Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Anatolyevich Shabalov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Анато́льевич Шаба́лов; Latvian: Aleksandrs Šabalovs; born September 12, 1967) is an American chess grandmaster and a four-time winner of the United States Chess Championship (1993, 2000, 2003, 2007). He also won or tied for first place seven times in the U.S. Open Chess Championship (1993, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2016).

Alexander Shabalov
Alexander Shabalov at the 2002 U.S. Chess Championships
CountrySoviet Union (until 1991)
Latvia (1992–1993)
United States (since 1994)[1]
Born (1967-09-12) September 12, 1967
Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
TitleGrandmaster (1991)
FIDE rating2466 (October 2023)
Peak rating2645 (July 1998)[1]
Peak rankingNo. 29 (July 1998)[2]

Chess career

Shabalov was born in Riga, Latvia, and was known during much of his career for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness, much like his fellow Latvians Mikhail Tal and Alexei Shirov. He has transitioned to a more conservative and positional playing style as of 2019.[3]

In 2002 he tied for first place at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow with Gregory Kaidanov, Alexander Grischuk, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Vadim Milov. In 2009 Shabalov shared first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez in the American Continental Chess Championship.[4]

Shabalov regularly lectured chess players of all ages at the House of Chess, a store he ran at Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until it closed in mid-2007.

In 2015 he was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

In 2019, Shabalov won the 23rd annual Eastern Chess Congress.[5]

In 2020, Shabalov won the 52nd annual Liberty Bell Open.[6]

Shabalov won the 2022 U.S. Senior Championship, defeating Grandmaster Larry Christiansen in the final round of the tournament to claim victory.[7]

Notable games

References
  1. "FIDE rating history :: Shabalov, Alexander". OlimpBase.
  2. "FIDE Rating List :: July 1998". OlimpBase.
  3. Guggenheimer, Paul (2019-07-10). "Squirrel Hill chess grandmaster stays sharp before U.S. Senior Championship". TribLIVE.com. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  4. "Continental Absolute Chess Championship Americas 2009". Chessdom. 2009-08-04. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  5. "23rd Annual Eastern Chess Congress November 2019 United States of America FIDE Chess Tournament report". ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  6. "52nd Annual Liberty Bell Open February 2020 United States of America FIDE Chess Tournament report". ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  7. "Winners crowned at 2022 U.S. Championships". www.fide.com. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
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