GM Arturs Neiksans is a rare triple threat in the chess world: active as a player, frequent as a commentator on high profile events, highly sought as a coach. A multiple time Latvian champion and one of his country’s most accomplished players, he continues to balance his roles with remarkable energy and ambition.
Just recently, he went from playing in the 2025 World Cup to serving as commentator. And let’s not forget he coached the world’s most famous International Master, Levy Rozman a.k.a. GothamChess, in his quest for the grandmaster title.
Despite his busy agenda, Neiksans remains committed to the students of his Chessable courses. So much so that he has produced an update to his celebrated course, The Battle-tested Scandinavian Defense, which is his second collaboration with Ukrainian GM Igor Kovalenko.Â
This edition of Going Above and Beyond features Neiksans for going the extra mile to keep his Chessable courses fresh. Check out what Neiksans has to say about the update as well as his upcoming course:
What are you most proud of in your courses?
I think we’ve managed to create the best Scandinavian course to date. I know that’s a bold statement, but we wanted to prove that the Scandinavian Defense is a perfectly playable opening even at the highest level. It’s sharp, uncompromising, and often takes the opponent out of their comfort zone.
My co-author, GM Igor Kovalenko, is a world-class player who recently won the European Team Championship with Team Ukraine, earning a gold medal on his board. His knowledge of the Scandinavian Defense is incredible, and while creating the course, we didn’t hold anything back.
This is our second course together (the first was Lifetime Repertoires: Kan Sicilian), and there may be more to come!
What made you decide to update this course?
Just as the course was released, we received feedback that we hadn’t covered a setup recently advocated by Anish Giri. It’s a rare continuation, but once we started analyzing it, we realized it contains quite a bit of poison! We found a strong workaround fairly quickly but decided to wait before releasing the update to gather more feedback and potential improvements. Now, the time has come to release it!
What else are you working on these days?
As we speak, I’m working on my sixth course, The Reti: Simplified. There’s still a lot to do—I have to deliver the PGN files by the end of the year, but I should make it.
I recently returned from the FIDE World Cup in Goa, where I was eliminated in the first round, only to continue working as a commentator on the Chess24 channels! Between that, regular lessons with my students, and YouTube, I’ve been incredibly busy.
What’s your philosophy for course creation?
I want all of my courses to stand out—not just rehash existing material. I always try to innovate, explore new angles, and bring something fresh to opening theory. At the same time, it’s crucial to explain the concepts in a clear, easy-to-understand way, which can be quite challenging!
It’s very important to me that my courses are of the highest quality, as they represent my business card and reputation. Every positive review and five-star rating means a lot! I could produce more than one course per year, but I prefer to release fewer—and make sure each one is top-notch.
The freshly updated course The Battle-Tested Scandinavian Defense is on sale until Jan 1, 2026. Don’t miss it!