Pavel Vladimirovich Smirnov is a Russian chess Grandmaster, who earned the International Master (IM) title in 2000 and the Grandmaster (GM) title in 2003. He was born on June 27, 1982 in Arkhangelsk.
Smirnov has numerous accomplishments in his chess career. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 2001, and in the following year, won the Graz International. In 2003, he won the St. Petersburg championship, and in 2004, he came out first in both the Aeroflot Open B and the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial.
In 2006, he won at the 2nd Russian Higher League championships in Tomsk with a score of 7½/11. In August the same year, he achieved a high FIDE ranking of 2603.
Smirnov was also part of the team that won the Russian Team Chess Championship in 2005. From 2004 to 2015, he was a member of the Economist SGSEU Saratov team, with which he won the European Club Cup in 2009.
A prolific tournament player, Smirnov won multiple tournaments and achieved numerous top-three finishes in various competitions. Some of his victories include the Botvinnik Memorial, the Aeroflot Open, and the Russian Higher League.
Outside of his tournament achievements, Smirnov has contributed to chess literature. In particular, he has written opening books, including Complete Slav I and Complete Slav II, which were published in 2010 and 2011 respectively.