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The Chess Experience
The Chess Experience
GM Arturs Neiksans: From Late-Blooming GM Who Reached 2600+ to a Premier Coach & Course Creator
121 Latvian GM Arturs Neiksans earned his Grandmaster title relatively late. At age 28. But that didn’t stop him from becoming a force in the chess world.Not only did he climb to an impressive 2631 FIDE rating…
But even outside of competition, Arturs developed a dynamic career as a coach to top youths, a premier Chessable course creator, and a YouTuber with awesome chess content.
In our interview, we discuss:
- How he helped promising young talent become GMs while working as head coach at the historic Riga Chess School.
- His approach to making even his most robust opening courses accessible to club players.
- Why he likes to play provocative openings like the Dutch and Scandinavian to take opponents out of their comfort zone.
- Building a YouTube channel with popular bootcamps and reviews of classic games.
- Does a club player need to worry about which Silician makes the most sense to play at their level?
More From Arturs:
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Hey, welcome to the chess experience On this show. It's all about helping adult improvers. I want to make learning chess easier for you to navigate, and I also want you to have a more fun experience along the way. I'm your host, daniel Lona, a fellow chess amateur. Let's get to it. This show is sponsored by chesscom, the world's largest chess amateur. Let's also a great way to have a lesson between a student and a coach, and you can check that out on chesscom slash classroom. Welcome to this week's episode.
Daniel:Our guest today is Latvian grandmaster Artur Niksans. Not only has Arturs achieved a very high level of play in chess, with a peak rating of 2631, but even outside of competition, he's run the gamut in his chess career by publishing chessable courses, coaching top youth players and running a popular chess YouTube channel. Competitively, arturs became the youngest Latvian chess champion in history at the age of 16, even beating Mikhail Tal's record Plus. Arturs went on to win the Latvian chess championship three more times, most recently in 2019. In just a moment, I'm going to give you some highlights of what we talk about in our conversation, but I just want to make one brief side note here, which is that Arturs, at this time, is not publicly discussing his coaching with Levi Rosman. They're keeping that under wraps for right now. I just wanted to let you know that so you didn't think I missed the opportunity to ask about that subject for you. It's just a subject I agree to not discuss for this interview upon his request.
Daniel:Nonetheless, it is a great conversation that we have and in it we discuss how Artur's achieved the GM title in his late twenties, which is fairly late to do so, but very impressive His experience coaching promising young players in Latvia and helping them earn the GM title during his time as head coach of the Riga chess school. We also get into the subject of openings, where we talk about why he likes the con Sicilian and whether there's any value in choosing one Sicilian over another for a club player. We discuss why the Scandinavian an opening he will soon publish a course on has great value despite its sometimes maligned reputation, and Artur's gives one of my favorite answers to the question of his number one chess wish at the end of our conversation. In the show notes to this episode, I have links for all of Artur's content, whether it's his YouTube channel, chessable courses, social media. I definitely recommend you checking that out. He is a superb instructor in his courses and fantastic at creating chess content on his YouTube channel.
Daniel:Here's my interview with Arturs. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, arturs, it's great to have you on the podcast. How are you doing today?
Arturs: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:Yeah, yeah, you are officially a podcaster yourself now, so, yeah, it's great to be here. Yeah, yeah, you are officially a podcaster yourself now, so you've joined that world, and we will definitely talk a little bit about that later in our conversation. Artur, you know, what I like to do when I chat with a guest is I like to see what's different or unique that we can talk about about that particular guest. And one thing that stood out to me about what you do right now is that you still compete professionally. It seems rare for GMs to compete professionally once their career has moved into the stage of coaching and books and courses and things like that, but you're still active that way. So, yeah, can you talk a little bit about that and what motivates you to compete?
Arturs:Right, that's a great question. So when I became a chess professional, that was, I think, around the time when I started working in a chess school. I suppose we're going to talk about it a bit separately. I think it was 2011,. I'm already quite hazy on the numbers. I think it was 2011.
Arturs:I essentially became a chess professional because I was working on chess full-time with some students of high level and I was also working myself, and at that moment it was only logical that I was seeking the chances to play myself competitively. Now this is when I grew myself and I was maybe 24-70, 24-80 Elo rated at the time and I grew to 26-30 because I had to work on chess basically every day and I was playing in occasional tournaments. But back then it was pretty tough to find a spot in international chess leagues. I remember this still very clearly, daniel. Those years ago I was looking for teams in international chess leagues and it was so hard to get. I mean, literally every single league already had established players, no free spots, and it took me essentially years to establish places in international chess clubs. But then, of course, things changed and I think that was probably around COVID. Yeah, I think COVID probably facilitated the change. For many chess professionals, that was 2020, 2021. And that's also the time when I started to write more courses.
Arturs:But my priorities were shifting at a time, so I stopped playing as much as I was playing before, and during my most active years I was playing about 100 classical games per year, which, by the way, to some chess professionals is not really such a great number. To me it was like huge. And then I essentially decided to stop playing in open tournaments, but I left playing in international chess leagues. But again, the purpose of playing, the reason why I'm playing in international chess leagues, but again, the purpose of playing, the reason why I'm playing in international chess leagues it changed Because initially obviously there was the monetary, the financial issue why I'm playing there. Because it's not really a secret, just professionals play in international chess leagues. They get some finances for playing certain amount of games and this is like solid financial income. But after some years, obviously, when I started to coach I mean, I was still working, of course, as a coach, but I started to write chessable courses, I started to do commentary, I started to run YouTube channel, I started to stream, so there were like all kinds of other revenues incoming For me playing competitively became like a secondary thing. So I still left it.
Arturs:I still left playing in the international chess leagues because I would like to stay sharp and I enjoy playing it. I really enjoy and I think that right now I have reached the perfect balance. Like I play a year, I don't know maybe 30 games, maybe sometimes 40, if there's a league tournament, like round-robin tournament, like last year I was playing in French Team Church Championships 10 games in total, yeah, then it's a bit more, but I like the pace. You know it's on Fridays I'm departing, let's say, to Stockholm, or usually actually it's Thursdays. Then I'm playing three games Friday, saturday, sunday. On Sunday evening I'm going home. So for me it's like the perfect change of the environment because I'm working in my home office essentially nonstop from the morning to the evening and I need some socializing. That's why also this role has changed for me. So I'm still competing, I like to stay sharp, but also I use the opportunity to play international chess leagues as a socializing thing.
Daniel:Yeah, those are great reasons. One thing that stood out to me is that you said that a key reason that you do these leagues still is that it helps you stay sharp. Do you mean by that just for your own personal satisfaction and holding on to all the skills that you've spent decades developing? Or do you mean you know staying sharp in terms of thinking of chess, ideas for courses, books, or you know coaching, rather, and things like that?
Arturs:I think it's everything. So obviously so that I want to remain competitive, because if I would stop playing after like a couple of years probably my actual skill would degrade. So I would like to stay close to 2600. But when I'm playing in chess leagues mostly then by playing a game I accomplish a couple of things, I get extra ideas. For example, I'm writing a chessable course, I'm playing in the National Chess League, I'm playing the Scandinavian right. So I want to figure it out. How does it feel over the board?
Arturs:Because there's one thing when you're writing an author and perhaps that's the line, you haven't really played it and then you go for a chess league match and you just want to play this thing, and actually there's a very real story. Like I make these educational streams I call them g GM Nations Bootcamp right and I do all kinds of opening related stuff, like one of the last bootcamps I did was the Italian game. So I traveled just recently to the Swedish league and I'm very curious, you know, I'm very curious to try out those lines that I, you know I talked about in the bootcamp. I'm very curious because that's the thing I told my audience and I want to see how it actually feels, you know. So sometimes, when I'm working on some ideas that I'm presenting to my audience, I'm also curious to test them.
Arturs:And there's the next part, since I'm also moving to the part where I'm eventually going to be a full-time content creator Not yet, not yet. I mean, I was thinking I'm theretime content creator, not yet, not yet. I mean I was thinking I'm there, but no, not yet. Then, essentially, every single game I'm playing, it's, it's a story, and that's a story I would 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 an interesting, exciting game, so that I can come back home make, make a video about it and make an interesting story. And apparently my audience loves that.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, that's another great reason to do it for sure, Artur, another aspect of your chess career that I'd like to talk about is your coaching, because you've done some impressive stuff with that. For those who don't know, from 2010 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 bio that mentions it. It refers to the Riga Chess School as being historic. I think you know maybe a lot of my listeners aren't familiar with why that would be the case. Can you describe the historic nature of the Riga Chess School?
Arturs:Yeah, it's historic because it has a rich tradition. It was founded, I think, in 1972. So a couple of years ago the school celebrated the 50-year anniversary and in the establishment we're training some of the best players in Latvia, some of the future grandmasters. And I think what really makes Riga Chess School special is that there is no such institution even remotely close in the Baltic states, and probably I could expand it to the Scandinavian and maybe part of the European region, because essentially what Riga Chess School is, it is Riga municipality-funded educational institution that has a total of 500 students I mean not really in one building, because in one building, probably at the same time you're going to see, perhaps it's approximately like 70 students perhaps, but many coaches work in the secondary schools of Riga, in all the suburbs. So it's a really, really unique thing and that's what makes it special because, like I already said, it has a rich history. Many drummers have worked there before. I worked there for 11 years and I think it's something we have to preserve.
Daniel:Yeah, I imagine it's not open to just any chess player. Is there specific standards for being a part of it as a student?
Arturs:yeah, so they accept kids starting age seven, I think maybe even age eight, I'm not exactly sure. So the standard practice is that the kid starts to go to school at age seven and parents they send them to the rigid Chess School. So there's some first lessons and, yeah, then the kids eventually they want to figure out do they want to continue or not. But standard, finishing the Rigid Chess School after how many years is it? I think it's approximately 7 years of education. They're supposed to get the so called first degree in chess. So I'm not sure if it is in American Chess, how does it really classify? But the first degree in chess, that's like one step before the candidate master. So when you finish the rigor chess school you're supposed to get this first degree. I see, I see.
Daniel:And one of the more interesting things also that I read about your experience there is that you helped the most promising youths become grandmasters. That's fascinating to me, that you're developing these talented youths, who probably start off at a pretty good level, but then taking them all the way to GM. Can you describe that?
Arturs:experience. Yeah, it was absolutely fascinating. I still sometimes cannot believe how it turned out, because that was the year I mean, it probably starts around 2008, 2009, when the world was hit by the huge economic crisis. I was having a very good job not just related by the way I was working in a newspaper as a journalist. I was fired for reasons I'm not going to really discuss here, sure, and the crisis was approaching and I felt I needed a change. So what we did is we gathered five friends of us, we made a Euro trip across Europe. We traveled in a car from Riga to Portugal and back about 5,000. I think it was 5,000 kilometers in total.
Arturs:We played chess for two months and during this time, something changed. I realized I would like to give chess another shot. So when I came back, I was offered, quite unexpectedly, a chance to become the head coach in riga chess. It was like a fate really, because I was like at the crossroads at the time and I wasn't really sure which direction to take and unfortunately, at that moment, my previous coach, janis Klovansk, who is a true Latvian chess legend he had passed away and Riga Chess School was looking for a substitute and I was it, and I was essentially offered to coach some of the best students that Janis had and they were promising. I think they were F feeding masters at the time. If I'm not terribly mistaken, they are Nikita Meshkov and Tom Kantans, who now, of course, they are groundmasters.
Arturs:And what made it really special is that I was able to work with them nonstop. Like they were coming to training sessions, essentially sometimes five times a week. So it was really special and we would work. We would sometimes essentially sometimes 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'd just blitz. I'm not going to really deny there were days then we would go to the basement and play table tennis. We'd play table tennis like three hours nonstop. That was our physical training, but that was a fascinating time and we established a very, very strong bond and, yeah, and eventually they became not only gramsters but my teammates in the national team.
Daniel:That's incredible, that's fantastic, and I mean, even though you are not at Riga right now, you are still coaching regularly, so can you talk a little bit about that? Who are you coaching these days? Is it still youths or you know what? What levels do you typically coach?
Arturs:yeah, there's. I have several students and rating range is probably from a club level player to the im. I have some very promising students, so I'm very excited to see how they're going to grow. And mostly it is individual lessons, so usually done online, so we'll see how it's going to go.
Daniel:Yeah, do you find that that experience also helps you come up with ideas for courses or just things like that that make the content also that you create on your YouTube channel, for example, things like that? Do you find that that your coaching experience helps, gives you ideas for that?
Arturs:yeah, maybe I'm not really sure. I I think it's a bit separate. Yeah, so when I'm, when I'm coaching, 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 the best because I know those feelings inside out and I was able to play a pretty decent level and then when I need to explain a certain concept, I just pull up the games that I have played. I very quickly could recall where I have played. I have some databases already prepared, so we are doing that. But essentially, work with every single student is different. But of course, I'm also sharing the information. I'm working on my courses. I I'm sharing my students as well. So literally every single student I've given every single course that I have created and I hope they enjoy it.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, I want to talk a little bit about your competitive career, focusing in on what stands out to me about it is that you earned the GM title relatively later in life, at age 28, in part because you took some time off from competing professionally after high school and into your 20s. So what led you to get back into professional competition?
Arturs:Yeah, that was essentially again this world crisis that I mentioned, because I had pretty much decided before that I won't become a chess professional and it probably makes sense to go back to the age 16, 17, 18, when I was a pretty promising kid. For that time I was rated about 2400. I was 16, 17, so clearly on my way to become a gramaster. But I had a pretty bad influence, if I may say so, because I was looking at some of the local grumpsters and they were always grumpy, always nervous, and when I had a chance sometimes to beat them they wouldn't really enjoy it and overall they didn't really give me the impression that that's the something I want to become. You know, it's very interesting.
Daniel:Interesting.
Arturs:Somehow they made this impression that that's not something I want to do and at the moment I had a very strong belief that I should pursue a career and that's what I was trying to do. So I got my MBA degree. I was trying to work in the field of journalism and public relations, but eventually I realized it's just a job. You know, I'm not really enjoying it and while I was working so at the times it was really 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 50 kilometers. So I would wake up in Yalgava at 6 am on every weekday. I would take a train at 7 am to Riga. I would arrive in Riga at 8. I go to my job. I was working at a time at the Ministry of Education and Science. I would leave the job at 5 pm. They don't have master's degree studies in university, so that's until eight or so. I get on a train, I get back at home at nine and that was nonstop. So 6 am and 9 pm, five times a day. And then also on Saturdays I would be traveling for extra work. So six times a day and there was, naturally, no time for chess at all. I was nonstop, nonstop, driving, working, driving, working Unbelievable. It was such a crazy routine and there were moments when I tried to change something Like.
Arturs:There was this one case when I was working full-time in Yelgava, I was working as a journalist in this local newspaper and I decided you know, I'm going to play in a GM Norm tournament in Riga. That was the year, I don't remember, 2007-2008. I remember that Maxim Matlakov won his first GM Norm in Riga. So I decided I'm going to go there and play in a GM Norm tournament. So I was working full-time during the day and I would take a train. So I was working full-time during the day and I would take a train. I would travel into Riga After one hour. I would play like 5 pm or 6 pm, I don't remember. I would play a full game and I would 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 it a try. I wanted to give a shot Can I get the GM norm? And all of my first attempts were a complete disaster.
Arturs:That's how it turned out. And yeah, eventually, when I got my very first GM norm at some point later, then I started to believe I could make it.
Daniel:Yeah Well, so you said that you were working from 6 am to 9 pm, so where did you find the time to study at all or prepare?
Arturs:No, it was not like working. That was my daily schedule. I'd wake up at 6 am, I get to work at 8 am, I then work at 5 pm. I get home at 9 pm, so it was crazy Time to study chess. No, I didn't have any. I had a terrible form.
Arturs:From time to time I would play in some local tournaments. I would play in some Latvian championships from time to time. That was it. Basically, there were two tournaments for me a year. That was the Latvian championships. I think I got a bronze medal, perhaps with some GMs participating and I was pretty proud of it, and maybe Lepaia Rokade. That was a very nice rapid tournament in one of the most beautiful cities in in in latvia. It's a coastal city, the western part of the country. So that was it. And yeah, I would sometimes go there. I would play terribly and I would leave and I, like I already said, I had pretty much decided I'm not going to become a chess professional. So that's why when I was like age 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 a drumster. But apparently I never say no.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah. So did you eventually start to figure out a way to find some time? Or was it just the regularly competing once you decided to compete again that allowed you to get back into form?
Arturs:It was just the coaching, because when I was starting to coach Nikita Toms and also Artur Bernatos.
Arturs:They were some of my promising students. Then I had to research, because I 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 study some in-game so that I can show it to them. And that's the best part, it's like I'm teaching them and finally I understand it myself. That's what probably some professors do, right, and I think that also the director of Reggae Chess School was very forthcoming, that she was allowing me from time to time to play in local not in local, but in some international tournaments. I could travel together with my students, we would play together, I would coach and I would play, and that's essentially that was the atmosphere. I was nonstop in a competitive chess environment and it dramatically changed how I played. Could I have accomplished it if I was working full time? Another job? No, absolutely not.
Daniel:I see, I see Fascinating. That's really interesting, that that experience is what allowed you to develop as a player to become a GM. I wouldn't have thought that that would be enough, but that's really interesting, although I think it also speaks to your talent and skill that you could use that to ultimately earn the GM title. So that's very impressive. So another's very impressive. So another aspect of your career and there are many to talk about, which is why we're kind of bouncing around here, arturs is that you have published four opening courses with Chessable at this point, at the time of this recording.
Daniel:I know there's another one on the way and we'll get to that, but I'd like to discuss those for a little bit. The first one that I want to talk about is that your lifetime repertoire for the reversed Sicilian, which, just for anyone who doesn't know, is a Black response to the English opening, and most of the audience that is listening is at the club level and I know a lot of those folks struggle with how to respond to the English. In fact, many don't have any prep for that at all. How to respond to the English. In fact, many don't have any prep for that at all. So what's the case or argument for the reverse Sicilian, specifically as a response to the English.
Arturs:Right why you should play it? Because I think that that's the most 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 most ambitious 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 play knight f3, I play some English opening with c4. And with c4, it was always the e5 move that was annoying me and I decided that it probably makes sense to write the course. I already don't remember the exact reasons why. It was specifically the english opening. We were negotiating with chasuble. I was very much interested to give it a try. I actually even remember how I wrote to them. I wrote to them through the contact form. There was a contact form where you could ask some questions to Chasuble. I didn't have any email and I just wrote there. I'm Latvian Grammarster, I'm sitting here in the COVID pandemic, essentially, and I want to do something. I want to write a course. So this is how we started to do it.
Arturs:It was a very tough. It was a very tough course because I essentially input all my soul in the course. I wrote it I'm not exaggerating for half a year and sometimes I was working on the theoretical and the texts for eight hours a day. And then I decided to be a professional. The recording time came to record the videos for Reverse Sicilian and I decided to dress in a full suit. While it was, I believe, it was June outside, so outside it was plus 30 degrees and I was sitting in my apartment dressed with a full suit and I was sweating. I almost died when I had to record. I had to record like 50 hours of video, so you can imagine the torture, the smell for three weeks, yeah, and I had a conditioner the air conditioner blowing some air towards me and I was in touch with Adjustables audio engineer and they were testing the sound limit. Is it possible to hear the fan so that it's blowing the wind to the mic? It was really hilarious, but somehow we did it.
Daniel:Was that the first and last time that you recorded in a suit for a course?
Arturs:Absolutely I mean the second course, I think I recorded in a jacket, but I already didn't have a suit. Yeah. So I was like I mean, actually you can check the videos of the first course, but I already didn't have a suit. Yeah, so I was like I mean, actually you can check the videos of the first course, and I'm quite sweaty because I was feeling pretty terrible.
Daniel:Well speaking, you know use the word ambitious to describe the opening itself that you're teaching in that lifetime repertoire. Well, one thing that's interesting to me is that you said you were looking for something to do during the pandemic you know to to be productive. Talking with Chess about this, I mean there are many courses, many opening courses on chessable that aren't lifetime repertoires and for those who don't know, the lifetime repertoire format is the most ambitious that you can do for an opening course. So what made you want to decide to go sort of all in on on that and do the most robust version possible for that opening?
Arturs:that's a great question because Because when I approached Chessable initially, I think I offered Wren to write some anti-Sicilian stuff because I was feeling quite strong on the topic. Prior to the collaboration with Chessable I had written three courses for modern chess like E4, c5, knight to 3, d6, and Knight, c6, and E6, all kinds of faunty Sicilians and I asked them can I do these? You know, maybe expand a bit? And they said no. I think they said something that Wesley so wants to write a course on this around the time. So we kind of have qualified people to do that and somehow we landed with c4, e5. And they gave me an advice. They said that since these are essentially the first steps on Chassable, you should do something really serious.
Arturs:So you should do something that sets the tone for the next works that you're going to do, and I just said, okay, let's do the lifetime repertoires and yeah. So overall I think it was more than 1000 variations, 50 hours of video, six hours of month, and that was, up to date, probably the largest course. Actually, you know, I'm I'm still quite mad because when I created this course back then, it was a very customary thing to release the course only like as a whole. Nowadays it's split in like two or three parts right so like my course could be selling three times.
Arturs:Like I could release reverse acillium part one, some some lesser play lines, and then I would release part two and part number three. But okay, that was the business model and they were taking back then, and that's what it is.
Daniel:Yeah yeah, yeah. The other question I had for you regarding your courses is on the other lifetime repertoire course that you did on the con sicilian, and this is. I guess I have two questions that are very similar for you on this, but my first one, for that is what made you choose the con over any other sicilians to choose from the story is this when, when I started to play competitive chess, I was an e4, e5 player and I would play after night of 396.
Arturs:I would play some ral Lopez. I didn't mind italian game, but I felt I need to play something else. And there was one line that was really annoying me with the white perspective and that was the con, the Sicilian Polson yeah, it also goes by another name, Because I was afraid from it from the white perspective, and I was crushed a couple of times by some of the strongest Latvian players, like Edwin Kengis, like Viestors Meijers, Also Aloysius Kvenis, if I remember correctly. He from Lithuania, he used to play this line. Also Norman Smiezas, one of the leading Latvian rums Like literally every single Latvian rums was playing it.
Arturs:And I thought I want to do it. You know, I want to give it a try. So what I started to do? I started to play the Sicilian con with zero knowledge. I had some ideas and I just thought, you know, I'm going to figure it out. So I started to amass some information, together with some practical experience, and at some point I realized I'm kind of an expert in the line, so I know so many things without perhaps some super hardcore theory. And that was the moment when I decided that probably it makes sense to make a more scientific approach towards the Sicilian con.
Arturs:And that's why I joined forces with Igor Kovalenko, who is a good friend of mine. He was playing for Team Latvia for about 10 years. He moved back from Ukraine. He represented Latvia for about 10 years. Then, unfortunately, before the war in Ukraine, he moved back right before the war and now he's in Ukraine. But anyway, we decided to join the forces and he essentially was the mastermind, because Igor's analytical skills they're essentially legendary, so he has a lot of amazing concepts, and we decided to split our duties. He would be the mastermind of many theoretical concepts. I think I essentially wrote like two chapters myself and I was mostly editing. I was the guy who is moderating the discussion. I was writing the texts, I was doing the videos and I was always saying to you please don't be dumb, please don't be dumb, I mean you're not writing for super gms, I mean, you're writing for club level players.
Arturs:So that's the dilemma. So you want to write really good stuff that is modern, but at the same time also explain it in a really simple language, which is not really so easy to do. 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 keep yourself for your own allow analysis, but we are essentially teaching the club level players here. But ultimately, the course was quite well received.
Daniel:that's interesting and maybe it's a topic that I want to bring up a little bit, which is the lifetime repertoire format, is the most comprehensive they usually have compared to other opening courses, the like the highest quantity number of lines in them. But as you just said that you wanted the course to be accessible to club players, I've often thought of the Lifetime Repertoire format as being for more advanced players because it's so comprehensive. So would you say that you generally take that approach with your courses, that you're aiming it for the club level?
Arturs:I try to create a course that is available for all levels.
Arturs:It's probably quite a challenging thing to do, but I wouldn't really write the course for the 1% of the audience, which are the IMs and GMs. Maybe actually it's less than 1%, maybe 0.1%, maybe less than that. But I want to explain a simple concept without giving too many computerish lines, and I also want to give some groundbreaking new ideas. Otherwise, if I'm essentially rehashing some of the stuff that is known before, I find no joy to do that Because for me, like every single course is, I want to prove something with this course, so sometimes perhaps it worked better. Sometimes it did not work as best as I wanted, but I was always. That was always the idea and I I know for a fact that my courses.
Arturs:I know several grandmasters who told me they bought my courses, yeah, because they're like collectors, collecting every single course of chess authors. They, they're building their own library and they said, yeah, they're great courses. But also many club level players they're saying, yeah, they're fantastic. So, yeah, I think that lifetime repertoire can be for all levels. It's just, in what kind of language do you explain that content?
Daniel:I see, I see, yeah. And just going back to the con, specifically one I guess more personal question for you on it is you know you described the story of how you began to play it yourself. Did it ultimately become your Sicilian of choice in your own personal play?
Arturs:You mean the Sicilian con? Yeah, the con.
Arturs:Yeah, every single course that I'm writing, I'm playing myself. Like I wrote the reverse Sicilian lifetime repertoire. I played that as my main repertoire. I might have forgotten some lines already because I don't really have so many English opening games. This is not such a popular choice from the wise perspective, but I do play it. The King's Indian Attack no wait, sorry, the Count Sicilian. That was the second course. That's my main repertoire. I I do play it. I also combine it with some sicilian tamanov, because that's essentially the same point structure, the same ideas, only slightly there's some slight different nuances. So also play it. I also play the kings in an attack, which was my third course, one of my absolute favorite ideas to play from the wise perspective. And, of course, the scandinavian. The thing about the scandinavian, which is the next course I suppose we're going to talk about a bit. I used to play it before, but now I've been playing a lot of games online, so I that that. That was always my motto. What I'm writing, I'm playing that's great.
Daniel:I love that. A broader question regarding sicilians, and as we're talking about this with club players, is that a lot of folks want to play the Sicilian, and I've been in this position myself, but can become overwhelmed by all the different options. They have. Different types of Sicilians they can play, so do you have any advice on how to choose one Sicilian versus another? And if you want to sneak in, you know, or throw in a pitch for the con specifically, that's fine too.
Arturs:Well, sicilian con is considered to be probably the easiest of the Sicilians to learn. That is kind of like the general belief. To be honest, I'm not really sure, because maybe it is slightly neglected compared to some of the most popular choices. Like Sicilian, neidorf always has been the most popular Sicilian. It is heavily researched and nowadays all kinds of anti-Sicilians, with bishop b5 already, are being considered not as sidelines, they're essentially the main lines, because white is struggling to prove any advantage in the main lines. And also the Sicilian Sveshnikov. Yeah, thanks to the World Championship match of Marcos Costa against Fabio Caruana and some super tournaments, this is like super, super popular combination no-transcript to you know, become proficient at.
Daniel:You did mention that the con was perhaps, maybe at least a little bit easier to learn. I was just curious why that?
Arturs:That was before. Oh, okay, that was before. Nowadays I don't think so. Like it's equaling, so I don't think so. Like it's equaling, so I don't think so. I wouldn't really say that con is somehow easier to play than the neither. Actually, you know, sometimes I play the neither, find it easier, you know sure, sure, yeah.
Daniel:So you mentioned your next course, which is on the scandinavian. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and what approach are you taking to it? That, might you know, perhaps stand stand out from some other Scandinavian books or courses.
Arturs:Right, I'm definitely super excited about it and once again, I have partnered with Igor Kovalenko. He was my co-author with the Khan-Susilin Lifetime Repertory and Igor is I'm not going to exaggerate he is one of the world's leading experts, if not the expert of the Scandinavian defense. I mean, you could ask around among just professionals if they could name some players who are understanding the Scandinavian as the best. Probably they would name Igor Kovalenko. And Igor Kovalenko you know he's a fascinating persona because I remember, a couple of years ago I think, David Smirden, the Australian grandmaster. He released the so-called fighting index, and the fighting index would measure how competitive and how fighting are the chess professionals. And there was one guy who was standing 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.
Arturs:Andandinavian was one of his pet weapons. So we decided to once again join our forces. While he was he is still sitting at the front lines of the war and he had some free time he said listen, you know, I could prepare some theoretical stuff for the scandinavian, let's do this. And I was, of course. I was very, very excited. So we did it, but this time he was just a pure mastermind of the theoretical part. I added a couple of lines, but it was not like several chapters of the Khan Cecilia and this time it was purely him. This time I also had to make less edits because he already knew what we want to achieve and actually I think that this will be a lifetime repertoire, because what makes it as a lifetime repertoire? It makes that there's every single critical line included, even though it's not going to have the lifetime repertoire mark the name.
Arturs:I think I can reveal it. It's going to be the battle tested scandinavian. In total, the variations are about 450 if I'm not terribly mistaken. So it's a pretty large course, but you're going to find it the readers who are going to study it. It's very easy to learn and igor himself said that he has studied all the other courses that are out there on Chessable. Because I said you have to do this, you have to research what the other guys are writing.
Arturs:So, he was looking for a lot of references. He said this is by hands down is going to be the best course. On the Scandinavian up to date. What appeals to you about the Scandinavian? Yeah, that it's uncompromising, that you are immediately putting your opponent out of the comfort zone. And that's, by the way, I kind of skipped it, I forgot to mention it. Like my other beloved topic, the Dutch defense, you play the Dutch defense against D4, your opponent is terrified. He's like oh no, my opponent plays the Dutch.
Arturs:It's such a provocative continuation and I feel that theandinavian is exactly in the same category. It's kind of considered among chess professors. Yeah, you know scandinavian, perhaps it's not really that great, but at the same time it causes some distress. Yeah, so you, immediately you're thinking, should I go for some main continuations and try to debunk the scandinavian, or 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 easy way to just to get a small plus. If you get, for if you go for the small plus, black immediately gets a fine game.
Arturs:so there's essentially like two lines in the scandinavian where black is tested, where black is really tested, how to stay within the balance, and I think we did it.
Daniel:That's fantastic, just in terms of type of Scandinavian, as in queen d8, queen a5, which version is it?
Arturs:Queen a5.
Daniel:Queen a5. And yeah, if I can ask. I mean, I know like the course hasn'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 other options.
Arturs:It's really simple because Igor said so. I mean, igor has been playing Queen A5 himself and when I was playing against Igor when he was still obviously playing for Team Latvia we would meet in several local tournaments I always was struggling against his Scandinavian. So I definitely could value the strength of the move and I did mention that I was playing the Scandinavian at some point before, before even the interaction 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 do that, I don't want to suffer and then I thought why am I doing this?
Arturs:I don't want to do that, I don't want to suffer, so let me just play the Sicilian. So I played the Sicilian con and now that Igor has played, now that Igor has created these files and the course, essentially, is ready next week I'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 the chance to play the Scandinavian, I play it and I made a very recent debut in the Swedish Elite Series, the Swedish Team Tennis Championships. I played E5. My team members raised eyebrows what are you doing? Actually, I got a very nice game and I drew the game with black for a team event very quickly.
Daniel:Fantastic, fantastic. So I'm probably trying to avoid for myself going down the rabbit hole of talking about the Scandinavian, because actually it is an opening that fascinates me, because I've heard it maligned, I've heard it not be given the same high esteem of an opening as some others, but at the same time, as a player myself, I struggle to play against it and so, outside of I don't know, at least the gm level, maybe, maybe more. But you know, criticizing a particular opening is just kind of silly because I feel like you can lose to anything and it's not always decided by the opening anyhow. So I guess my my point is just that it's interesting to me to to go for a lifetime repertoire for the Scandinavian, just because, you know, sometimes it doesn't always have the best reputation. But it sounds like this course might try to debunk that idea at least to a degree.
Arturs:Yeah, I mean it's definitely. I mean I'm actually a bit surprised that Chessable didn't give us the tag the lifetime repertoire, because essentially we are not missing any critical lines, like maybe some sidelines. Maybe that's why we don't really make it. I don't know what was the reason, but it's gonna be. I mean, if not the full repertoire, then like 99 close to our full repertoire.
Arturs:But speaking about who to play it, I wouldn't be afraid to play it to gm level. Like I'm playing against grandmasters the dutch defense, I have no issues. Like I'm playing in international chess leagues. I'm playing against Graumaster's Dutch defense, I have no issues. I'm playing in international chess leagues. I'm playing against 2650 level guys, okay, whatever. The Dutch defense. And it's still cold because they're like oh wow, the Dutch defense, what is that? Like the recent story I had was in the Wolchess Olympia. I played against Serov. So that was the top board Latvia, 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.
Arturs:But about the Scandinavian, I probably wouldn't really play it. If I'm super competitive, I wouldn't really play it as my main continuation. So I would probably research something solid. So I think it makes sense that when you're building a repertoire, you have something solid and you have something solid. So I think it makes sense that when you're building a repertoire, you have something solid and you have something provocative. So that's why, for example, from the Blacks' perspective, I'm not playing only the Dutch Leningrad, I'm also playing Queen's India. I'm playing all kinds of Yanovsky ideas d5, e6, and a6. So if my opponent plays e4, I can play Sicilian con. I can play sicilian con, I can play the scandinavian. I can play e4, e5. So the scandinavian is like I'm looking 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 split and slept properly during the night I don't think I'm gonna play the scandinavian, I'm gonna play something more solid, maybe the caracan, which has the same structure sure, sure.
Daniel:So yeah, I just want to move now to giving you one question from one of my twitter followers. Something I do with a lot of my guests, particularly when I have a title player on the show or especially a gm, is to give them the chance to ask a couple of questions that you know related to chess improvement, to get your advice. And the one that I picked that I like the most is from a follower. I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce his name or username, but his Twitter name is Saksh, and I also think his question is less about what rating we're talking about and just the idea behind it. He says I'm 1250 rated, sometimes I play really well against 1700s and 1800s, but sometimes I play like an 800. How can I maintain consistency in my games? And I think that's really the fascinating part of his question is the idea of being consistent as a player. What would you recommend for that?
Arturs:Probably the only cure is keep practicing. I do not know any other answer. And this is, by the way, an issue not only for club level players who are rated about 800 or 1000. This can apply to any, even competitive player. I mean, if you're not competing regularly, if you're not working yourself regularly, there will be these moments when you're not performing at your best level. Yeah, so that's why I would just say keep practicing, keep working very hard. I mean, chess, unfortunately, is such a game that requires you a lot of dedication, and when you think you want to quit, just remember the reasons why you started to do it.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic advice. So, yeah, I just want to go back now to talking about your own experiences and what you're up to right now, Artours. So yeah, you've had a YouTube channel for some years now lots of educational content and commentary for top games. Just want to talk about that a bit. How would you describe the channel and who it's for it?
Arturs:is mostly, I think, for advanced chess players. That was the idea from the very beginning, because I make these GM Nations bootcamps educational streams. I have already decided I'm probably going to do a total of 100 episodes and then going to ship them to a museum or something. I think they're pretty unique and I don't think there's like any similar content for any just content creators at least I don't know of that that length, at that scale. So I'm feeling I'm doing something unique, but I'm also trying to expand a bit and I'm doing all kinds of interesting stuff lately.
Arturs:Like I try to make shorter videos. That's like a prelude of my bootcamps. Like I'm explaining a simple concept in 10 minutes. I'm not going to deny I stole the idea from Gotham Chess and some other popular content creators. Yeah, because it makes good views and I get to explain a really simple concept in a very short time frame. But the idea is that I want to use it as a teaser of my bootcamps. Yeah, so that's why, when I make this shorter video about certain concept, I want to say, hey, listen, if you want to learn more, like about kings in an 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 the content. I also decided to pay a tribute to some of the most beautiful games in the history of chess. I think this is perhaps a bit neglected, so I created this virtual chess lower.
Arturs:At the moment. I'm struggling to find time to continue with the playlist, but I started the idea and I intend to continue. And then there's, of course, my own games. I feel like I have a lot of contribute to the community and I get to explain my thought process not only in the recent games that I have played. I get to explain my thought process not only in the recent games that I have played, but also historically, some worthy games that I will remember for my entire life, like the games that define me as a player. And again, the audience really appreciates it.
Arturs:But I try to expand a bit the audience, broaden it so that it's not only for the competitive players, because otherwise that's like what 0.1 percent 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 never go down the route like explain basic things like checkmate in two. This is how called the Feast Moves. We already have a lot of amazing content creators who are doing fantastic work. So I'll probably stay where I am, but I'll just try to broaden a bit my audience and if I'll make it eventually to 100,000 followers on my YouTube channel. I'll be very excited.
Daniel:Yeah, well, that's a great variety of content that you create for your YouTube channel. I'm curious about the classic games that you said that you review and discuss. I love that idea. I don't think there's enough of that. Maybe there is, maybe I just haven't come across it as much, but I feel like that's something that's definitely worthwhile and that I feel like more chess players should look into. Worthwhile that I feel like more chess players should look into. What's been the interest level in that. Can it compete with other types of chess content that you create? I'm hoping the answer is yes, because I'd like to hear that people are interested in the classics, but curious to know your answer on that.
Arturs:Do you want to hear the truth? Yeah, sure the truth Ah they're not really that interested to be honest, that's too bad.
Arturs:Yeah, yeah, I mean they, they're mostly interested in drama, like it's not a big surprise, everybody loves good drama and there's so much drama happening in the chess world. But, on a serious note, the most popular videos on my youtube channel they are the boot camps, the. The most popular ones are on the catalan, are on the sicilian, so the dutch defense, so sicilian tamanov. I did them like three, four years ago. They're still very, very well received. So, yeah, those are the most popular ones.
Arturs:And, of course, also these short videos, like 10-minute videos explaining some concepts. They have good reception as well, but I don't want to spam my channel with a lot of videos for cheap clicks. So I want to make good content, and lot of videos for cheap clicks, yeah. So, yeah, I, I want to make good content and if I'm making these short videos, I want to contribute something. Okay, I want the views, of course, but I what? I want to give something and I want, like, somehow they make an addition to what I already have. Yeah, so it's a. It's a very interesting process. So, eventually, I'm still researching the things that I can do, that I could do, and I want to somehow stand out from other channels. And it's not like, oh, it's just another of those guys you know who is doing this stuff. So I want to be somehow a bit special on the things that I do.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that and I appreciate that you don't want to just do content just for clicks or just pure drama all the time, you know that sort of thing.
Arturs:I have done some videos on the drama. I mean I can do that I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Daniel:Not only that, at least, which is good. So kind of furthering our discussion on what's on your YouTube channel because I know it overlaps is your new podcast, which is called Casual GM Podcast, which also appears on your YouTube channel and you are the co-host, or you know you're co-hosting it with a fellow GM. What spurred the idea for the show?
Arturs:I mean, it's very funny actually how it started, because me and Wojciech Wojciech Maranda, who is a Polish drummaster of about the same strength he comes from Poland and we are teammates in the second Bundesliga in Berlin, so we had this one weekend there's a larger story, so I'm not going to tell it, maybe not for today. We had to travel to Wolhagen. You probably never heard of it, daniel. Yeah, like what?
Daniel:is Wolhagen.
Arturs:It's a small village in the middle of Germany, in the middle of nowhere, and you can't easily 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 to Wolhagen because we had to play some critical matches to qualify for the highest division of the Bundesliga. And next to me is sitting Wojtek and he starts to talk and he's talking. He's talking about his experience as an attorney, his experience in stock market, where should you invest? What's a good portfolio? Then he's talking about his experiences as a chess coach, and he good portfolio. Then he's talking about his experiences as a chess coach and he's talking about life. He's talking about kids, and he's talking nonstop. And we're talking and talking.
Arturs:I'm thinking, wow, you know, maybe, and he's a fun guy to talk with. I thought, wow, you know, maybe we 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 title and, uh, we figured out that, since we're like casual gms, we're not super gms okay, maybe for somebody, somebody would say like 26, 30, it's not casual gm.
Arturs:It's like it's a good gm interesting I thought, like I was thinking like the, what was the? For some reason I was thinking of the reference of the other guys. Yeah, like, have you seen this, the movie, this ridiculous Hollywood movie?
Daniel:Yeah, yeah. The other guys Aim for the bushes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Arturs:So I was thinking okay, but there we go. So now we are going to name our podcast the Casual Guys, and mainly it was just a chill atmosphere. We just want to talk about some things. We want to talk perhaps not necessarily drama related what is happening at chess world, even though we covered also those topics but we just thought it's interesting to share our experiences, some chess stuff also this chess part we had in our first episodes, like solving a puzzle from void sex courses. So we did that and I like the format. Unfortunately, the views are like pretty average compared to some of the content I've been doing before. But again, this is something where I feel I can stand out a bit and I enjoy doing it and I intend to continue.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's only just begun so hopefully you know more views are coming along the way. It's funny what you mentioned the title. First of all, on the title, I love the title Casual GM Podcast but what I didn't know was that you were referring in part to I don't want to be critical like that. Casual GM is really funny. But that didn't even cross my mind. I thought it just meant that casual context only.
Arturs:but that's really funny. No, no, like casual GMs, yeah, casual GMs, yeah, we thought it's funny, that's great.
Daniel:So what do you envision for the podcast in terms of like topics that you'll discuss going forward, how often you want to create episodes?
Arturs:Yeah, we probably will try to make new episodes every two weeks, maybe every three weeks or perhaps sometimes even once a month, as long as there's something interesting to talk about and I think it makes sense.
Arturs:Every single topic we talk about what is actually the chess world and, thanks to our amazing content creators and personalities like Hans Niemann, like Gotham Chess, like Magnus Carlsen and his genes, we always have something to talk about, right? So we're having a little laugh about things how does it look from our non-SuperGM perspective? And we try to make it fun. So, yeah, but I don't think that, again, we are mostly going to be focusing on drama. I could easily imagine doing some episodes where we could be doing some chess-related stuff. So we are discussing, for example, Wojtek. He's like smirking. What is Dutch defense?
Arturs:You know you haven't included lines in your course I know they're really critical, so we could be discussing the fate of certain openings. We could discuss how does it feel from his perspective, my perspective share some ideas and maybe this is also something that the audience could find it exciting how two casual gms they're discussing some theoretical trends and maybe they're gonna find something out of this to be interesting yeah, yeah.
Daniel: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 lot of success on the on the podcast there. Yeah, so yeah, just basically. The last topic I want to talk about our tours is your commentating that you've done for top level events. Can you talk a bit about that? Who do you commentate for these days?
Arturs:yeah, the commentary has been a very big passion for me and I was very surprised about it because I did essentially my very first high level commentary for fide grand prix back in 2019, together with evgeny miroshnichenko, when the grand prix was organized in riga I think it was was 2019, maybe 17. No, I think it was 19. And then I joined the Chesscom Streamer Partnership. I got accidentally to do a couple of commentary jobs and that was like wow, I love this stuff. You know I love to do the commentary. So I've been trying to do as many commentaries as I can and I hope that they're going to give me more opportunities.
Arturs:Like one of my major commentary jobs in the past years has been doing the BeoChess Festival. I've been doing the commentary for them for four years, I think, also a couple of years for Riga Techno University Open and I'm very, very excited and very grateful for any opportunity that Chesscom provides. But then again, at the same time, chesscom has such an amazing cast of commentators, like I'm a huge fan of Danja Nardeski and Robert Kessler an amazing duo. Then we have David Howell, jovi Chowska, then we have Petr Lako, the Encyclopedia of Chess. Then we have Jan Gustafsson also we haven't seen for some time Petr Svidler, tanja Sachtev like it's such a wonderful cast and for me it's like every single time when I get an opportunity to do a commentary with them, I'm so enjoying it.
Arturs:Like I still remember the experience when I got to sub I think it was Robert Hess, he had some health issues for last year's Fittigran Swiss and I got to work together with Petr Leko I mean, Petr Leko, he was such a gentleman off the screen. We also talked some stuff, so it was such an experience. I just look for every single opportunity I can get to do some commentary.
Daniel: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 really enjoyed our conversation. That's like the main part of our interview. What I always finish with, though, with all my guests, is a segment at the end, for a few minutes, just a series of fun questions that are a bit shorter, a bit faster, just for fun, and so the first question in that segment is knights or bishops, bishops, what's your favorite time control?
Arturs:Absolutely rapid 15 plus 10. Nice.
Daniel:What's your favorite opening to play as white the reti and what's your favorite opening to play as black?
Arturs:Dutch defense all the way Nice.
Daniel:In one word, how would you describe your playing style? Pragmatic. What's one book you wish more chess players would read?
Arturs:Alexander Alekhine's Life Story by Alexander Kotov. I'm not sure, really, if it is published in English language. I have in Latvian. I think it was originally translated from the Russian language because Alexander Kotov was a Soviet grammar student. He has written this amazing story, insights, a novella about a Lechian story. He has matches against Jose Raul Capablanca and eventually the tragic death.
Daniel:Fantastic recommendation who is your favorite player of all time?
Arturs:I don't have it at the moment. I used to have Garry Kasparov when I was a kid. Obviously he was the GOAT, Obviously the greatest of all time. Currently I wouldn't really name it, but if I would have to choose, probably I would choose Mikhail Tal, the magician from Riga, Nice.
Daniel:If you could play any great player of the past who is no longer alive, who would it be? Definitely, Tal.
Arturs:There's one thing I would love to do I would love to travel back in time. I would love to meet him, and I'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:Fantastic answer. If you could play any of the top players in the world right now, who would it be? Mark Duskalsson. And if you had to choose a career other than chess, what would it be?
Arturs:Yeah, it's really tough to imagine, but maybe politics.
Daniel:I don't know I'd be thinking about it.
Arturs:I would maybe try to do something to make a difference. That's great.
Daniel:Final question If a chess genie existed and could grant you any one chess wish, what would you wish for?
Arturs:Oh, this is actually easy. This would be the final round of the World Chess Olympiad. Team Latvia is playing Team Norway. It's the tied score. I'm playing Magnus Carlsen, top board. I'm playing the black. I'm winning him with a Dutch Leningrad. That's it. I win the game. That's it. I can quit career. I can write books about it.
Daniel:I win the game. That's it. I can quit career, I can write books about it. That is a dream for sure.
Arturs: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:That's fantastic. I love it. That's one of my favorite answers that I've heard. That's a great one. Well done so much in your chess career. I feel like I'm just covering a little bit of the tip of the iceberg of all these different things that you've done, from coaching to courses to competing. But it was great to hear your thoughts on all those things and those aspects of your life and career. And, yeah, I wish you success in all of your chess endeavors right now and I just want to say thank you for being on the show.
Arturs:Yeah, thank you, dan, it was absolutely a blast. I enjoyed it, yeah, so thank you for having me my pleasure.
Daniel:Thanks for listening. This has been a production of my business, adult Chess Academy, and that has a website with the same name. If you want to look for it, you can also find me being way too active on Twitter by searching my username, lona underscore chess See you next week.
