Issue 29 | MM Chess
It’s the 29th issue of the Mindful Masters Newsletter, the best (and only?) monthly chess newsletter you receive. I cover chess culture and relevant wisdom I've collected along the way. Please let’s welcome the newest MMChess.org students: David, Rishi, Jennifer, Danny, Aarohon, Nathalia, Kimaayra, Andrei, Neria, Avy, and Oliver!
Student Success🏆
Every month we’re highlighting some of the successes of our students. Proud of something chess-related? Send me photos!
Congratulations to Rapha (and his teacher Yeison), who is now the 86th best 7-year-old in the US after less than a year of playing!
Congrats to Noah (and his teacher Fabian) on playing his first over-the-board tournament and winning 2 games!
Congratulations to Ray-Pan Y. (and his teacher Marc), who placed 6th (and 1st amount 3rd graders) at his first tournament in Seattle!
Congrats to Max R (and his teacher Mike). from Boston for breaking through and winning the State Spiegel Cup Qualifier with 4/4 wins!
My story🖼️
This month, I ran my first tournament in 11 years - the 1st MAGE Classic. We were expecting 30-40 players but ended up with 77, and faced a lot of logistical challenges. At the end of the day, I was happy to see many of MM’s online and in-person students’ success! I could not be more proud.
Some of the winners include:
Thomas B. (1st Place, Unrated) - my student
Ryan Y. (2nd Place, Unrated) - Alejandro’s student
Akiva Yaacov G. (3rd Place, Unrated) - my student
Levi B. (2nd Place, U600) - my student
Oliver F. (Tied-3rd, U1200) - Fabian’s student
Here are some of the photos that parents took:
Monthly Tournament♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Wednesday, April 19th, at 7pm EST (6pm CT, 5pm MT, 4pm PT). Most of the players will be rated from 500-1800. In the last tournament, there were 47 students, both kids & adults!
To Play: Press the big green button here. If you haven’t already, you also have to join the MM team The Zoom for the tournament is here, and the password is Smile.
Congrats last month to Nate, Connor, and Shim! And in the Over 1500, congrats to Aarav, Yoan, and Gabriel Leonard!
Chess News 📰
🤝 Toronto will host the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournaments (the qualifier for the World Chess Championship). It’s the first time it’s being hosted in North America! If you want to know more, just click here.
🙌 Georgia’s Arabidze won 1st place in the 2023 European Women’s Chess Championships. A funny fact is that four players scored 8 points each to tie for the bronze medal!
🥵 Carlsen was called a fascist? I mention this because we don’t wanna miss this month’s drama. Karjakin’s new interview has all the matters to ask for a new ban, Nielsen (Carlsen’s coach) said.
⏲️ Chess is in the Esports Olympics! FIDE and Chess.com will run the show, and some of the best US players are playing. Lichess.org is left out (and accused chess.com of monopoly behavior).
😶 Women’s Grand Prix (one of the biggest events for women) seemed to be total chaos, which led several chess players to withdraw! Players not being greeted at the New Delhi airport, the players not being asked to leave because it would “lead to harassment,” and a lot of other uncomfortable things.
🥇Sometimes, grandmasters dominate everybody. Aravindh won the 20th Dehli Open Grandmasters Tournament with a score of 9.5/10.
🥳 The 2023 American Cup has a winner: Hikaru Nakamura!Defeating Wesley So in a rapid tiebreak after 3 draws, World No.5 Nakamura got the opportunity to win as American Cup Champion!This Cup is an 8-player double elimination knockout that took place from 17th to 26th March in the St. Louis Chess Club.
🏆 The streamer of the year goes to… Levy Rozman! Not going to lie, I’m surprised he overtook Naka. Yes! GothamChess has been a great and popular streamer and is great news to know he’s been recognized for all his work.
Fun Facts💡
🏆The first Olympiad (“chess Olympics”) was unofficial. In 1924, an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, it failed due to no clear distinction between amateur and professional players. While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place there as well🙂. The first official Olympiad was held in London in 1927. 📖The second book ever printed in the English language was a book about chess. The Game and Playe of the Chesse is the name of the book and it was printed in the 1470s! 🌌There are more chess combinations than atoms in the observable universe. 100^111 is the number of all possible moves, including illegal moves in chess. In comparison, the number of all atoms in the universe is 100^78.
♟The newest chess move is the pawn moving two squares at the start of the game. It was introduced back in 1280 in Spain, and no subsequent rules were added.
📝The oldest recorded chess game in history is from the 900s, between a historian from Baghdad and his student. The oldest game also features the oldest opening in history! Can you guess the opening? It’s also a pretty boring game, nothing exceptional about it, but the more you know!
🤯Take a look at this chess board made in a WWII war camp in Thailand. The Red Cross assisted prisoners of war (POWs) by checking the conditions of camps, sending aid parcels, and facilitating mail between POWs. They also donated chess sets, which contributed immensely to the POWs’ mental health.
♛When chess became for the masses. A concerned wife asks for advice about her husband's newfound chess addiction, during the chess boom caused by chess legend Paul Morphy (c. 1850's).
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