010 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Bacrot,E - 4th ACP World Rapid Cup 2010 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Raupp,T - GRENKE Rapid WCh 2010 1-0
• Pijpers,A vs Shirov,A - 27th ECC 2011 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Solak,D - 18th European Teams 2011 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Siwek,Mateusz - European Rapid 2011 2011 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Mista,A - European Rapid 2011 2011 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Solak,D - 41st Olympiad Open 2014 2014 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Burg,T - Bundesliga 2015-16 2016 1-0
• Shirov,A vs Ehlvest,J - 17th Puhajarve Rapid 2016 1-0
• Otsmann,Villu vs Shirov,A - 17th Puhajarve Rapid 2016 0-1
• Andreikin,D vs Shirov,A - European Rapid 2016 2016 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Howell,D - chess.com IoM Masters 2017 1-0
• Bublei,P vs Shirov,A - TCh-RUS Blitz 2017 2017 0-1
• Bryker,Oleksandr vs Shirov,A - LAT President Blitz Cup 2018 0-1
• Kristensen,Kaa vs Shirov,A - CellaVision Cup 2018 2018 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Arbynova,Agniya - St.Petersburg Rapid 2018 2018 1-0
• Salgado Lopez,I vs Shirov,A - World Blitz 2018 2018 0-1
• Shirov,A vs Demidov,M - World Blitz 2018 2018 1-0

…and 173 more inside FoxyChess.

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