Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Shabalov
Alexander Shabalov at the 2002 U.S. Chess Championships
Country	Soviet Union (until 1991) Latvia (1992–1993) United States (since 1994)
Born	(1967-09-12) September 12, 1967 Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster (1991)
FIDE rating	2447 (November 2024)
Peak rating	2645 (July 1998)
Peak ranking	No. 29 (July 1998)

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).

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.

In 1997 and 2000, Shabalov tied for first place at the U.S. Masters Chess Championship. 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.

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.

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

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

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

External links

• Alexander Shabalov rating card at FIDE
• Alexander Shabalov rating and tournament record at US Chess Federation
• Alexander Shabalov player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Alexander Shabalov chess games at 365Chess.com
• Interview with Alexander Shabalov at the Wayback Machine (archived 2012-04-17)
• Ackerman, Jan (January 3, 2004), Chess master's next move will be writing about it, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette