Biography

Latvian Grandmaster (1978), a chess journalist and engineer. World Senior Champion in 1998. A participant of nine USSR championships with 4^th place in 1960 and 5-7^th place in 1977. A member of the Soviet team who won the European Team Championship in 1961 and the World Students’ Championships 1961-62.

Best results: Adelaide, 2^nd; Jakarta, 1^st, Moscow 1960, 4^th; Baku 1964, 1-2^nd; Batumi 1966, 1-4^th; Moscow 1968, 1-4^th;  Polanica-Zdroj 1969, 5-6^th; Baya 1971, 2^nd; Tbilisi 1971 and 1974, 1-2nd and 3-4th; Stary Smokovec 1981, 1^st; Cascais 1986, 1^st.

He was also a well known trainer. He coached Mikhail Tal, Garry Kasparov, Alexander Shabalov and Alexy Shirov at various points in their career.

Bagirov died whilst playing in the Heart of Finland open tournament. He started with 3/3 but had a heart attack during the 4th round and died the following day.

Author of  English Opening: Classical and Indian, (translated from the Russian by Ken Neat, 1994), English Opening: Symmetrical (translated from the Russian by Ken Neat, 1995), Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation, CD-Rom 2000.