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
Country	Soviet Union  Latvia  United States
Born	September 12, 1967 Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2528 (February 2021)
Peak rating	2645 (July 1998)[1]

He was born in Riga, Latvia, and like his fellow Latvians Aleksejs Shirov and Mikhail Tal, he is known for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness.

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.[2]

Shabalov regularly lectured chess players of all ages at the House of Chess, a store that he ran at the 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.[3]

In 2020, Shabalov won the 52nd annual Liberty Bell Open.[4]

Notable games

• Alexey Shirov vs Alexander Shabalov, Rapidplay 2001, Spanish Game: Schliemann Defense, Dyckhoff Variation (C63), 0-1
• Alexander Shabalov vs Varuzhan Akobian, US Championships 2003 2003, French Defense: Advance, Lputian Variation (C02), 1-0
• Alexander Shabalov vs John Fedorowicz, US Championships 2003 2003, Benko Gambit: Accepted, Pawn Return Variation (A57), 1-0

References

1. Alexander Shabalov FIDE rating history, 1986-2001 at OlimpBase.org
2. "Continental Absolute Chess Championship Americas 2009". Chessdom. 2009-08-04. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
3. "23rd Annual Eastern Chess Congress November 2019 United States of America FIDE Chess Tournament report". ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
4. "52nd Annual Liberty Bell Open February 2020 United States of America FIDE Chess Tournament report". ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2020-06-16.

External links

• Alexander Shabalov rating card at FIDE
• Alexander Shabalov player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Alexander Shabalov chess games at 365Chess.com
• Alexander Shabalov USCF profile
• Interview with Alexander Shabalov
• Ackerman, Jan (January 3, 2004), Chess master's next move will be writing about it, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette