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The Most Famous

CHESS PLAYERS from Latvia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Latvian Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 374 Chess Players, 6 of which were born in Latvia. This makes Latvia the birth place of the 20th most number of Chess Players behind Austria and Spain.

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Latvian Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Latvian Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Mikhail Tal

1. Mikhail Tal (1936 - 1992)

With an HPI of 69.37, Mikhail Tal is the most famous Latvian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 64 different languages on wikipedia.

Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential players in chess history. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem".His nickname was "Misha", a diminutive for Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga". Both The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games and Modern Chess Brilliancies include more games by Tal than any other player. He also held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games (46 wins, 49 draws) between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, until Ding Liren's streak of 100 games (29 wins, 71 draws) between 9 August 2017 and 11 November 2018. In addition, Tal was a highly regarded chess writer. Tal died on 28 June 1992 in Moscow, Russia. The Mikhail Tal Memorial chess tournament has been held in Moscow annually since 2006.

Photo of Alexei Shirov

2. Alexei Shirov (1972 - )

With an HPI of 43.45, Alexei Shirov is the 2nd most famous Latvian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Alexei Shirov (Russian: Алексе́й Дми́триевич Ши́ров, romanized: Alexey Dmitrievich Shirov, Latvian: Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994.He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classical world championship match with Garry Kasparov; it never took place due to a lack of sponsorship.

Photo of Vladimirs Petrovs

3. Vladimirs Petrovs (1907 - 1943)

With an HPI of 43.26, Vladimirs Petrovs is the 3rd most famous Latvian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Vladimirs Petrovs (Russian: Влади́мир Миха́йлович Петро́в, romanized: Vladimir Mikhailovich Petrov; 27 September 1908 – 26 August 1943) was a Latvian Russian chess player. He was born in Riga, in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire (present-day Latvia). Though he learned the game of chess relatively late, at age thirteen, Petrovs made rapid progress. By 1926, at age 19, he won the championship of Riga and finished third in the national championship. He placed 2nd–5th, behind Isakas Vistaneckis, in the first Baltic Championship at Klaipėda in 1931. Petrovs won a match with Movsas Feigins (+4 –1 =3) in 1931, won a match against Vladas Mikėnas (+2 –0 =1) in 1932, and narrowly lost a match to Rudolf Spielmann (+1 –2 =5) in 1934. Petrovs tied for first with Fricis Apšenieks in 1934, and won the Latvian Championship in 1935 and 1937. He won at Helsinki in 1936, and tied for first with Samuel Reshevsky and Salo Flohr at Kemeri in 1937, ahead of Alexander Alekhine, Paul Keres, Endre Steiner, Savielly Tartakower, Reuben Fine, Gideon Ståhlberg and others. This was Petrovs’ finest tournament achievement. Later the same year, he finished last at Semmering. Petrovs placed 3rd-5th at Łódź in 1938, behind Vasja Pirc and Tartakower, and third at Margate in 1938, behind Alekhine and Rudolf Spielmann, defeating Alekhine in their individual game. In 1939, Petrovs placed 8th of 16 at Kemeri–Riga, and won at Rosario, ahead of Erich Eliskases and Mikėnas.Petrovs played for Latvia in all seven official Chess Olympiads from 1928 to 1939. He also played at the unofficial Olympiad at Munich 1936. In July/August 1928, he played at third board at the 2nd Chess Olympiad in The Hague (+5 –4 =7). In July 1930, he played at second board at the 3rd Chess Olympiad in Hamburg (+8 –3 =6). In July 1931, he played at third board at the 4th Chess Olympiad in Prague (+9 –2 =5). In July 1933, he played at second board at the 5th Chess Olympiad in Folkestone (+6 –5 =3). In August 1935, he played at first board at the 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw (+7 –5 =7). In August–September 1936, he played at first board at the 3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich (+10 –3 =7). In July–August 1937, he played at first board at the 7th Chess Olympiad in Stockholm (+5 –3 =10). In August–September 1939, he played at first board at the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (+8 –0 =11).He won two individual medals: gold in 1931 and bronze in 1939. He achieved a particularly brilliant result playing on top board at Buenos Aires: he was undefeated, drawing with world champion Alekhine, former world champion José Raúl Capablanca, and the young superstar Keres, and won against Vladas Mikėnas, Roberto Grau, Tartakower, and Moshe Czerniak. In 1940 the Soviet Union annexed Latvia. Petrovs finished 10th out of 20 in the 1940 USSR Championship, taking equal third at Riga in 1941, and second in several strong tournaments: Moscow in 1941, behind Isaak Mazel; Moscow in 1942, behind Igor Bondarevsky, and Sverdlovsk in 1942, behind Viacheslav Ragozin. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Petrovs was unable to return to his wife and daughter at home in Latvia. He remained in Russia and was arrested on 31 August 1942 under Article 58 for criticising decreased living standards in Latvia after the Soviet annexation of 1940. Petrovs was sentenced to ten years in a corrective labor camp. In 1947 his death was announced, but only in 1989 it became known that he had died at Kotlas in 1943 from pneumonia. A rapid chess tournament, the Vladimir Petrov Memorial, was held in his memory in Jūrmala in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Photo of Dana Reizniece-Ozola

4. Dana Reizniece-Ozola (1981 - )

With an HPI of 29.54, Dana Reizniece-Ozola is the 4th most famous Latvian Chess Player.  Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Dana Reizniece-Ozola (born November 6, 1981) is a Latvian politician and chess player. She has been managing director of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) since 2021. She also served as minister of Economics (2014–2016) and minister of Finance (2016–2019) of the Republic of Latvia. Reizniece-Ozola was elected as a member of the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Saeima of the Republic of Latvia and worked as the chairperson of the Commission on Education, Culture and Science, Member of the Legal Affairs Commission and Member of the European Affairs Commission. In chess, Reizniece-Ozola was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001. She is presently vice-president of the European Chess Union.

Photo of Arkadij Naiditsch

5. Arkadij Naiditsch (1985 - )

With an HPI of 29.47, Arkadij Naiditsch is the 5th most famous Latvian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijani: Arkadi Naydiç; born 25 October 1985) is an Azerbaijani (since 2015) chess grandmaster who previously represented Latvia (until 1997) and Germany (1998–2015).

Photo of Alexander Shabalov

6. Alexander Shabalov (1967 - )

With an HPI of 26.74, Alexander Shabalov is the 6th most famous Latvian Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

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).

Pantheon has 6 people classified as chess players born between 1907 and 1985. Of these 6, 4 (66.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living chess players include Alexei Shirov, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, and Arkadij Naiditsch. The most famous deceased chess players include Mikhail Tal and Vladimirs Petrovs. As of April 2022, 1 new chess players have been added to Pantheon including Vladimirs Petrovs.

Living Chess Players

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Deceased Chess Players

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Newly Added Chess Players (2022)

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