GM Alexei Shirov Joins Chess.com University's Prodigy Program

Elite Grandmaster Alexei Shirov has joined Chess.com University as an Instructor and will begin teaching in the Prodigy Program this July!

Alexei Shirov is a Latvian-born Grandmaster who studied chess under former World Champion Mikhail Tal during his youth. Shirov has consistantly been a top grandmaster since the early 1990s and since then, has achieved what most grandmasters could only dream of achieving during their lifetimes.

To highlight a few of Alexei Shirov's accomplishments:

- In 1988, he became the under-16 World Champion.

- In 1990, he became the under-20 Vice World Champion and earned the Grandmaster title.

- He has won numerous international tournaments including: Biel 1991, Madrid 1997, Monte Carlo 1998, M-Tel Masters 2009, and many more.

- By end of 1998, Shirov became the #4 player in the world, ranking below just three chess legends: Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik.

- Soon after, Shirov beat Kramnik in a ten game match to become the rightful world championship challenger to Kasparov.

- He is a well-regarded author and his books: Fire on Board: Shirov's Best Games (Part 1 and 2) are classics.

GM Alexei Shirov is known for his sharp attacking style and is now wanting to teach attacking chess to Chess.com University students! We are very excited and honored to have a chess player of Shirov's caliber on our team.

Welcome to Chess.com University, Alexei!