Alexander Anatolyevich Shabalov (russian: Алекса́ндр Анато́льевич Шаба́лов; lv, Aleksandrs Šabalovs; born September 12, 1967) is an American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster and a four-time winner of the

United States Chess Championship The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the United States chess champion. Begun as a challenge match in 1845, the U.S. Championship has been decided by tournament play for most of its long history. Since 1936, i ...

(1993, 2000, 2003, 2007). He also won or tied for first place seven times in the

U.S. Open Chess Championship The U.S. Open Championship is an open national chess championship that has been held in the United States annually since . History The tournament was originally the championship of the Western Chess Association, and was called the Western Open. ...

(1993, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2016). Shabalov was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, 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 Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal; rus, Михаил Нехемьевич Таль, ''Mikhail Nekhem'yevich Tal' '', ; sometimes transliterated ''Mihails Tals'' or ''Mihail Tal'' (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player ...

and

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

. He has transitioned to a more conservative and positional playing style as of 2019. In 2002 he tied for first place at the

Aeroflot Open The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament; in 2013 it was converted to a rapid and blitz event, whil ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

with

Gregory Kaidanov Gregory Kaidanov (russian: Григорий Зиновьевич Кайда́нов, ; born 11 October 1959) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 2013. His peak rating is 2646 ...

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates ...

Aleksej Aleksandrov Aleksej Aleksandrov (born 11 May 1973) is a Belarusian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. Aleksandrov is a five-time Belarusian champion and played on the Belarusian national team at the Chess Olympiad, the Wor ...

, and

Vadim Milov Vadim Milov (born 1 August 1972) is a Swiss chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1993. Early life Born in Ufa, following the collapse of the USSR, he moved to Israel in 1992, before finally settling in Switzerlan ...

. In 2009 Shabalov shared first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez in the

American Continental Chess Championship The Pan American Chess Championship, also American continental Championship is an individual chess tournament organized since 1945. First pan American championships (1945 and 1954) The first Pan American Chess Championship was held in Hollywood ...

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

Ross Park Mall Ross Park Mall is a shopping mall located in Ross Township, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. The mall houses 170 retailers including anchor stores Nordstrom, Macy's, and JCPenney. An outdoor lifestyle component complements the enclosed center. ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, 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 Larry Mark Christiansen (born June 27, 1956) is an American chess player of Danish ancestry. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977. Christiansen was the U.S. champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He competed in the FIDE World Champ ...

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), 0-1Alexander Shabalov vs Varuzhan Akobian, US Championships 2003 2003, French Defense: Advance, Lputian Variation (C02), 1-0Alexander Shabalov vs John Fedorowicz, US Championships 2003 2003, Benko Gambit: Accepted, Pawn Return Variation (A57), 1-0

References

External links

* * * * * * 1967 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors American chess players Latvian chess players Sportspeople from Riga Russians in Latvia {{US-chess-bio-stub