Aivars Gipslis (February 8, 1937 – April 13, 2000) was a Latvian chess player.

He was champion of Latvia in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966, and also played in several Soviet Championships, his best result in them coming in 1966, when he was equal third with 12/20. Perhaps his best tournament was at the Alekhine Memorial 1967 in Moscow, where he finished on 10/17, a point behind the winner Leonid Stein, tied for second with Milko Bobotsov and two World Champions, Vassily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal, and ahead of two others, Boris Spassky and Tigran Petrosian, among a host of other strong players. His other good tournament results are equal first at Bad Liebenstein 1963 with Lev Polugaevsky and equal second at Budapest 1977 behind David Bronstein. According to the Oxford Companion to Chess, drink affected his performance in later years, but he continued to play right up to the year of his death.

Gipslis was made an International Grandmaster in 1967. He edited the Latvian chess periodical Sahs from 1963.

Gipslis usually opened his games with white with 1.e4 (see algebraic notation). His repertoire with black was more varied. He is the eponym of the Gipslis Variation of the Sicilian Defence which he played the black side of several times in the 1960s: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.O-O d6 7.c4 g6.

References

• Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld (1996). The Oxford Companion To Chess, Oxford University. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.