Spanish and Latvian citizen Alexei Dimitrievich Shirov was born on 4 July 1972 in Riga. His FIDE rating is 2686 (May 2016). He got his Grandmaster title in 1990. He won numerous international chess tournaments.

In 2000 Shirov qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship final, where he was defeated by Viswanatan Anand by 3 ½- ½.

In 2007 he qualified for the Candidates Tournament, where he won against Michael Adams in the first round (+1-1=4) but in the second round he lost against Levon Aronian (+0-1=5)

Between 1992 and 2014 he participated in eleven Chess Olympiads. In 1992 and 1994 he represented Latvia, from 1996 to 2010 he played for Spain and in 2012 and 2014 he competed for Latvia again. So far he has not won any medals either individually or in team.