GM Nikita Meshkovs

My name is Nikita Meshkovs, 26 years old from Latvia. Since early childhood, I fell in love with sports! I played football semi-pro for a couple of years while were studying in a mid-school but then it was necessary to choose between chess and football and here we are, on the chess platform ;) After many years in the student ages, I've played two seasons in futsal, as I always liked the game!

I went to the snooker school for one year and it was a very cool experience! Still, from time to time (thanks, Covid...) I like to play it with my friends and follow live tournaments! #Rocket

I used to play tennis, squash, and table tennis as well for many many years. In general, sport is something without which I can't live. Right now I've started running and in 2021 it is a hot topic in my life :)

I like rap music. In the school ages for about 6 years I was rapping and literally spent ages in the sound-recording studios. Although I'm not recording anything right now, I'm still following the genre.

For the whole my life I liked to play computer games. I played just a few but there I tried to become the best player in the world :) My favorite was Counter-Strike 1.6 and now League Of Legends (Gold 3 EUW).

I'm playing chess since a very childhood, at the age of 4. In 2008 I managed to win the European Union in the U-14 group.

Later I got my IM title in 2014 but always wanted to achieve more. That's why after many-many hours of hard work I got my GM title three years later in 2017 but even that seemed not enough for me and in 2020 I've jumped to my peak of 2585 and my next stop is 2600!

In April 2018 I became Latvian Champion and a few months later showed one of the best results in my career. It was in the Baltic Zonal chess tournament 2018, Lithuanian stage. I managed to win the event ahead of 11 grandmasters, performing 2700+ / http://chess-results.com/tnr341386.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&fed=LAT&flag=30

In 2019 I participated in the European Chess Championship in Skopje, Makedonia. I played well and in the end finished place 45th. So far the best result for me. / http://chess-results.com/tnr404992.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=11&fedb=LAT&fed=LAT&turdet=YES&flag=30&zeilen=99999

Also, I'm playing in one of the strongest leagues in the world - the Bundesleague. In the current season, I'm also showing 2700+ performances.

Fide profile: ratings.fide.com/profile/11602740

Working as a coach already for 6 years! Right now I'm mainly focused on the 2000+ ELO students as I believe below that level you can find a better coach for the lower price. So, in case you're already an experienced player, here is the base of my working plan (usually, after I know the student better, I choose the most critical themes).

Right now I'm working with talented youngsters and experienced players. I'm the one who helps you to make the next step towards your goal to become a better version of yourself.

At the same time, I'm working with 2650-2700 players with a clear goal to become better as well. I have to grow all the time in order to help others.

I have decent experience commentating such events like:

1) Friendly match between "Shirov - Sveshnikov" in 2014.
2) Latvian Railway Cup in 2018.
3) Grand-Prix / Riga stage in 2019 - youtu.be/yCRqNjsXDFQ
4) Simultaneous chess in 2020 - youtu.be/trGKb5Qf9YA
5) Friendly match between "Latvia - Sweden" in 2021 - www.twitch.tv/swedenwasabis/video/912320346

Best skills in chess:

1) Counter-attack
2) Transformations
3) Psychology
4) Defense
5) Evaluation

Best skills in teaching are:

1) Improving general understanding of the game (based on materials from books and my own practice).
- Positional decision making
- Dynamical decision making
- Evaluation of the position
- Space in chess
- Time management

2) Calculation
3) Openings (helping with spotting weak points in your repertoire, giving advice on what suits better to your style, and working on it as well).
4) How chess is connected with other sports and how we can use it to gain an advantage over our opponents during the game.

5) Homeworks after each class. Usually, not so tough, just to create a habit of working on chess more frequently.

I'm providing classes on Skype and using Chessbase software.

I'm convinced every chess player has his own preferences and weaknesses. Every student is very special to me. That's why before teaching I'm always trying to understand his strong and weak sides to work on that and guide him to the better version of himself!

I am using such formats as:

1) Lecture
2) Quiz
3) Mentoring
4) Ping-pong discussion
5) Analysis