GM Arturs Neiksans: From Late-Blooming GM Who Reached 2600+ to a Premier Coach & Course Creator

Episode Transcript
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Daniel (00:05):
Hey, welcome to the chess experience On this show.
It's all about helping adultimprovers.
I want to make learning chesseasier for you to navigate, and
I also want you to have a morefun experience along the way.
I'm your host, daniel Lona, afellow chess amateur.
Let's get to it.
This show is sponsored bychesscom, the world's largest

(00:46):
chess amateur.
Let's also a great way to havea lesson between a student and a
coach, and you can check thatout on chesscom slash classroom.
Welcome to this week's episode.
Our guest today is Latviangrandmaster Artur Niksans.
Not only has Arturs achieved avery high level of play in chess
, with a peak rating of 2631,but even outside of competition,

(01:10):
he's run the gamut in his chesscareer by publishing chessable
courses, coaching top youthplayers and running a popular
chess YouTube channel.
Competitively, arturs becamethe youngest Latvian chess
champion in history at the ageof 16, even beating Mikhail
Tal's record Plus.
Arturs went on to win theLatvian chess championship three

(01:31):
more times, most recently in2019.
In just a moment, I'm going togive you some highlights of what
we talk about in ourconversation, but I just want to
make one brief side note here,which is that Arturs, at this
time, is not publicly discussinghis coaching with Levi Rosman.
They're keeping that underwraps for right now.
I just wanted to let you knowthat so you didn't think I

(01:52):
missed the opportunity to askabout that subject for you.
It's just a subject I agree tonot discuss for this interview
upon his request.
Nonetheless, it is a greatconversation that we have and in
it we discuss how Artur'sachieved the GM title in his
late twenties, which is fairlylate to do so, but very
impressive His experiencecoaching promising young players

(02:14):
in Latvia and helping them earnthe GM title during his time as
head coach of the Riga chessschool.
We also get into the subject ofopenings, where we talk about
why he likes the con Sicilianand whether there's any value in
choosing one Sicilian overanother for a club player.
We discuss why the Scandinavianan opening he will soon publish

(02:35):
a course on has great valuedespite its sometimes maligned
reputation, and Artur's givesone of my favorite answers to
the question of his number onechess wish at the end of our
conversation.
In the show notes to thisepisode, I have links for all of
Artur's content, whether it'shis YouTube channel, chessable
courses, social media.
I definitely recommend youchecking that out.

(02:56):
He is a superb instructor inhis courses and fantastic at
creating chess content on hisYouTube channel.
Here's my interview with Arturs.
I hope you enjoy it.
Hi, arturs, it's great to haveyou on the podcast.
How are you doing today?

Arturs (03:10):
Hey Daniel, thank you for having me Very, very excited
once again to join the podcast,since I suppose we're going to
talk about it a bit later.
I'm also a podcaster now, so,yeah, it's great to be here.

Daniel (03:22):
Yeah, yeah, you are officially a podcaster yourself
now, so, yeah, it's great to behere.
Yeah, yeah, you are officiallya podcaster yourself now, so
you've joined that world, and wewill definitely talk a little
bit about that later in ourconversation.
Artur, you know, what I like todo when I chat with a guest is
I like to see what's differentor unique that we can talk about
about that particular guest.
And one thing that stood out tome about what you do right now

(03:42):
is that you still competeprofessionally.
It seems rare for GMs tocompete professionally once
their career has moved into thestage of coaching and books and
courses and things like that,but you're still active that way
.
So, yeah, can you talk a littlebit about that and what
motivates you to compete?

Arturs (03:59):
Right, that's a great question.
So when I became a chessprofessional, that was, I think,
around the time when I startedworking in a chess school.
I suppose we're going to talkabout it a bit separately.
I think it was 2011,.
I'm already quite hazy on thenumbers.
I think it was 2011.
I essentially became a chessprofessional because I was

(04:21):
working on chess full-time withsome students of high level and
I was also working myself, andat that moment it was only
logical that I was seeking thechances to play myself
competitively.
Now this is when I grew myselfand I was maybe 24-70, 24-80 Elo

(04:42):
rated at the time and I grew to26-30 because I had to work on
chess basically every day and Iwas playing in occasional
tournaments.
But back then it was prettytough to find a spot in
international chess leagues.
I remember this still veryclearly, daniel.
Those years ago I was lookingfor teams in international chess

(05:02):
leagues and it was so hard toget.
I mean, literally every singleleague already had established
players, no free spots, and ittook me essentially years to
establish places ininternational chess clubs.
But then, of course, thingschanged and I think that was
probably around COVID.

(05:24):
Yeah, I think COVID probablyfacilitated the change.
For many chess professionals,that was 2020, 2021.
And that's also the time when Istarted to write more courses.
But my priorities were shiftingat a time, so I stopped playing
as much as I was playing before,and during my most active years

(05:45):
I was playing about 100classical games per year, which,
by the way, to some chessprofessionals is not really such
a great number.
To me it was like huge.
And then I essentially decidedto stop playing in open
tournaments, but I left playingin international chess leagues.
But again, the purpose ofplaying, the reason why I'm
playing in international chessleagues, but again, the purpose
of playing, the reason why I'mplaying in international chess

(06:07):
leagues it changed Becauseinitially obviously there was
the monetary, the financialissue why I'm playing there.
Because it's not really asecret, just professionals play
in international chess leagues.
They get some finances forplaying certain amount of games
and this is like solid financialincome.
But after some years, obviously, when I started to coach I mean

(06:29):
, I was still working, of course, as a coach, but I started to
write chessable courses, Istarted to do commentary, I
started to run YouTube channel,I started to stream, so there
were like all kinds of otherrevenues incoming For me playing
competitively became like asecondary thing.
So I still left it.
I still left playing in theinternational chess leagues

(06:52):
because I would like to staysharp and I enjoy playing it.
I really enjoy and I think thatright now I have reached the
perfect balance.
Like I play a year, I don'tknow maybe 30 games, maybe
sometimes 40, if there's aleague tournament, like
round-robin tournament, likelast year I was playing in

(07:13):
French Team Church Championships10 games in total, yeah, then
it's a bit more, but I like thepace.
You know it's on Fridays I'mdeparting, let's say, to
Stockholm, or usually actuallyit's Thursdays.
Then I'm playing three gamesFriday, saturday, sunday.
On Sunday evening I'm goinghome.
So for me it's like the perfectchange of the environment

(07:33):
because I'm working in my homeoffice essentially nonstop from
the morning to the evening and Ineed some socializing.
That's why also this role haschanged for me.
So I'm still competing, I liketo stay sharp, but also I use
the opportunity to playinternational chess leagues as a
socializing thing.

Daniel (07:51):
Yeah, those are great reasons.
One thing that stood out to meis that you said that a key
reason that you do these leaguesstill is that it helps you stay
sharp.
Do you mean by that just foryour own personal satisfaction
and holding on to all the skillsthat you've spent decades
developing?
Or do you mean you know stayingsharp in terms of thinking of
chess, ideas for courses, books,or you know coaching, rather,

(08:13):
and things like that?

Arturs (08:14):
I think it's everything.
So obviously so that I want toremain competitive, because if I
would stop playing after like acouple of years probably my
actual skill would degrade.
So I would like to stay closeto 2600.
But when I'm playing in chessleagues mostly then by playing a

(08:35):
game I accomplish a couple ofthings, I get extra ideas.
For example, I'm writing achessable course, I'm playing in
the National Chess League, I'mplaying the Scandinavian right.
So I want to figure it out.
How does it feel over the board?
Because there's one thing whenyou're writing an author and
perhaps that's the line, youhaven't really played it and
then you go for a chess leaguematch and you just want to play

(08:57):
this thing, and actually there'sa very real story.
Like I make these educationalstreams I call them g GM Nations
Bootcamp right and I do allkinds of opening related stuff,
like one of the last bootcamps Idid was the Italian game.
So I traveled just recently tothe Swedish league and I'm very
curious, you know, I'm verycurious to try out those lines

(09:18):
that I, you know I talked aboutin the bootcamp.
I'm very curious because that'sthe thing I told my audience
and I want to see how itactually feels, you know.
So sometimes, when I'm workingon some ideas that I'm
presenting to my audience, I'malso curious to test them.
And there's the next part, sinceI'm also moving to the part

(09:39):
where I'm eventually going to bea full-time content creator Not
yet, not yet.
I mean, I was thinking I'mtheretime content creator, not
yet, not yet.
I mean I was thinking I'm there, but no, not yet.
Then, essentially, every singlegame I'm playing, it's, it's a
story, and that's a story Iwould like to tell to my
audience.
So right now, I'm, of course,having a youtube channel, which
is slowly but steadily growing,and I see an opportunity to play
in these leagues, to play aninteresting, exciting game, so

(10:01):
that I can come back home make,make a video about it and make
an interesting story.
And apparently my audienceloves that.

Daniel (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, that's another great reason to do it
for sure, Artur, another aspectof your chess career that I'd
like to talk about is yourcoaching, because you've done
some impressive stuff with that.
For those who don't know, from2010 to 2021, you were the head
coach of the Riga Chess School,and there's an aspect of that
that I wanted to talk about,which is that in your chessable

(10:29):
bio that mentions it.
It refers to the Riga ChessSchool as being historic.
I think you know maybe a lot ofmy listeners aren't familiar
with why that would be the case.
Can you describe the historicnature of the Riga Chess School?

Arturs (10:42):
Yeah, it's historic because it has a rich tradition.
It was founded, I think, in1972.
So a couple of years ago theschool celebrated the 50-year
anniversary and in theestablishment we're training
some of the best players inLatvia, some of the future

(11:02):
grandmasters.
And I think what really makesRiga Chess School special is
that there is no suchinstitution even remotely close
in the Baltic states, andprobably I could expand it to
the Scandinavian and maybe partof the European region, because
essentially what Riga ChessSchool is, it is Riga

(11:23):
municipality-funded educationalinstitution that has a total of
500 students I mean not reallyin one building, because in one
building, probably at the sametime you're going to see,
perhaps it's approximately like70 students perhaps, but many
coaches work in the secondaryschools of Riga, in all the

(11:44):
suburbs.
So it's a really, really uniquething and that's what makes it
special because, like I alreadysaid, it has a rich history.
Many drummers have worked therebefore.
I worked there for 11 years andI think it's something we have
to preserve.

Daniel (12:01):
Yeah, I imagine it's not open to just any chess player.
Is there specific standards forbeing a part of it as a student
?

Arturs (12:08):
yeah, so they accept kids starting age seven, I think
maybe even age eight, I'm notexactly sure.
So the standard practice isthat the kid starts to go to
school at age seven and parentsthey send them to the rigid
Chess School.
So there's some first lessonsand, yeah, then the kids
eventually they want to figureout do they want to continue or

(12:29):
not.
But standard, finishing theRigid Chess School after how
many years is it?
I think it's approximately 7years of education.
They're supposed to get the socalled first degree in chess.
So I'm not sure if it is inAmerican Chess, how does it
really classify?
But the first degree in chess,that's like one step before the

(12:51):
candidate master.
So when you finish the rigorchess school you're supposed to
get this first degree.
I see, I see.

Daniel (12:58):
And one of the more interesting things also that I
read about your experience thereis that you helped the most
promising youths becomegrandmasters.
That's fascinating to me, thatyou're developing these talented
youths, who probably start offat a pretty good level, but then
taking them all the way to GM.
Can you describe that?

Arturs (13:14):
experience.
Yeah, it was absolutelyfascinating.
I still sometimes cannotbelieve how it turned out,
because that was the year I mean, it probably starts around 2008
, 2009, when the world was hitby the huge economic crisis.
I was having a very good jobnot just related by the way I

(13:35):
was working in a newspaper as ajournalist.
I was fired for reasons I'm notgoing to really discuss here,
sure, and the crisis wasapproaching and I felt I needed
a change.
So what we did is we gatheredfive friends of us, we made a
Euro trip across Europe.
We traveled in a car from Rigato Portugal and back about 5,000

(13:59):
.
I think it was 5,000 kilometersin total.
We played chess for two monthsand during this time, something
changed.
I realized I would like to givechess another shot.
So when I came back, I wasoffered, quite unexpectedly, a
chance to become the head coachin riga chess.
It was like a fate really,because I was like at the
crossroads at the time and Iwasn't really sure which

(14:20):
direction to take andunfortunately, at that moment,
my previous coach, janisKlovansk, who is a true Latvian
chess legend he had passed awayand Riga Chess School was
looking for a substitute and Iwas it, and I was essentially
offered to coach some of thebest students that Janis had and

(14:42):
they were promising.
I think they were F feedingmasters at the time.
If I'm not terribly mistaken,they are Nikita Meshkov and Tom
Kantans, who now, of course,they are groundmasters.
And what made it really specialis that I was able to work with
them nonstop.
Like they were coming totraining sessions, essentially
sometimes five times a week.

(15:02):
So it was really special and wewould work.
We would sometimes essentiallysometimes five times a week.
So it was really special.
Wow, and we would work.
We would sometimes okay,sometimes they would come to a
training session.
We wouldn't really work, we'djust blitz.
I'm not going to really denythere were days then we would go
to the basement and play tabletennis.
We'd play table tennis likethree hours nonstop.
That was our physical training,but that was a fascinating time

(15:23):
and we established a very, verystrong bond and, yeah, and
eventually they became not onlygramsters but my teammates in
the national team.

Daniel (15:33):
That's incredible, that's fantastic, and I mean,
even though you are not at Rigaright now, you are still
coaching regularly, so can youtalk a little bit about that?
Who are you coaching these days?
Is it still youths or you knowwhat?
What levels do you typicallycoach?

Arturs (15:50):
yeah, there's.
I have several students andrating range is probably from a
club level player to the im.
I have some very promisingstudents, so I'm very excited to
see how they're going to grow.
And mostly it is individuallessons, so usually done online,

(16:11):
so we'll see how it's going togo.

Daniel (16:13):
Yeah, do you find that that experience also helps you
come up with ideas for coursesor just things like that that
make the content also that youcreate on your YouTube channel,
for example, things like that?
Do you find that that yourcoaching experience helps, gives
you ideas for that?

Arturs (16:30):
yeah, maybe I'm not really sure.
I I think it's a bit separate.
Yeah, so when I'm, when I'mcoaching, I'm mostly using my
own games because I know that's,that's the, that's probably the
lazy part.
I know that many coaches do it,but but I, I feel that I can
explain with my own games thebest because I know those
feelings inside out and I wasable to play a pretty decent

(16:53):
level and then when I need toexplain a certain concept, I
just pull up the games that Ihave played.
I very quickly could recallwhere I have played.
I have some databases alreadyprepared, so we are doing that.
But essentially, work withevery single student is
different.
But of course, I'm also sharingthe information.
I'm working on my courses.
I I'm sharing my students aswell.

(17:14):
So literally every singlestudent I've given every single
course that I have created and Ihope they enjoy it.

Daniel (17:22):
Yeah, yeah, I want to talk a little bit about your
competitive career, focusing inon what stands out to me about
it is that you earned the GMtitle relatively later in life,
at age 28, in part because youtook some time off from
competing professionally afterhigh school and into your 20s.
So what led you to get backinto professional competition?

Arturs (17:42):
Yeah, that was essentially again this world
crisis that I mentioned, becauseI had pretty much decided
before that I won't become achess professional and it
probably makes sense to go backto the age 16, 17, 18, when I
was a pretty promising kid.
For that time I was rated about2400.

(18:02):
I was 16, 17, so clearly on myway to become a gramaster.
But I had a pretty badinfluence, if I may say so,
because I was looking at some ofthe local grumpsters and they
were always grumpy, alwaysnervous, and when I had a chance
sometimes to beat them theywouldn't really enjoy it and

(18:24):
overall they didn't really giveme the impression that that's
the something I want to become.
You know, it's very interesting.

Daniel (18:30):
Interesting.

Arturs (18:32):
Somehow they made this impression that that's not
something I want to do and atthe moment I had a very strong
belief that I should pursue acareer and that's what I was
trying to do.
So I got my MBA degree.
I was trying to work in thefield of journalism and public
relations, but eventually Irealized it's just a job.

(18:54):
You know, I'm not reallyenjoying it and while I was
working so at the times it wasreally crazy schedule I had, so
you can probably imagine.
So I was living in Yalgava,which is one of the biggest
cities, close to Riga, about 50kilometers.
So I would wake up in Yalgavaat 6 am on every weekday.

(19:19):
I would take a train at 7 am toRiga.
I would arrive in Riga at 8.
I go to my job.
I was working at a time at theMinistry of Education and
Science.
I would leave the job at 5 pm.
They don't have master's degreestudies in university, so
that's until eight or so.
I get on a train, I get back athome at nine and that was

(19:43):
nonstop.
So 6 am and 9 pm, five times aday.
And then also on Saturdays Iwould be traveling for extra
work.
So six times a day and therewas, naturally, no time for
chess at all.
I was nonstop, nonstop, driving, working, driving, working
Unbelievable.
It was such a crazy routine andthere were moments when I tried

(20:05):
to change something Like.
There was this one case when Iwas working full-time in Yelgava
, I was working as a journalistin this local newspaper and I
decided you know, I'm going toplay in a GM Norm tournament in
Riga.
That was the year, I don'tremember, 2007-2008.
I remember that Maxim Matlakovwon his first GM Norm in Riga.

(20:28):
So I decided I'm going to gothere and play in a GM Norm
tournament.
So I was working full-timeduring the day and I would take
a train.
So I was working full-timeduring the day and I would take
a train.
I would travel into Riga Afterone hour.
I would play like 5 pm or 6 pm,I don't remember.
I would play a full game and Iwould go home.
Naturally, it was a disaster.
It was a complete disaster.
You can't do it like that, yeah, so I thought I wanted to give

(20:50):
it a try.
I wanted to give a shot Can Iget the GM norm?
And all of my first attemptswere a complete disaster.
That's how it turned out.
And yeah, eventually, when Igot my very first GM norm at
some point later, then I startedto believe I could make it.

Daniel (21:03):
Yeah Well, so you said that you were working from 6 am
to 9 pm, so where did you findthe time to study at all or
prepare?

Arturs (21:12):
No, it was not like working.
That was my daily schedule.
I'd wake up at 6 am, I get towork at 8 am, I then work at 5
pm.
I get home at 9 pm, so it wascrazy Time to study chess.
No, I didn't have any.
I had a terrible form.
From time to time I would playin some local tournaments.
I would play in some Latvianchampionships from time to time.

(21:33):
That was it.
Basically, there were twotournaments for me a year.
That was the Latvianchampionships.
I think I got a bronze medal,perhaps with some GMs
participating and I was prettyproud of it, and maybe Lepaia

(21:57):
Rokade.
That was a very nice rapidtournament in one of the most
beautiful cities in in in latvia.
It's a coastal city, thewestern part of the country.
So that was it.
And yeah, I would sometimes gothere.
I would play terribly and Iwould leave and I, like I
already said, I had pretty muchdecided I'm not going to become
a chess professional.
So that's why when I was likeage 26 and 27, I was an IM of
rating.
Still the same 2460, 2470.
I thought that's it.
I'm never going to become adrumster.

(22:19):
But apparently I never say no.

Daniel (22:21):
Yeah, yeah.
So did you eventually start tofigure out a way to find some
time?
Or was it just the regularlycompeting once you decided to
compete again that allowed youto get back into form?

Arturs (22:32):
It was just the coaching , because when I was starting to
coach Nikita Toms and alsoArtur Bernatos.
They were some of my promisingstudents.
Then I had to research, becauseI can't really show them stuff
out of thin air.
I would have to pair some stuff, I would have to pair some
openings, I would have to studysome in-game so that I can show

(22:53):
it to them.
And that's the best part, it'slike I'm teaching them and
finally I understand it myself.
That's what probably someprofessors do, right, and I
think that also the director ofReggae Chess School was very
forthcoming, that she wasallowing me from time to time to
play in local not in local, butin some international

(23:14):
tournaments.
I could travel together with mystudents, we would play
together, I would coach and Iwould play, and that's
essentially that was theatmosphere.
I was nonstop in a competitivechess environment and it
dramatically changed how Iplayed.
Could I have accomplished it ifI was working full time?
Another job?
No, absolutely not.

Daniel (23:35):
I see, I see Fascinating .
That's really interesting, thatthat experience is what allowed
you to develop as a player tobecome a GM.
I wouldn't have thought thatthat would be enough, but that's
really interesting, although Ithink it also speaks to your
talent and skill that you coulduse that to ultimately earn the
GM title.
So that's very impressive.
So another's very impressive.
So another aspect of yourcareer and there are many to

(23:57):
talk about, which is why we'rekind of bouncing around here,
arturs is that you havepublished four opening courses
with Chessable at this point, atthe time of this recording.
I know there's another one onthe way and we'll get to that,
but I'd like to discuss thosefor a little bit.
The first one that I want totalk about is that your lifetime
repertoire for the reversedSicilian, which, just for anyone

(24:19):
who doesn't know, is a Blackresponse to the English opening,
and most of the audience thatis listening is at the club
level and I know a lot of thosefolks struggle with how to
respond to the English.
In fact, many don't have anyprep for that at all.
How to respond to the English.
In fact, many don't have anyprep for that at all.
So what's the case or argumentfor the reverse Sicilian,
specifically as a response tothe English.

Arturs (24:48):
Right why you should play it?
Because I think that that's themost ambitious response and
essentially it is, like you said, reverse Sicilian, which is
also in the title of my course.
Like you said, reverse Sicilian, which is also in the title of
my course, it is the mostambitious way to play.
You're fighting for the center,and the feeling also comes from
my own experience with White,because with White I'm also a
pretty versatile player.
I play e4, I play d4, I playknight f3, I play some English

(25:12):
opening with c4.
And with c4, it was always thee5 move that was annoying me and
I decided that it probablymakes sense to write the course.
I already don't remember theexact reasons why.
It was specifically the englishopening.
We were negotiating withchasuble.
I was very much interested togive it a try.
I actually even remember how Iwrote to them.
I wrote to them through thecontact form.

(25:34):
There was a contact form whereyou could ask some questions to
Chasuble.
I didn't have any email and Ijust wrote there.
I'm Latvian Grammarster, I'msitting here in the COVID
pandemic, essentially, and Iwant to do something.
I want to write a course.
So this is how we started to doit.
It was a very tough.

(25:55):
It was a very tough coursebecause I essentially input all
my soul in the course.
I wrote it I'm not exaggeratingfor half a year and sometimes I
was working on the theoreticaland the texts for eight hours a
day.
And then I decided to be aprofessional.
The recording time came torecord the videos for Reverse

(26:16):
Sicilian and I decided to dressin a full suit.
While it was, I believe, it wasJune outside, so outside it was
plus 30 degrees and I wassitting in my apartment dressed
with a full suit and I wassweating.
I almost died when I had torecord.
I had to record like 50 hoursof video, so you can imagine the

(26:38):
torture, the smell for threeweeks, yeah, and I had a
conditioner the air conditionerblowing some air towards me and
I was in touch with Adjustablesaudio engineer and they were
testing the sound limit.
Is it possible to hear the fanso that it's blowing the wind to
the mic?
It was really hilarious, butsomehow we did it.

Daniel (27:03):
Was that the first and last time that you recorded in a
suit for a course?

Arturs (27:06):
Absolutely I mean the second course, I think I
recorded in a jacket, but Ialready didn't have a suit.
Yeah.
So I was like I mean, actuallyyou can check the videos of the
first course, but I alreadydidn't have a suit.
Yeah, so I was like I mean,actually you can check the
videos of the first course, andI'm quite sweaty because I was
feeling pretty terrible.

Daniel (27:19):
Well speaking, you know use the word ambitious to
describe the opening itself thatyou're teaching in that
lifetime repertoire.
Well, one thing that'sinteresting to me is that you
said you were looking forsomething to do during the
pandemic you know to to beproductive.
Talking with Chess about this,I mean there are many courses,
many opening courses onchessable that aren't lifetime
repertoires and for those whodon't know, the lifetime

(27:40):
repertoire format is the mostambitious that you can do for an
opening course.
So what made you want to decideto go sort of all in on on that
and do the most robust versionpossible for that opening?

Arturs (27:53):
that's a great question because Because when I
approached Chessable initially,I think I offered Wren to write
some anti-Sicilian stuff becauseI was feeling quite strong on
the topic.
Prior to the collaboration withChessable I had written three
courses for modern chess like E4, c5, knight to 3, d6, and
Knight, c6, and E6, all kinds offaunty Sicilians and I asked

(28:14):
them can I do these?
You know, maybe expand a bit?
And they said no.
I think they said somethingthat Wesley so wants to write a
course on this around the time.
So we kind of have qualifiedpeople to do that and somehow we
landed with c4, e5.
And they gave me an advice.
They said that since these areessentially the first steps on

(28:34):
Chassable, you should dosomething really serious.
So you should do something thatsets the tone for the next works
that you're going to do, and Ijust said, okay, let's do the
lifetime repertoires and yeah.
So overall I think it was morethan 1000 variations, 50 hours

(28:55):
of video, six hours of month,and that was, up to date,
probably the largest course.
Actually, you know, I'm I'mstill quite mad because when I
created this course back then,it was a very customary thing to
release the course only like asa whole.
Nowadays it's split in like twoor three parts right so like my

(29:16):
course could be selling threetimes.
Like I could release reverseacillium part one, some some
lesser play lines, and then Iwould release part two and part
number three.
But okay, that was the businessmodel and they were taking back
then, and that's what it is.

Daniel (29:33):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
The other question I had foryou regarding your courses is on
the other lifetime repertoirecourse that you did on the con
sicilian, and this is.
I guess I have two questionsthat are very similar for you on
this, but my first one, forthat is what made you choose the
con over any other sicilians tochoose from the story is this

(29:54):
when, when I started to playcompetitive chess, I was an e4,
e5 player and I would play afternight of 396.

Arturs (30:04):
I would play some ral Lopez.
I didn't mind italian game, butI felt I need to play something
else.
And there was one line that wasreally annoying me with the
white perspective and that wasthe con, the Sicilian Polson
yeah, it also goes by anothername, Because I was afraid from
it from the white perspective,and I was crushed a couple of

(30:25):
times by some of the strongestLatvian players, like Edwin
Kengis, like Viestors Meijers,Also Aloysius Kvenis, if I
remember correctly.
He from Lithuania, he used toplay this line.
Also Norman Smiezas, one of theleading Latvian rums Like
literally every single Latvianrums was playing it.
And I thought I want to do it.

(30:45):
You know, I want to give it atry.
So what I started to do?
I started to play the Siciliancon with zero knowledge.
I had some ideas and I justthought, you know, I'm going to
figure it out.
So I started to amass someinformation, together with some
practical experience, and atsome point I realized I'm kind
of an expert in the line, so Iknow so many things without

(31:07):
perhaps some super hardcoretheory.
And that was the moment when Idecided that probably it makes
sense to make a more scientificapproach towards the Sicilian
con.
And that's why I joined forceswith Igor Kovalenko, who is a
good friend of mine.
He was playing for Team Latviafor about 10 years.

(31:28):
He moved back from Ukraine.
He represented Latvia for about10 years.
Then, unfortunately, before thewar in Ukraine, he moved back
right before the war and nowhe's in Ukraine.
But anyway, we decided to jointhe forces and he essentially
was the mastermind, becauseIgor's analytical skills they're
essentially legendary, so hehas a lot of amazing concepts,

(31:51):
and we decided to split ourduties.
He would be the mastermind ofmany theoretical concepts.
I think I essentially wrotelike two chapters myself and I
was mostly editing.
I was the guy who is moderatingthe discussion.
I was writing the texts, I wasdoing the videos and I was
always saying to you pleasedon't be dumb, please don't be
dumb, I mean you're not writingfor super gms, I mean, you're

(32:13):
writing for club level players.
So that's the dilemma.
So you want to write reallygood stuff that is modern, but
at the same time also explain itin a really simple language,
which is not really so easy todo.
And I was very often, you know,I was saying this is too much,
this is too much, cut this off.
Yeah, like you can keepyourself for your own allow

(32:33):
analysis, but we are essentiallyteaching the club level players
here.
But ultimately, the course wasquite well received.

Daniel (32:41):
that's interesting and maybe it's a topic that I want
to bring up a little bit, whichis the lifetime repertoire
format, is the mostcomprehensive they usually have
compared to other openingcourses, the like the highest
quantity number of lines in them.
But as you just said that youwanted the course to be
accessible to club players, I'veoften thought of the Lifetime

(33:01):
Repertoire format as being formore advanced players because
it's so comprehensive.
So would you say that yougenerally take that approach
with your courses, that you'reaiming it for the club level?

Arturs (33:12):
I try to create a course that is available for all
levels.
It's probably quite achallenging thing to do, but I
wouldn't really write the coursefor the 1% of the audience,
which are the IMs and GMs.
Maybe actually it's less than1%, maybe 0.1%, maybe less than

(33:32):
that.
But I want to explain a simpleconcept without giving too many
computerish lines, and I alsowant to give some groundbreaking
new ideas.
Otherwise, if I'm essentiallyrehashing some of the stuff that
is known before, I find no joyto do that Because for me, like
every single course is, I wantto prove something with this

(33:54):
course, so sometimes perhaps itworked better.
Sometimes it did not work asbest as I wanted, but I was
always.
That was always the idea and II know for a fact that my
courses.
I know several grandmasters whotold me they bought my courses,
yeah, because they're likecollectors, collecting every
single course of chess authors.
They, they're building theirown library and they said, yeah,

(34:15):
they're great courses.
But also many club levelplayers they're saying, yeah,
they're fantastic.
So, yeah, I think that lifetimerepertoire can be for all
levels.
It's just, in what kind oflanguage do you explain that
content?

Daniel (34:28):
I see, I see, yeah.
And just going back to the con,specifically one I guess more
personal question for you on itis you know you described the
story of how you began to playit yourself.
Did it ultimately become yourSicilian of choice in your own
personal play?

Arturs (34:45):
You mean the Sicilian con?
Yeah, the con.
Yeah, every single course thatI'm writing, I'm playing myself.
Like I wrote the reverseSicilian lifetime repertoire.
I played that as my mainrepertoire.
I might have forgotten somelines already because I don't
really have so many Englishopening games.
This is not such a popularchoice from the wise perspective

(35:07):
, but I do play it.
The King's Indian Attack nowait, sorry, the Count Sicilian.
That was the second course.
That's my main repertoire.
I I do play it.
I also combine it with somesicilian tamanov, because that's
essentially the same pointstructure, the same ideas, only
slightly there's some slightdifferent nuances.
So also play it.
I also play the kings in anattack, which was my third

(35:29):
course, one of my absolutefavorite ideas to play from the
wise perspective.
And, of course, thescandinavian.
The thing about thescandinavian, which is the next
course I suppose we're going totalk about a bit.
I used to play it before, butnow I've been playing a lot of
games online, so I that that.
That was always my motto.
What I'm writing, I'm playingthat's great.

Daniel (35:51):
I love that.
A broader question regardingsicilians, and as we're talking
about this with club players, isthat a lot of folks want to
play the Sicilian, and I've beenin this position myself, but
can become overwhelmed by allthe different options.
They have.
Different types of Siciliansthey can play, so do you have
any advice on how to choose oneSicilian versus another?

(36:12):
And if you want to sneak in,you know, or throw in a pitch
for the con specifically, that'sfine too.

Arturs (36:22):
Well, sicilian con is considered to be probably the
easiest of the Sicilians tolearn.
That is kind of like thegeneral belief.
To be honest, I'm not reallysure, because maybe it is
slightly neglected compared tosome of the most popular choices
.
Like Sicilian, neidorf alwayshas been the most popular
Sicilian.
It is heavily researched andnowadays all kinds of

(36:45):
anti-Sicilians, with bishop b5already, are being considered
not as sidelines, they'reessentially the main lines,
because white is struggling toprove any advantage in the main
lines.
And also the SicilianSveshnikov.
Yeah, thanks to the WorldChampionship match of Marcos
Costa against Fabio Caruana andsome super tournaments, this is
like super, super popularcombination no-transcript to you

(37:40):
know, become proficient at.

Daniel (37:41):
You did mention that the con was perhaps, maybe at least
a little bit easier to learn.
I was just curious why that?

Arturs (37:47):
That was before.
Oh, okay, that was before.
Nowadays I don't think so.
Like it's equaling, so I don'tthink so.
Like it's equaling, so I don'tthink so.
I wouldn't really say that conis somehow easier to play than
the neither.
Actually, you know, sometimes Iplay the neither, find it
easier, you know sure, sure,yeah.

Daniel (38:03):
So you mentioned your next course, which is on the
scandinavian.
Do you want to talk a littlebit about that and what approach
are you taking to it?
That, might you know, perhapsstand stand out from some other
Scandinavian books or courses.

Arturs (38:14):
Right, I'm definitely super excited about it and once
again, I have partnered withIgor Kovalenko.
He was my co-author with theKhan-Susilin Lifetime Repertory
and Igor is I'm not going toexaggerate he is one of the
world's leading experts, if notthe expert of the Scandinavian

(38:35):
defense.
I mean, you could ask aroundamong just professionals if they
could name some players who areunderstanding the Scandinavian
as the best.
Probably they would name IgorKovalenko.
And Igor Kovalenko you knowhe's a fascinating persona
because I remember, a couple ofyears ago I think, David Smirden
, the Australian grandmaster.
He released the so-calledfighting index, and the fighting

(38:57):
index would measure howcompetitive and how fighting are
the chess professionals.
And there was one guy who wasstanding out as a real fighter
and that was Igor Kovalenko,Because he would never agree to
draws.
He was always very competitive,always pushing to the win.
Andandinavian was one of his petweapons.
So we decided to once againjoin our forces.

(39:20):
While he was he is stillsitting at the front lines of
the war and he had some freetime he said listen, you know, I
could prepare some theoreticalstuff for the scandinavian,
let's do this.
And I was, of course.
I was very, very excited.
So we did it, but this time hewas just a pure mastermind of

(39:40):
the theoretical part.
I added a couple of lines, butit was not like several chapters
of the Khan Cecilia and thistime it was purely him.
This time I also had to makeless edits because he already
knew what we want to achieve andactually I think that this will
be a lifetime repertoire,because what makes it as a
lifetime repertoire?

(40:01):
It makes that there's everysingle critical line included,
even though it's not going tohave the lifetime repertoire
mark the name.
I think I can reveal it.
It's going to be the battletested scandinavian.
In total, the variations areabout 450 if I'm not terribly
mistaken.
So it's a pretty large course,but you're going to find it the

(40:24):
readers who are going to studyit.
It's very easy to learn andigor himself said that he has
studied all the other coursesthat are out there on Chessable.
Because I said you have to dothis, you have to research what
the other guys are writing.
So, he was looking for a lot ofreferences.
He said this is by hands downis going to be the best course.
On the Scandinavian up to date.

(40:45):
What appeals to you about theScandinavian?
Yeah, that it's uncompromising,that you are immediately
putting your opponent out of thecomfort zone.
And that's, by the way, I kindof skipped it, I forgot to
mention it.
Like my other beloved topic,the Dutch defense, you play the
Dutch defense against D4, youropponent is terrified.
He's like oh no, my opponentplays the Dutch.

(41:07):
It's such a provocativecontinuation and I feel that
theandinavian is exactly in thesame category.
It's kind of considered amongchess professors.
Yeah, you know scandinavian,perhaps it's not really that
great, but at the same time itcauses some distress.
Yeah, so you, immediatelyyou're thinking, should I go for
some main continuations and tryto debunk the scandinavian, or

(41:31):
should I try to get a quiet game?
So for the positional players,sometimes the scandinavian is
like a nightmare.
Yeah, because there's no easyway to just to get a small plus.
If you get, for if you go forthe small plus, black
immediately gets a fine game.
so there's essentially like twolines in the scandinavian where
black is tested, where black isreally tested, how to stay

(41:56):
within the balance, and I thinkwe did it.

Daniel (41:59):
That's fantastic, just in terms of type of Scandinavian
, as in queen d8, queen a5,which version is it?

Arturs (42:05):
Queen a5.

Daniel (42:06):
Queen a5.
And yeah, if I can ask.
I mean, I know like the coursehasn't come out yet, so I don't
know how much you can reveal,but just in terms of why you
chose Queen A5 over the otheroptions.

Arturs (42:15):
It's really simple because Igor said so.
I mean, igor has been playingQueen A5 himself and when I was
playing against Igor when he wasstill obviously playing for
Team Latvia we would meet inseveral local tournaments I
always was struggling againsthis Scandinavian.
So I definitely could value thestrength of the move and I did

(42:35):
mention that I was playing theScandinavian at some point
before, before even theinteraction with Igor, and I was
a Queen D6 player.
So I tried it.
I played Queen D6 and A6 ideas,queen D6 and C6 ideas, and then
I thought why am I doing this?
You know I don't want to dothat, I don't want to suffer and
then I thought why am I doingthis?
I don't want to do that, I don'twant to suffer, so let me just
play the Sicilian.
So I played the Sicilian conand now that Igor has played,

(42:58):
now that Igor has created thesefiles and the course,
essentially, is ready next weekI'm scheduled to start recording
.
I've been in the green light.
I've been playing it like crazy.
You know, online.
Every single chance I get thechance to play the Scandinavian,
I play it and I made a veryrecent debut in the Swedish
Elite Series, the Swedish TeamTennis Championships.

(43:20):
I played E5.
My team members raised eyebrowswhat are you doing?
Actually, I got a very nicegame and I drew the game with
black for a team event veryquickly.

Daniel (43:30):
Fantastic, fantastic.
So I'm probably trying to avoidfor myself going down the
rabbit hole of talking about theScandinavian, because actually
it is an opening that fascinatesme, because I've heard it
maligned, I've heard it not begiven the same high esteem of an
opening as some others, but atthe same time, as a player

(43:50):
myself, I struggle to playagainst it and so, outside of I
don't know, at least the gmlevel, maybe, maybe more.
But you know, criticizing aparticular opening is just kind
of silly because I feel like youcan lose to anything and it's
not always decided by theopening anyhow.
So I guess my my point is justthat it's interesting to me to

(44:11):
to go for a lifetime repertoirefor the Scandinavian, just
because, you know, sometimes itdoesn't always have the best
reputation.
But it sounds like this coursemight try to debunk that idea at
least to a degree.

Arturs (44:21):
Yeah, I mean it's definitely.
I mean I'm actually a bitsurprised that Chessable didn't
give us the tag the lifetimerepertoire, because essentially
we are not missing any criticallines, like maybe some sidelines
.
Maybe that's why we don'treally make it.
I don't know what was thereason, but it's gonna be.
I mean, if not the fullrepertoire, then like 99 close

(44:43):
to our full repertoire.
But speaking about who to playit, I wouldn't be afraid to play
it to gm level.
Like I'm playing againstgrandmasters the dutch defense,
I have no issues.
Like I'm playing ininternational chess leagues.
I'm playing againstGraumaster's Dutch defense, I
have no issues.
I'm playing in internationalchess leagues.
I'm playing against 2650 levelguys, okay, whatever.
The Dutch defense.
And it's still cold becausethey're like oh wow, the Dutch
defense, what is that?
Like the recent story I had wasin the Wolchess Olympia.

(45:04):
I played against Serov.
So that was the top boardLatvia, the former Latvian
grandmaster playing against us,and I thought, okay, let's play
the Dutch defense.
That ignited the board.
It was such a fun game.
But about the Scandinavian, Iprobably wouldn't really play it
.
If I'm super competitive, Iwouldn't really play it as my

(45:25):
main continuation.
So I would probably researchsomething solid.
So I think it makes sense thatwhen you're building a
repertoire, you have somethingsolid and you have something
solid.
So I think it makes sense thatwhen you're building a
repertoire, you have somethingsolid and you have something
provocative.
So that's why, for example,from the Blacks' perspective,
I'm not playing only the DutchLeningrad, I'm also playing
Queen's India.
I'm playing all kinds ofYanovsky ideas d5, e6, and a6.

(45:47):
So if my opponent plays e4, Ican play Sicilian con.
I can play sicilian con, I canplay the scandinavian.
I can play e4, e5.
So the scandinavian is like I'mlooking for a fight.
Yeah, I'm looking for a fight,but if I have to be solid it's a
sunday game and I haven't splitand slept properly during the
night I don't think I'm gonnaplay the scandinavian, I'm gonna

(46:07):
play something more solid,maybe the caracan, which has the
same structure sure, sure.

Daniel (46:14):
So yeah, I just want to move now to giving you one
question from one of my twitterfollowers.
Something I do with a lot of myguests, particularly when I
have a title player on the showor especially a gm, is to give
them the chance to ask a coupleof questions that you know
related to chess improvement, toget your advice.
And the one that I picked thatI like the most is from a
follower.

(46:34):
I'm not exactly sure how topronounce his name or username,
but his Twitter name is Saksh,and I also think his question is
less about what rating we'retalking about and just the idea
behind it.
He says I'm 1250 rated,sometimes I play really well
against 1700s and 1800s, butsometimes I play like an 800.
How can I maintain consistencyin my games?

(46:54):
And I think that's really thefascinating part of his question
is the idea of being consistentas a player.
What would you recommend forthat?

Arturs (47:01):
Probably the only cure is keep practicing.
I do not know any other answer.
And this is, by the way, anissue not only for club level
players who are rated about 800or 1000.
This can apply to any, evencompetitive player.
I mean, if you're not competingregularly, if you're not
working yourself regularly,there will be these moments when

(47:25):
you're not performing at yourbest level.
Yeah, so that's why I wouldjust say keep practicing, keep
working very hard.
I mean, chess, unfortunately,is such a game that requires you
a lot of dedication, and whenyou think you want to quit, just
remember the reasons why youstarted to do it.

Daniel (47:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic advice.
So, yeah, I just want to goback now to talking about your
own experiences and what you'reup to right now, Artours.
So yeah, you've had a YouTubechannel for some years now lots
of educational content andcommentary for top games.
Just want to talk about that abit.
How would you describe thechannel and who it's for it?

Arturs (48:03):
is mostly, I think, for advanced chess players.
That was the idea from the verybeginning, because I make these
GM Nations bootcampseducational streams.
I have already decided I'mprobably going to do a total of
100 episodes and then going toship them to a museum or
something.
I think they're pretty uniqueand I don't think there's like

(48:26):
any similar content for any justcontent creators at least I
don't know of that that length,at that scale.
So I'm feeling I'm doingsomething unique, but I'm also
trying to expand a bit and I'mdoing all kinds of interesting
stuff lately.
Like I try to make shortervideos.
That's like a prelude of mybootcamps.

(48:48):
Like I'm explaining a simpleconcept in 10 minutes.
I'm not going to deny I stolethe idea from Gotham Chess and
some other popular contentcreators.
Yeah, because it makes goodviews and I get to explain a
really simple concept in a veryshort time frame.
But the idea is that I want touse it as a teaser of my
bootcamps.
Yeah, so that's why, when Imake this shorter video about

(49:09):
certain concept, I want to say,hey, listen, if you want to
learn more, like about kings inan attack, go, check out the
bootcamp number.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, and they go, and they,they check it out.
So I I'm experimenting with thecontent.
I also decided to pay a tributeto some of the most beautiful
games in the history of chess.
I think this is perhaps a bitneglected, so I created this

(49:32):
virtual chess lower.
At the moment.
I'm struggling to find time tocontinue with the playlist, but
I started the idea and I intendto continue.
And then there's, of course, myown games.
I feel like I have a lot ofcontribute to the community and
I get to explain my thoughtprocess not only in the recent
games that I have played.

(49:52):
I get to explain my thoughtprocess not only in the recent
games that I have played, butalso historically, some worthy
games that I will remember formy entire life, like the games
that define me as a player.
And again, the audience reallyappreciates it.
But I try to expand a bit theaudience, broaden it so that
it's not only for thecompetitive players, because

(50:12):
otherwise that's like what 0.1percent of the top of chess
players and I try to.
I try to make stuff more,except more accessible for more
players.
But I have decided I will nevergo down the route like explain
basic things like checkmate intwo.
This is how called the FeastMoves.
We already have a lot ofamazing content creators who are

(50:35):
doing fantastic work.
So I'll probably stay where Iam, but I'll just try to broaden
a bit my audience and if I'llmake it eventually to 100,000
followers on my YouTube channel.
I'll be very excited.

Daniel (50:48):
Yeah, well, that's a great variety of content that
you create for your YouTubechannel.
I'm curious about the classicgames that you said that you
review and discuss.
I love that idea.
I don't think there's enough ofthat.
Maybe there is, maybe I justhaven't come across it as much,
but I feel like that's somethingthat's definitely worthwhile

(51:08):
and that I feel like more chessplayers should look into.
Worthwhile that I feel likemore chess players should look
into.
What's been the interest levelin that.
Can it compete with other typesof chess content that you
create?
I'm hoping the answer is yes,because I'd like to hear that
people are interested in theclassics, but curious to know
your answer on that.

Arturs (51:23):
Do you want to hear the truth?
Yeah, sure the truth Ah they'renot really that interested to
be honest, that's too bad.
Yeah, yeah, I mean they, they'remostly interested in drama,
like it's not a big surprise,everybody loves good drama and
there's so much drama happeningin the chess world.
But, on a serious note, themost popular videos on my

(51:43):
youtube channel they are theboot camps, the.
The most popular ones are onthe catalan, are on the sicilian
, so the dutch defense, sosicilian tamanov.
I did them like three, fouryears ago.
They're still very, very wellreceived.
So, yeah, those are the mostpopular ones.
And, of course, also these shortvideos, like 10-minute videos

(52:03):
explaining some concepts.
They have good reception aswell, but I don't want to spam
my channel with a lot of videosfor cheap clicks.
So I want to make good content,and lot of videos for cheap
clicks, yeah.
So, yeah, I, I want to makegood content and if I'm making
these short videos, I want tocontribute something.
Okay, I want the views, ofcourse, but I what?
I want to give something and Iwant, like, somehow they make an

(52:27):
addition to what I already have.
Yeah, so it's a.
It's a very interesting process.
So, eventually, I'm stillresearching the things that I
can do, that I could do, and Iwant to somehow stand out from
other channels.
And it's not like, oh, it'sjust another of those guys you
know who is doing this stuff.
So I want to be somehow a bitspecial on the things that I do.

Daniel (52:50):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that and I appreciate that you
don't want to just do contentjust for clicks or just pure
drama all the time, you knowthat sort of thing.

Arturs (52:58):
I have done some videos on the drama.
I mean I can do that I have.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Daniel (53:03):
Not only that, at least, which is good.
So kind of furthering ourdiscussion on what's on your
YouTube channel because I knowit overlaps is your new podcast,
which is called Casual GMPodcast, which also appears on
your YouTube channel and you arethe co-host, or you know you're
co-hosting it with a fellow GM.
What spurred the idea for theshow?

Arturs (53:24):
I mean, it's very funny actually how it started, because
me and Wojciech WojciechMaranda, who is a Polish
drummaster of about the samestrength he comes from Poland
and we are teammates in thesecond Bundesliga in Berlin, so
we had this one weekend there'sa larger story, so I'm not going

(53:46):
to tell it, maybe not for today.
We had to travel to Wolhagen.
You probably never heard of it,daniel.
Yeah, like what?

Daniel (53:54):
is Wolhagen.

Arturs (53:55):
It's a small village in the middle of Germany, in the
middle of nowhere, and you can'teasily fly there.
So what we did?
We arrived on Friday in Berlin,we rented the van and we took a
five-hour drive from Berlin toWolhagen because we had to play
some critical matches to qualifyfor the highest division of the
Bundesliga.

(54:16):
And next to me is sittingWojtek and he starts to talk and
he's talking.
He's talking about hisexperience as an attorney, his
experience in stock market,where should you invest?
What's a good portfolio?
Then he's talking about hisexperiences as a chess coach,
and he good portfolio.
Then he's talking about hisexperiences as a chess coach and
he's talking about life.

(54:36):
He's talking about kids, andhe's talking nonstop.
And we're talking and talking.
I'm thinking, wow, you know,maybe, and he's a fun guy to
talk with.
I thought, wow, you know, maybewe should partner up, maybe we
should make a podcast.
It's just for fun.
And he immediately picked it up.
He's like, yeah, cool, yeah,let's do this.
And I was thinking of the titleand, uh, we figured out that,

(54:59):
since we're like casual gms,we're not super gms okay, maybe
for somebody, somebody would saylike 26, 30, it's not casual gm
.
It's like it's a good gminteresting I thought, like I
was thinking like the, what wasthe?
For some reason I was thinkingof the reference of the other
guys.
Yeah, like, have you seen this,the movie, this ridiculous
Hollywood movie?

Daniel (55:18):
Yeah, yeah.
The other guys Aim for thebushes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Arturs (55:24):
So I was thinking okay, but there we go.
So now we are going to name ourpodcast the Casual Guys, and
mainly it was just a chillatmosphere.
We just want to talk about somethings.
We want to talk perhaps notnecessarily drama related what
is happening at chess world,even though we covered also
those topics but we just thoughtit's interesting to share our

(55:44):
experiences, some chess stuffalso this chess part we had in
our first episodes, like solvinga puzzle from void sex courses.
So we did that and I like theformat.
Unfortunately, the views arelike pretty average compared to
some of the content I've beendoing before.
But again, this is somethingwhere I feel I can stand out a
bit and I enjoy doing it and Iintend to continue.

Daniel (56:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's only just begun sohopefully you know more views
are coming along the way.
It's funny what you mentionedthe title.
First of all, on the title, Ilove the title Casual GM Podcast
but what I didn't know was thatyou were referring in part to I
don't want to be critical likethat.
Casual GM is really funny.
But that didn't even cross mymind.
I thought it just meant thatcasual context only.

Arturs (56:39):
but that's really funny.
No, no, like casual GMs, yeah,casual GMs, yeah, we thought
it's funny, that's great.

Daniel (56:44):
So what do you envision for the podcast in terms of like
topics that you'll discussgoing forward, how often you
want to create episodes?

Arturs (56:53):
Yeah, we probably will try to make new episodes every
two weeks, maybe every threeweeks or perhaps sometimes even
once a month, as long as there'ssomething interesting to talk
about and I think it makes sense.
Every single topic we talk aboutwhat is actually the chess
world and, thanks to our amazingcontent creators and
personalities like Hans Niemann,like Gotham Chess, like Magnus

(57:17):
Carlsen and his genes, we alwayshave something to talk about,
right?
So we're having a little laughabout things how does it look
from our non-SuperGM perspective?
And we try to make it fun.
So, yeah, but I don't thinkthat, again, we are mostly going
to be focusing on drama.
I could easily imagine doingsome episodes where we could be

(57:38):
doing some chess-related stuff.
So we are discussing, forexample, Wojtek.
He's like smirking.
What is Dutch defense?
You know you haven't includedlines in your course I know
they're really critical, so wecould be discussing the fate of
certain openings.
We could discuss how does itfeel from his perspective, my
perspective share some ideas andmaybe this is also something

(57:59):
that the audience could find itexciting how two casual gms
they're discussing sometheoretical trends and maybe
they're gonna find something outof this to be interesting yeah,
yeah.

Daniel (58:10):
Well, I'm definitely looking forward to the show
archers.
I'm excited about it.
I think it's a great format and, yeah, I like what I've seen so
far.
You guys are fantastic.
So, uh, I'm wishing you a lotof success on the on the podcast
there.
Yeah, so yeah, just basically.
The last topic I want to talkabout our tours is your
commentating that you've donefor top level events.
Can you talk a bit about that?
Who do you commentate for thesedays?

Arturs (58:33):
yeah, the commentary has been a very big passion for me
and I was very surprised aboutit because I did essentially my
very first high level commentaryfor fide grand prix back in
2019, together with evgenymiroshnichenko, when the grand
prix was organized in riga Ithink it was was 2019, maybe 17.

(58:53):
No, I think it was 19.
And then I joined the ChesscomStreamer Partnership.
I got accidentally to do acouple of commentary jobs and
that was like wow, I love thisstuff.
You know I love to do thecommentary.
So I've been trying to do asmany commentaries as I can and I

(59:14):
hope that they're going to giveme more opportunities.
Like one of my major commentaryjobs in the past years has been
doing the BeoChess Festival.
I've been doing the commentaryfor them for four years, I think
, also a couple of years forRiga Techno University Open and
I'm very, very excited and verygrateful for any opportunity

(59:35):
that Chesscom provides.
But then again, at the sametime, chesscom has such an
amazing cast of commentators,like I'm a huge fan of Danja
Nardeski and Robert Kessler anamazing duo.
Then we have David Howell, joviChowska, then we have Petr Lako
, the Encyclopedia of Chess.
Then we have Jan Gustafssonalso we haven't seen for some

(59:56):
time Petr Svidler, tanja Sachtevlike it's such a wonderful cast
and for me it's like everysingle time when I get an
opportunity to do a commentarywith them, I'm so enjoying it.
Like I still remember theexperience when I got to sub I
think it was Robert Hess, he hadsome health issues for last
year's Fittigran Swiss and I gotto work together with Petr Leko

(01:00:19):
I mean, Petr Leko, he was sucha gentleman off the screen.
We also talked some stuff, soit was such an experience.
I just look for every singleopportunity I can get to do some
commentary.

Daniel (01:00:29):
I'll take it.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Those are great opportunities,and I hope you do get to do a
lot more coming ahead.
So, arturis, I've reallyenjoyed our conversation.
That's like the main part ofour interview.
What I always finish with,though, with all my guests, is a
segment at the end, for a fewminutes, just a series of fun
questions that are a bit shorter, a bit faster, just for fun,

(01:00:51):
and so the first question inthat segment is knights or
bishops, bishops, what's yourfavorite time control?

Arturs (01:01:00):
Absolutely rapid 15 plus 10.
Nice.

Daniel (01:01:06):
What's your favorite opening to play as white the
reti and what's your favoriteopening to play as black?

Arturs (01:01:12):
Dutch defense all the way Nice.

Daniel (01:01:17):
In one word, how would you describe your playing style?
Pragmatic.
What's one book you wish morechess players would read?

Arturs (01:01:23):
Alexander Alekhine's Life Story by Alexander Kotov.
I'm not sure, really, if it ispublished in English language.
I have in Latvian.
I think it was originallytranslated from the Russian
language because Alexander Kotovwas a Soviet grammar student.
He has written this amazingstory, insights, a novella about
a Lechian story.

(01:01:45):
He has matches against JoseRaul Capablanca and eventually
the tragic death.

Daniel (01:01:51):
Fantastic recommendation who is your favorite player of
all time?

Arturs (01:01:56):
I don't have it at the moment.
I used to have Garry Kasparovwhen I was a kid.
Obviously he was the GOAT,Obviously the greatest of all
time.
Currently I wouldn't reallyname it, but if I would have to
choose, probably I would chooseMikhail Tal, the magician from
Riga, Nice.

Daniel (01:02:13):
If you could play any great player of the past who is
no longer alive, who would it be?
Definitely, Tal.

Arturs (01:02:22):
There's one thing I would love to do I would love to
travel back in time.
I would love to meet him, andI'm pretty sure we'll be great
friends.
Unfortunately it's impossible,but he was such an amazing
persona, not only a great player, but also a very, very funny
guy, so I would love to meet him.

Daniel (01:02:39):
Fantastic answer.
If you could play any of thetop players in the world right
now, who would it be?
Mark Duskalsson.
And if you had to choose acareer other than chess, what
would it be?

Arturs (01:02:52):
Yeah, it's really tough to imagine, but maybe politics.

Daniel (01:02:56):
I don't know I'd be thinking about it.

Arturs (01:02:58):
I would maybe try to do something to make a difference.
That's great.

Daniel (01:03:04):
Final question If a chess genie existed and could
grant you any one chess wish,what would you wish for?

Arturs (01:03:11):
Oh, this is actually easy.
This would be the final roundof the World Chess Olympiad.
Team Latvia is playing TeamNorway.
It's the tied score.
I'm playing Magnus Carlsen, topboard.
I'm playing the black.
I'm winning him with a DutchLeningrad.
That's it.
I win the game.
That's it.
I can quit career.
I can write books about it.

Daniel (01:03:32):
I win the game.
That's it.
I can quit career, I can writebooks about it.
That is a dream for sure.

Arturs (01:03:36):
How do we get the medal or something?
Yeah, that's a total dream.
Yeah, that's it, that's it.
I am out of here after that.

Daniel (01:03:41):
That's fantastic.
I love it.
That's one of my favoriteanswers that I've heard.
That's a great one.
Well done so much in your chesscareer.
I feel like I'm just covering alittle bit of the tip of the
iceberg of all these differentthings that you've done, from
coaching to courses to competing.
But it was great to hear yourthoughts on all those things and

(01:04:04):
those aspects of your life andcareer.
And, yeah, I wish you successin all of your chess endeavors
right now and I just want to saythank you for being on the show
.

Arturs (01:04:12):
Yeah, thank you, dan, it was absolutely a blast.
I enjoyed it, yeah, so thankyou for having me my pleasure.

Daniel (01:04:22):
Thanks for listening.
This has been a production ofmy business, adult Chess Academy
, and that has a website withthe same name.
If you want to look for it, youcan also find me being way too
active on Twitter by searchingmy username, lona underscore
chess See you next week.

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