Shirov became the
world under-16 champion in 1988 and was the runner-up at the
World Junior Championship in 1990 (second on tiebreaks to
Ilya Gurevich). In the same year, he achieved the title of
Grandmaster. Shirov is the winner of numerous international tournaments:
Biel 1991,
Madrid 1997 (shared first place with
Veselin Topalov),
Ter Apel 1997,
Monte Carlo 1998,
Mérida 2000,
Paul Keres Memorial Rapid Tournament in
Tallinn (2004, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013),
Canadian Open Chess Championship 2005. He reached second on the
FIDE rating list in January and July 1994, behind
Anatoly Karpov, though
Garry Kasparov was excluded from those lists and was rated higher. In 1998, Shirov's ranking rose again, to number four in the
PCA rating list. On the basis of this rating, he was invited to play a ten-game match against
Vladimir Kramnik to select a challenger for
PCA World Champion Garry Kasparov. Shirov
won the match with two wins, no losses and seven draws. However, the plans for the Kasparov match fell through when sufficient financial backing could not be found. When Kasparov instead
played Kramnik for Kasparov's world title in 2000, Shirov maintained that the match was invalid and he was the rightful challenger. In 2000, Shirov reached the final of the
FIDE World Chess Championship, losing 3½–½ to
Viswanathan Anand. In 2002, he played in the
Candidates Tournament to choose a challenger for Classical World Champion Kramnik. He won his group of four, but lost his semi-final 2½–½ to eventual winner
Peter Leko. In May–June 2007 he played in the
Candidates Tournament of the
World Chess Championship 2007. He won his first-round match against
Michael Adams (+1−1=4, won in rapid playoff), but was eliminated when he lost his second-round match to
Levon Aronian (+0−1=5). this is Shirov's last appearance at a Candidates Tournament. In November–December 2007 Shirov played in the
Chess World Cup 2007, which was a qualifier for the
World Chess Championship 2010. He made the final, but lost the final 2½–1½ to
Gata Kamsky. In May 2009, Shirov won the
category 21 M-Tel Masters 2009 tournament, held in
Sofia, Bulgaria. In September 2010, Shirov participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters preliminary tournament in
Shanghai, where he faced world No. 4
Levon Aronian, world No. 5
Vladimir Kramnik, and
Wang Hao; the top two scorers qualified for the Grand Slam final supertournament from October 9 to 15 in Bilbao against world No. 1
Magnus Carlsen and World Champion
Viswanathan Anand. After drawing his first two games, Shirov then won three consecutive games, including his first victory over Kramnik since 2003. Finishing with 4½/6 points, Shirov won the tournament, qualifying along with Kramnik for the Grand Slam final. In May 2011, Shirov won a strong round-robin tournament in
Lublin, Poland, the 3rd
Lublin Union Memorial 2011 with a score of 5/7. In December 2011, he switched back federations from Spain to Latvia. In February 2012, Shirov won the
Aivars Gipslis Memorial in Riga with 8 points out of 9. In June 2012 Shirov won the Buenos Aires Masters Tournament (category 13) with 5½/7. In August 2013, he played in the
Chess World Cup. He won his first-round match against
Hou Yifan, and was eliminated when he lost his second round match to
Wei Yi. In August 2015, Shirov won the 5th
Riga Technical University Open edging out
Robert Hovhannisyan on tiebreak score, after both players finished on 7½/9. In March 2017, Shirov won the
Mikhail Tal Memorial blitz tournament in
Jūrmala scoring 9½/11 points. In 2018 and 2019, he won the 5th and 6th
Arica Open. In September 2020, during the
FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020, Shirov won the
Gazprom Brilliancy Prize for his win as Black against
Danyyil Dvirnyy in the
Slav Defense, involving a
queen sacrifice in a
queenside attack, and achieved an overall score of 13/15 (+12−1=2) playing for the Spanish team. In February 2021, Shirov won the 3rd
Salamanca Chess Festival with a score of 6/7. Through February and March 2022, Shirov played in the
FIDE Grand Prix 2022. In the first leg, he placed fourth in Pool D with a 1.5/6 result. In the second leg, he tied with
Vladimir Fedoseev for third in Pool C with a result of 2.5/6, finishing last in the standings with one point. In July 2023, Shirov played in the 2023
Canadian Open Chess Championship. Shirov placed first with a result of 8.5/10. ==Personal life==