In 2001 he was a member of the Russian junior team in the first China vs Russia match that took place in Shanghai.

[4] In 2004 Smirnov reached the fourth round of the FIDE World Chess Championship, where he lost to Teimour Radjabov and therefore was eliminated from the competition.

He knocked out in the previous rounds Lázaro Bruzón, Abobker Elarbi, and Levon Aronian.

[6] He competed in the Chess World Cup 2005, where he was eliminated in the first round by Dmitry Bocharov.

In 2007 he played for Tomsk-400 team that won the Russian Team Chess Championship[7] and tied for 3rd–9th with Dmitry Svetushkin, Vladimir Malakhov, Evgeny Vorobiov, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Vladimir Dobrov and Aleksej Aleksandrov in the 3rd Moscow Open tournament.