Barsov, lawyer by education, has been a professional chess player since the early 1990s, and is one of the premier players in Uzbekistan. For some years he was the coach of the former
FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. He won the
Zeeland Open in
Vlissingen in 1995. Barsov's victories in Oxford (1998) and York (1999, together with
Tiger Hillarp Persson and
Julian Hodgson) rate among his most prominent successes in international chess tournaments. In 2001 he won the
Hastings International Chess Congress together with
Harikrishna and
Sasikiran. Barsov competed in the
FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, losing in the first round to
Alexander Beliavsky. He won a tournament in
Saint-Quentin 2004, and Casablanca 2005. Barsov won the
Uzbekistani Chess Championship in 2006 and 2010. In 2011, he came first in the 4th
Beirut Open tournament. In the following year, Barsov tied for first place with
Semetey Tologontegin at the 2nd Central Asia Chess Cup in
Bishkek winning the tournament on tiebreak score. Barsov represented Uzbekistan at the
Chess Olympiads in
Istanbul 2000,
Calvià 2004,
Turin 2006,
Dresden 2008 and
Khanty-Mansiysk 2010. He has played for several European chess clubs, including the ones competing in the German
Chess Bundesliga. ==Notable games==