Viktorija Ni

Country	United States
Born	December 30, 1991 Riga, Latvia
Title	Women's International Master
Peak rating	2263 (February 2013)
Ranking	No. 353 ranked woman in the January 2015 FIDE World Rankings

Viktorija Ni is one of the top female American chess players with the title of women's international Master since 2010. Her mother, Polina Ni, taught chess to her when she was seven years old.

Chess career

Viktorija Ni earned the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM) in 2007 and the Woman International Master (WIM) title in 2010, earning her final norm at the 19th Chicago Open. Viktorija represented Latvia twice at the Chess Olympiad (2008, 2010) on the women's team. She switched her federation from Latvia to the United States in 2011. She has represented the United States twice at the Women's World Team Chess Championship (2013, 2015). Her best results have been fourth place in the U.S. Women's Chess Championships 2012 and 2015, in the latter case recovering from a poor start by scoring 5 wins and 2 draws in the final 7 games.

Chess career highlights

• 1st place Latvian Blitz Women's Championships (2004, 2005)
• WGM norm 2009 Czech Open
• Latvian Youth Champion 2009
• 1st European Rapid Championship Girls Under 18 (2009)
• WIM final norm - Chicago Open 2010
• 6th place - part of the National Chess Women's team in Astana, Kazakhstan (2013)
• 4th place U.S. Women's Chess Championships 2012 and 2015

Personal life

In her free time, she likes to run, hike and practices yoga. Viktorija is the wife to GM Yury Shulman. They both live just outside Chicago with their son Gabriel. Their son was born during the 2010 U.S. Championship, in which Yury finished second. Together they contributed to the non-profit organization Chess without Borders since 2010.