Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Shabalov (born September 12, 1967) is an American chess grandmaster, the multiple winner of the U.S. Chess Championships; he was the 2007 US Champion. He was born in Latvia, and like his fellow Latvians Alexei Shirov and Mikhail Tal he is known for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness. As of the June 2007 rating supplement Shabalov had a United States Chess Federation rating of 2671, ranking him seventh best among American chess players and 81st in the world.

Until recently, Alexander Shabalov regularly lectured chess players of all ages at the House of Chess, a store that he ran at the Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until it closed in mid-2007. He has been known to play against anyone who shows up, and to be similarly obliging to autograph-seekers. Shabalov is a four-time United States champion.