There are not many top grandmasters who enjoy such a great popularity among chess fans all over the world like Alexei Shirov. Thanks to his aggressive and ingenious playing style, commentators often compare him with the former world champion Mikhail Tal. He often sacrifices material easily in return for initiative and complications where he always seems to be just one step ahead of his opponent – following Shirov’s games is like watching “fire on the board”. Now the genius from Riga presents and explains his best games in a series of training DVDs in the Chess Media System. This first DVD is dedicated to his most brilliant games in the Ruy Lopez. Let Shirov show you how to break down the super-solid Berlin Defence or how he managed to achieve promising counterplay against Garry Kasparov in the open Ruy Lopez. Follow this top player through one of his most famous lines in the Ruy Lopez, the Anti-Marshall with 8.h3.

More than 4.5 hours private tuition with one of the most exciting top-class players in the world!

Alexei Shirov was born and raised in Riga the home town of tactical genius and former world champion Mikhail Tal and his style is reminiscent of the 'Magician of Riga'. In the early 90s, a meteoric rise took the young Latvian into the world's top 10 and at the age of 22 he had an Elo rating of nearly 2750 . Shirov has been one of the world's leading players ever since, delighting chess fans with his boundless creativity and fighting spirit. Shirov's world title ambitions were curtailed when despite defeating Vladimir Kramnik in a Candidates Final, a match could not be organised with Garry Kasparov who played Vladimir Kramnik instead, Shirov continued to enjoy success in tournaments and he reached the final of the 2007 World Cup and was an impressive winner of the 5th Mtel Masters Super Tournament in May 2009.