Alexei Shirov became the U16 World Champion in 1988 and two years later he got the silver medal from U20 World Championship. He won numerous big chess tournaments, from among the most important: Biel 1991, Madrid 1997, Ter Apel 1997, Monte Carlo 1998 and 2000 and two times the Paul Keres Memorial in Talinn 2004 and 2005. In 1998 he was number four in the FIDE rating list and on this basis he was nominated to match Vladimir Kramnik for the right to challenge Garry Kasparov. Although he had won the struggle, Kasparov played Kramnik instead, because Shirov couldn't assure sufficient financial backing for their match. He was close to the title in 2000 again, when he lost to Anand in the final of the FIDE World Championship.