Chess Olympics, Magnus Won't Defend His Title, & A Chess Robot Breaks His Opponent's Hand?!
The best monthly chess newsletter you receive.
Issue 21 | MM Chess
It’s the 21th 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. We welcome the newest MMChess.org students: Jayanthi, Adriana, Max, Kevin, Ben, Tucker, and Gabriel!
My story 🖼️
My first real chess coach was a man named Yuri. Yuri was a strict Russian man with a thick mustache — and I improved because I was scared of him. Despite being about 1300 rated himself, he worked with my mom and helped push me to about 1700 rating by 4th grade. But it was all one-sided: a grandmaster once told my parents, “Misha can solve puzzles like a grandmaster, but has no positional understanding.”
Monthly Tournament ♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Monday, August 22nd at 8pm EST (7pm CT, 6pm MT, 5pm PT). Most of the players will be rated from 500-1800. Last month, the tournament attracted 33 students- kids & adults! The Zoom for the tournament is here, and the password is Smile.
To Play: Reply to this email, join the MM team and press the big green button here.
To Attend The Beginner Lesson: Don’t feel ready to play? Help me find the best moves during the tournament games on this Zoom link.
Congrats to Benjamin H (Gold), Gabriel C (Silver), and Aditya B (Bronze) this month!
Chess News 📰
🥇Magnus Carlsen won’t defend his world championship title. This is by far the biggest news this month. But Magnus will continue playing chess, just without the pressure. That means Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi is playing China’s Ding Liren in November!
🕦11-Year Old Tani Adewumi is one step closer to becoming a grandmaster. He went from homeless to being the top player under 12. It’s only a matter of time!
📈Is chess most popular today? Yes, for 2 reasons: COVID and The Queen’s Gambit.
🇮🇳 The Chess Olympics Started on July 29th. The Olympiad happens every two years. Russia, which has the most gold medals, is banned from this year’s Olympics. See the live games here.
👋 India has a lot of chess fans. World Champion Magnus Carlsen arrived to play for the Norwegian Olympiad team and got escorted out of the airport by many policemen.
📰 The host country for the Chess Olympiad gets to field 3 teams. In an interview with Times of India, Carlsen fears the “B" team, led by 16-year-old grandmaster Praggu.
Fun Facts💡
👸 Have you heard of Alex Botez? The famous Youtube star worked 7 days a week to build up her audience. Oh, and she recently won $500,000 in a Poker game against other Youtube creators, including MrBeast. We were friends in high school.
🤼 Two Player Chess. Have you heard of bughouse? It’s a famous chess variant that’s played by 2 players on each side.
🌉Chennai’s Napier Bridge is Painted Like A Chessboard. How many times do I have to say it? Indians take their chess seriously!