Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov is a Latvian and Spanish chess grandmaster, born on 4 July 1972, renowned for a sharp, attacking style often compared with that of his fellow Latvian Mikhail Tal, under whom he studied in his youth. He won the world under-16 title in 1988, became a grandmaster in 1990 and reached second place on the FIDE rating list in 1994. In 1998 he beat Vladimir Kramnik in a match to earn the right to challenge Garry Kasparov, a match that never took place for lack of sponsorship. He reached the final of the 2000 FIDE World Championship, losing to Viswanathan Anand, and won many strong tournaments. His bishop sacrifice against Veselin Topalov at Linares 1998 is regarded as one of the finest moves ever played, and he has written two books on his games.