Sergei Tiviakov is a Russian born Dutch Grandmaster born in 1973. He won the World Under 16 and 18 junior Championship.
He won the 2006 Dutch Championship and reached his peak rating of 2699 in 2005.
Alexei Shirov is a Spanish Grandmaster, born 1972 in Latvia. He became the World Under 16 Champion in 1988 and achieved the Grandmaster title with 20 years.
In 1998 he defeated Kramnik in a 10 match game to gain the right to challenge reigning champion Garry Kasparov, yet funding of the match eventually fell through.
His peak rating was 2755.
They played 11 times, with Shirov winning 5, Tiviakov 1 and 5 draws.
In a closed Sicilian Shirov acquires the Bishop pair early on. With a good pawn sacrifice he opens the position and creates 2 menacing Bishops, just to sacrifice his dark-squared Bishop to regain the pawn with initiative shortly after.
In a sharp position Shirov is able to slowly increase his advantage, but White gets counterplay.
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