Nikita Meshkovs Chess Profile: FIDE Grandmaster Behind 1stSecond
Nikita Meshkovs, known online as 1stSecond, is a FIDE Grandmaster who treats Blitz like a second career. The profile reads like a long distance running record in chess form: huge volume, repeated rivals, sharp opening choices, and a habit of taking games deep enough to make the clock start apologizing.
This is not the account of a player who plays one safe line and calls it a day. This is a player with a laboratory, a rivalry log, and a style that often looks like “let us keep the position uncomfortable until someone blinks.”
Opening Toolbox
The opening data suggests a player who is comfortable in both familiar and unusual territory. The King's Indian Defense: Larsen Variation shows up with a strong winning edge, which tells you this is not a player who is afraid of piece play, space, and kingside tension.
At the same time, the record includes plenty of Amazon Attack: Siberian Attack and Döry Defense games. That mix suggests a repertoire built around practical trouble making, rather than a single textbook identity.
For a quick look at how the opening choices have performed, the chart below does the talking:
Rivalry Energy
- The opponent log has a clear repeat offender: Yannick Gozzoli. That kind of game count is either a long standing chess rivalry, a habit of returning to the same lobby, or both.
- The games often go long. That matters, because a player who plays this much is usually testing ideas, adjusting to opponents, and collecting the kind of pattern recognition that only comes from thousands of positions.
Playing Style Snapshot
The style leans toward active play. The player captures early, pushes into middlegame complexity, and tends to keep pressure on the board rather than settling for a passive fortress. The endgame is where all that extra mileage can become dangerous, because small advantages tend to survive into the later stage of the game.
In short: watch for concrete tactics, repeated clashes, and a player who has clearly seen enough bad plans to spot them from several moves away.