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 | |
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![]() Alexander Shabalov at the 2002 U.S. Chess Championships | |
Country | United States (after 1991) Soviet Union (before 1991) |
Born | (1967-09-12) September 12, 1967 (age 54) Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union |
Title | Grandmaster |
FIDE rating | 2514 (September 2022) |
Peak rating | 2645 (July 1998)[1] |
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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4]
In 2020, Shabalov won the 52nd annual Liberty Bell Open.[5]
Shabalov won the 2022 U.S. Senior Championship, defeating Grandmaster Larry Christiansen in the final round of the tournament to claim victory.[6]
Achievements | ||
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Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 1993 (with Alex Yermolinsky) |
Succeeded by |
Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 2000-2001 (with Joel Benjamin and Yasser Seirawan) |
Succeeded by |
Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 2003–2004 |
Succeeded by |
Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 2007 |
Succeeded by Yuri Shulman |
General | |
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National libraries |
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