Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen

Čmilytė-Nielsen has played for the Lithuanian team in the 2010 Chess Olympiad (Open Section) and on other occasions participated in the Women's Chess Olympiads, where she won two individual gold medals on board one, the first at Istanbul in 2000 (9½/12) and the second at Calvià in 2004 (8½/11). She earned a place in the team for the first time when she was thirteen (in Yerevan, 1996) and was first board at fifteen (Elista, 1998), contributing a plus score each time.[15]

In the Frauenbundesliga (Women's Bundesliga) in Germany, she is a team member of OSC Baden Baden, but has also played some league chess in Sweden.

Čmilytė-Nielsen entered politics in 2015, as a member of the Liberal Movement. After Remigijus Šimašius resigned from the Seimas in order to take office as the mayor of Vilnius, Čmilytė-Nielsen took his seat in parliament.[16]

A year afterwards, Čmilytė-Nielsen was selected to stand in the 2016 parliamentary election with the Liberal Movement, as a candidate on their nationwide party list. She ultimately was elected to parliament, and subsequently began to serve on the European affairs committee and human rights committee. During this term in parliament, Čmilytė-Nielsen began to amass more influence and prestige within the party, serving as deputy chair of the Liberal Movement parliamentary group in 2017 and 2018, and later serving as the parliamentary group's chair since 2018.[5] In 2019, she was selected to serve as the Seimas opposition leader, becoming the spokesperson and leader of the parliamentary groups opposed to the incumbent Skvernelis government.[17] She later resigned as opposition leader and was replaced by Julius Sabatauskas, but was later elected to serve as chairperson of the Liberal Movement in September 2019.[18][19]

As party chair, Čmilytė-Nielsen was tasked with leading the Liberal Movement into the 2020 parliamentary election, where the party won 13 seats. Following the certification of election results, it emerged that a coalition would likely be formed between the Liberal Movement, Freedom Party, and election winners Homeland Union.[20][21] Proposing Ingrida Šimonytė as their prime ministerial candidate, Čmilytė-Nielsen is expected to be one of the three main leaders of the incoming government, in addition to Šimonytė and Freedom Party leader Aušrinė Armonaitė, following in the footsteps of the Marin Cabinet in Finland for having a woman-led government.[22][23] On 9 November, the coalition agreement was signed between the Homeland Union, Liberal Movement, and Freedom Party.[24]

On 12 November, Čmilytė-Nielsen was nominated to serve as speaker of the Seimas, and was expected to be succeeded as Liberal Movement parliamentary leader by Eugenijus Gentvilas.[25] She later was elected as speaker the following day, receiving 106 votes, becoming the third woman to serve in the position.[26]

•  Lithuania: Knight's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas[27]
•  Lithuania: Knight's Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania[5]

•  Ukraine: Member 2nd Class of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise[28]