Viktorija Ni (born December 30, 1991) is a Latvian-American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player. She was awarded the title of

Woman International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(WIM) by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

in 2010.

Chess career

Viktorija Ni was taught to play chess at seven years old by her mother, Polina, and was trained by

Jānis Klovāns Jānis Klovāns (April 9, 1935 – October 5, 2010) was a Latvian chess player who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster and the ICCF title of Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. He was a career officer in the Soviet Army. He won the Latvian Champi ...

. She won the Latvian women's championship of

rapid chess Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...

in 2004 and 2005. In 2009 Ni was Latvian youth champion and European rapid champion in the girls under 18 category. Ni earned the title of

Woman FIDE Master A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

(WFM) in 2007 and that of Woman International Master (WIM) in 2010. She achieved her final

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

required for the title WIM at the 19th

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Open. Ni played for the Latvian team at the

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

in 2008 and 2010, and the Four Nations Chess Challenge in 2008. She transferred national federations from Latvia to the United States in 2011. Ni has represented the United States at the Women's

World Team Chess Championship The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads ...

in 2013 and 2015. She finished in fourth place at the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 2012 and 2015. She competed in the

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Personal life

Ni is

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

to chess grandmaster

Yury Shulman Yuri Shulman ( be, Юрый Маркавіч Шульман, russian: Ю́рий Ма́ркович Шу́льман; born April 29, 1975 in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, USSR) is a Belarusian American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandma ...

. She lives in New York City where she works as a chess coach.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ni, Viktorija 1991 births Living people Chess Woman International Masters American female chess players Latvian female chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Riga 21st-century American women