Arturs Neikšāns

Arturs Neiksans (Latvian: Arturs Neikšāns, Russian: Артур Нейкшанс) is a Latvian chess grandmaster, four times Latvian champion, one of the leading Latvian chess players, FIDE accredited chess trainer,[2] author and a commentator of high level chess tournaments.

Arturs Neikšāns
Arturs Neiksans during the FIDE Grand Prix Riga stage, July of 2019
Country Latvia
Born (1983-03-16) March 16, 1983
Valka, Latvia
TitleGrandmaster
FIDE rating2557 (August 2020)
Peak rating2631[1] (December 2016)

Biography

Born in 16th March of 1983 in Valka (a small Latvian bordertown with Estonia), Arturs Neiksans started to play chess relatively late, already being 9 years old. At age 16 he received the title of a national master and at age 18 – international master. In 1999 being only 16 years old Neiksans won the Latvian Chess Championship, thus becoming the youngest ever Latvian champion. He beat Mikhail Tal's record by several months which was set in the far 1953.

After graduating highshool, Neiksans pretty much left the competitive chess, pursuing career instead, and after receiving MBA Master's degree in Public Relations, he was mostly working in the communication's field, most notably Latvian Ministry of Education and Science,[3] and later also at newspaper “Jelgavas Vestnesis”. At an age of 27 there was a sudden change of career perspective for Arturs Neiksans as in the autumn of 2010 he was offered to become the head chess coach in Riga Chess School. Thus he continued the interrupted work of the legendary Latvian grandmaster Janis Klovans who had just died at an age of 75.

Everyday's work with chess for then international master Neiksans also gave an opportunity for a personal improvement. He needed slightly more than one year to get all of the required 3 grandmaster norms, thus getting the coveted title at an age of 28[4] which for professional chess players is considered to be quite late. In 2012 he received FIDE trainer's title as well, and in 2016 his highest ELO rating peaked at 2631.

Personal achievements
  • Four times Latvian champion (1999, 2011, 2015, 2019)
  • Summer Chess Classic C tournament, USA – 1st place (2019)[5]
  • Ilmar Raud Memorial, Estonia - 1st place (2015[6], 2020[7])
  • President's 2nd Cup, Riga – 1st place (2019)[8]
  • RTU Open 2016 A tournament, Riga – shared 1st place, 3rd in tiebreaks (2016)[9]
  • Liepaja Rokade 2016, super tournament, Liepaja – shared 1st place, 2nd in tiebreaks[10]
  • 5th Vladimir Petrov memorial, Jurmala shared 1st place with Vassily Ivanchuk, Loek van Wely and Alexander Shabalov, 4th in tiebreaks[11]
  • 9th Wunsiedel Chess Festival, Germany – 1st place (2015)[12]
  • Liepaja Rokade 2009, open tournament, Liepaja - 1st place (2009)[13]
  • Six times played for the national team of Latvia in the World Chess Olympiads (2000, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018)
  • Two times played for the national team of Latvia in European Team Chess Championships (1999, 2011)

Coaching

Since the autumn of 2010 Arturs Neiksans is the head coach at Riga Chess School,[14] on a daily basis working with the most talented Latvian youngsters, among them Nikita Meshkovs, Toms Kantans, Laura Rogule, Katrina Amerika (Skinke), Elizabete Limanovska, Dmitrijs Tokranovs and others. As it turned out, many of them later became grandmasters themselves and the core of the Latvian national team.

Neiksans remains an active coach who primarily focuses on junior prospects. According to a recent interview, he currently works with a number of young Latvian players, including Maksims Aminovs, Davids Cernaks, and Rikards Vinniks.[15]

Author

In 2018 Neiksans started a collaboration with one of the leading online chess education portals Modern Chess, and at the moment he has written three popular theoretical databases:

  • Moscow Variation against the Sicilian - Complete Repertoire against 2...d6.[16]
  • Rossolimo Variation against the Sicilian - Complete Repertoire against 2...Nc6[17]
  • Baltic variation against the Sicilian - Complete Repertoire against 2...e6 and sidelines[18]

Commentary and streaming

In parallel to everyday's work as a chess coach at Riga Chess School, Arturs Neiksans has also become a chess commentator for high level international tournaments, both in English and Russian languages:

Since the April of 2020 Arturs Neiksans has also become a streamer on Twitch, running his own channel.[23]

gollark: Why not?
gollark: Here's a handy infographic.
gollark: At least be cool about it and engineer your own retrovirus.
gollark: Hating someone is not a good reason to actually harm them physically, bee you.
gollark: See, instead of doing so, you can simply not.

References
  1. "FIDE Chess ratings". ratings.fide.com.
  2. "Neiksans, Arturs FIDE Chess Profile - Players Arbiters Trainers". ratings.fide.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  3. "Sākums". Izglītības un zinātnes ministrija (in Latvian). Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  4. "List of titles approved by the 1st quarter PB 2012, Al-Ain, UAE". fide.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  5. "Pairings & Results | C | www.uschesschamps.com". uschesschamps.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  6. "Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - Ilmar Raud Memorial". chess-results.com. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  7. "Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - Ilmar Raud Memorial Tournament". chess-results.com. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  8. "Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - II Latvian Chess Federation President Blitz cup -2019 26.01". chess-results.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  9. "«RTU Open 2016» uzvar Ukrainas pārstāvis Martins Kravtsivs | Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte". https://www.rtu.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved 2019-07-25. External link in |website= (help)
  10. "Latvijas Šaha Federācija". sahafederacija.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  11. "Loek Van Wely wins Vladimir Petrov Memorial on tie-break | Chessdom". Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  12. "GM Neiksans Arturs gewinnt Wunsiedel Schachfestival 2015". steffans-schachseiten.de. Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  13. ""Liepājas rokādē" uzvar Artūrs Neikšāns". liepajniekiem.lv. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  14. "Par mums". sahaskola.lv. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  15. "Interview with Arturs Neiksans". chessnews.lv. Retrieved 2019-09-23.
  16. "Moscow Variation against the Sicilian - Complete Repertoire against 2...d6". modern-chess.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  17. "Rossolimo Variation against the Sicilian - Complete Repertoire against 2...Nc6". modern-chess.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  18. "Anti-Sicilian Repertoire - 2...e6 and Sidelines". modern-chess.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  19. "Grischuk Wins ACP Chess Rapid Knockout 2013 in Riga". Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  20. Doggers (PeterDoggers), Peter. "3059 Performance For Ivanchuk at Latvian Railway Open". Chess.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  21. European ChessTV (2017-04-12), Round 2 - European Women's Chess Championship 2017, retrieved 2019-07-25
  22. "Grand Prix 2019". worldchess.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  23. "Twitch". Twitch. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
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