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 (until 1991) Latvia (1992–1993) United States (since 1994)[1]
Born	(1967-09-12) September 12, 1967 (age 57) Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster (1991)
FIDE rating	2475 (August 2025)
Peak rating	2645 (July 1998)[1]
Peak ranking	No. 29 (July 1998)[2]

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5]

In 2020, Shabalov won the 52nd annual Liberty Bell Open.^[6]

Shabalov won the 2022 U.S. Senior Championship, defeating Grandmaster Larry Christiansen in the final round of the tournament to claim victory.^[7]

Oil Portrait of Alexander Shabalov, Contemplating 2007

Oil Portrait of Alexander Shabalov, Smiling 2007

In 2024, Shabalov won the over-50 category of the World Senior Chess Championship.^[8][9]

Appearances in Chess Olympiads

Alexander Shabalov has appeared in five Chess Olympiads on teams from two different countries.  His first appearance was with the Latvian National Team at the 30th Chess Olympiad in Manila, Philippines, in 1992 under the Latvian spelling of his name, Aleksandrs Sabolavs.^[10]  Despite Latvia being a very small country with only 2.6 million people, they were ranked 10th out of 104 teams, and managed to secure 5th place in the final standings, just 1/2 point behind the United States, and missing the Bronze Medal by only one point.^[11]

After emigrating to the United States, he appeared on the U.S. National Team four times, in 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2004.  In chronological order of those Olympiads, the U.S. Team came in 7th, 2nd (Silver Medal), 26th, and 4th place.  Shabalov was the team's high scorer in both 1994 and 2000.  His best individual performance came in 1998 when he scored five points out of eight against high rated opposition on 2nd Board for a performance rating of 2693.^{[12] [13][14][15]} This was the year when his peak rating of 2645 ranked him as the World's 29th highest rated player on the FIDE July Rating List.^[16]

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