Shabalov was born in Riga, Latvia, and was known during much of his career for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness, much like his fellow Latvians Mikhail Tal and Alexei Shirov.

In 2002, he tied for first place at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow with Gregory Kaidanov, Alexander Grischuk, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Vadim Milov.

In 2009, Shabalov shared first place with Fidel Corrales Jimenez in the American Continental Chess Championship.

[6] Shabalov won the 2022 U.S. Senior Championship, defeating Grandmaster Larry Christiansen in the final round of the tournament to claim victory.

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