Ilya Smirin

Ilia Smirin (Russian Илья Смирин, born January 21, 1968 in Belarus ) is a Belarusian- Israeli grandmaster in chess.

Smirin emigrated in 1992 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union to Israel and has since played in all eight Chess Olympiads ( 1992-2006 ) for the Israeli national team. He also won three times the individual championship of Israel. Among his international tournament successes include the 2001 victory in Dos Hermanas with Alexei Drejew, the following year he won the Grand Master tournament of Biel and shared in the "World Open" in Philadelphia in 2002 and 2003 respectively the first place. In 2002 Smirin belonged to the victorious World Selection in the competition "Russia vs. the World."

Smirins current Elo rating is 2616, so that he is on the seventh position of the Israeli ranking (as of January 2008). In January 2002 Smirin ranked with his highest ever rating of 2702 among the 15 best players in the world.