Ilya Smirin

Ilya Smirin was born in 1968 in Vitebsk

Smirin was born in Vitebsk, then in the Soviet Union, in 1968. He learned chess from Lev Pek, and Ilya Botvinnik coached him for 20 years. He was certified as a chess teacher by the Belorussian State Institute of Physical Culture in Minsk.

In 1987 he won the championship of the Byelorussian SSR. He became an International Master in 1989 and a Grandmaster in 1990. He immigrated to Israel in 1992 and won the Israeli championship that year.

He played in four FIDE World Championships and three FIDE World Cups. His tournament wins include New York 1994, the Biel Grandmaster Tournament in 2002 and the World Open in 2014. He won Israeli titles again in 2002 and 2023.

With the Israeli team he won bronze at the 2010 Chess Olympiad and silver at the European Team Championship in 2003 and 2005. In 2016 he published the book King's Indian Warfare. In 2022 FIDE dismissed him as a broadcaster after remarks it called offensive about women in chess.