Issue 7 | MM Chess
Welcome back to the 7th issue of the Mindful Masters Newsletter, the best (and only?) monthly chess newsletter you receive. I cover chess culture and some relevant ideas and wisdom I've collected along the way.
Last month we welcomed the newest MMChess.org student, Igor!
My story♟️
📚 I started taking chess lessons. Last October, I decided to take lessons for the first time in 10 years from Grandmaster Zahar Efimenko, a Ukrainian gold medalist. I’ve learned new openings, rehashed my endgame technique, started appreciating the game more, and in general improved (my online rating improved about 100 points all around). Turns out all the childhood psychology tricks I learned through teaching chess work on myself too.
I highly recommend adult learning!
Chess Ideas 💡
₿ Chess, meet Bitcoin. There’s a tournament happening in May with the biggest prize fund ever: $320,000 in cryptocurrency. First place is 2.1825 bitcoin, at the start of the tournament worth $100,000. But during the tournament, it’s gotten as low as $65,000!
⛈️ New Puzzle Storm Record! We’ve got some new records on Puzzle Storm. Oliver: 34, Arnaud: 32, Liam 24, Juliet 23, and Levi/Max/Raphael: 22. See where you get!
⛓️Chess Takes On Incarceration. My local city. Chicago, partnered with FIDE, the world chess body, for the Chess For Freedom event “aimed at the introduction of chess as a tool for education and social inclusion in prisons of different countries.” The kickoff event for the First Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners 2021 in October.
🔥 Tani Adewumi is a Chess Master at 10. In early May, Tani won a Connecticut tournament that put him over the “master” threshold of 2200 rating. Tani started playing the game at 7 as a Nigeria homeless refugee, when he moved to New York.
🗼 There’s a new prodigy in town: Marc'Andria Maurizzi. After winning a tournament earlier this month, Marc’Andria became the youngest in France and one of the youngest ever. Here’s the list of the youngest grandmaster's ever. Let’s hope Tani makes it on the here soon!
That’s it for this month. You know where to find me: vilenchuk@gmail.com!