in may 2009, alexei shirov achieved the greatest triumph of his career by placing 1st in the high category 21 m-tel masters 2009 tournament, a double round tournament held in sofia, bulgaria. he was undefeated, and scored 6.5/10—seven draws and three victories, two against vassily ivanchuk and the other against magnus carlsen in the final round. by this success he was given entry to the grand slam chess final 2009 in bilbao where he met levon aronian, sergey karjakin (winner of corus 2009), and alexander grischuk (winner of linares 2009).