Arturs Neikšāns

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.

• 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)

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]

In 2018 Neiksans started a collaboration with one of the leading online chess education portals Modern Chess, and at the moment he has written four 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]
• Positional Repertoire against the Caro-Kann[19]

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:

• ACP Cup (2013)[20]
• Latvian Railway Open (2014)[21]
• European Individual Women Championship (2017)[22]
• FIDE World Chess Grand Prix, Riga stage (2019)[23]

Since the April of 2020 Arturs Neiksans has also become a streamer on Twitch, running his own channel.[24]

• Arturs Neikšāns player profile at chessgames.com
• Arturs Neikšāns player profile at 365chess.com
• Arturs Neikšāns player profile at chesstempo.com