One more familiar face in Corus after a 2-year break, Alexey is ‘back by popular demand’. His precautious, artistic style is appreciated and guaranteed to offer some bloody games, and is often times reminiscent of his compatriot, the late world champion Mikhail Tal. In 2004 all the water muddying garnered him no more than a minus 1 score (6/13) - clearly not an acceptable result for the Grandmaster from Riga (who still plays under Spanish flag).

This year his ELO rating dipped just below the magical 2700 mark, but by now he is back with a small cushion. Much of that came thanks to his fine win at the very strong Karpov International – a full point ahead of second place. His league play was also good news: 4/4 in the British NCL, +2 at the Russian team championship, and a most impressive 7.5/10 in the Bundesliga.

With that success also came some disappointment in the shape of his 50% score in the Olympiad, a lukewarm tie for fourth place in the Gibraltar open, and a sub par –2 at the recently finished Tal Memorial. Time will tell if Shirov could snap out of this one in time for January.