It’s the 35th 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: Nolan, Ella, Makayla, Shira, Franklin, Jaiden, Lily, Tzvi, Joseph, Akshay, Wells, Siddharth, Manasvin, Dev, Ian & Luke.
Current students: refer your friends with our “give a lesson, get a lesson” coupon! If they sign up for classes, you get a free lesson credit!
Student Success🏆
Every month we’re highlighting some of the successes of our students. Proud of something chess-related? Send me photos!
Congrats to Wells A., who played his first tournament and got 3/4, only losing to the #1 seed! He beat up on some 1200s as well!
My story 🖼️
Our programs are in about 15 schools around the US! Most of them are in Chicagoland, but we also have 2 programs in California. Here’s a photo of me tabling at the Hawthorne Elementary School Fair (Chicagoland), where I met some young einsteins. In 45 minutes, one child learned how to move the pieces, developed novel strategies, and even properly pinned!
Monthly Tournament♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Wednesday, October 18th, 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 32 students, both kids & adults!
To Play: Reply to this email or press the big green button here. If you haven’t already, you also have to join the MM team and press the MM October arena. The Zoom for the tournament is here, and the password is Smile.
Congrats last month to Adarsh, Yoan, & Gavin! You rock, guys!
Chess News 📰
Congrats to our coach Fabian Vivas, who tied for 2nd place in the South American Championship! He ended up drawing against a grandmaster last round of the South American Championship and missing his chance at first place, but did very well!
🧙🏼♂️ Jeremy Silman: The Chess Lover Who Wrote for America and Harry Potter. The IM Jeremy Silman was a talented chess player and writer who wrote almost all of best sellers of the English chess coaching world. He wrote books that transformed chess teaching and advised on the chess scene in the Harry Potter movie (remember that chess scene in the first movie). He passed away on September 21 after a long illness.
🌶️ Young Chess Masters Battle for Glory in Mexico City The 2023 FIDE World Junior Chess Championship is underway in Mexico City, where the best players under 20 years old compete in 11 rounds of classical chess. The top seeds are GM Hans Niemann and IM Carissa Yip, both from the U.S.A. Live games on the Championship site.
🔥 Carlsen crushes Nakamura and says he’s unbeatable. Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura in speed and rapid chess on the first day of the AI Cup, the latest Chess Tour stage. He had previously ended GM Hikaru Nakamura's incredible streak of five consecutive titles in the 2023 Rapid Chess Championship. He also boasted in the interview that no one can match him on the chess battlefield.
⏰ Duda Wins Armageddon Chess: A Game-Changer. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda clinched the 2023 Armageddon Championship Series with €80,000. The event highlights short-form chess and broadcasting innovations, with top players, networks, visuals, and heart rates.
🌏 Chess is Back to the Asian Games After 13 Years. The 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, welcomed chess back to its program after a long break. The chess events include four competitions for men and women, with rapid and classical time controls. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich hopes that chess will eventually become an Olympic sport. The Asian Games features top players from 20 countries.
👨🏻💼 Nepo Rocks Levitov Chess Week Again. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi dominated the last day of the Levitov Chess Week in Amsterdam and won it for the second time. He outplayed GM Peter Svidler and GM Levon Aronian by two points, while Svidler faltered with three losses. The tournament was a chess fest, courtesy of Ilya Levitov and his wife, Adele!
🏰 Albania Welcomes Chess Clubs from All Over Europe. The European Chess Club Cup and the European Club Cup for Women will start on Sunday, October 1, in Durres, Albania. The event is the biggest ever, with 110 teams and 720 players including 150 grandmasters. The opening ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 30, in the evening. The prize fund is 45.000 EUR and the best Balkan players will get an extra 500 EUR.
👨🏻🦳 U.S.A. Conquers the World Team 50+ Chess Championship! The US Team secured the 2023 World Chess Championship 50+ in Struga, N. Macedonia with a 4–0 sweep of Poland in the last round. Many of these grandmasters are my former teachers at various chess camps!
The team overcame a setback against Italy in round seven and got a boost from Iceland, who held Italy to a draw in round eight. The U.S. dominated all four games in the final round and claimed the title!
Fun Facts💡
🚗This is such an ingenious way to make your plate stand out 😎. My van says “MM Chess”!
🐓Is Magnus getting too cocky? In a recent interview, he was asked if he believed Hikaru Nakamura was his main contender, to which he answered “There are tiers, the first one it’s like no contenders… A bit below that is Hikaru, he’s definitely the second after no rivals.”
⌚You can play chess on your Apple Watch. I just found out about this! Although you’re going to be missclicking all the time it’s probably a good way to kill time at the airport.
😬Niemann is -again- in the spotlight. This time for beefing against the Botez sisters! In some sense, he has a point alleging that it’s no bueno to promote gambling and profit from that. Is poker, a skill-based game that’s more luck than skill, gambling? What do you think?
🤷♂️A small incident from Garry Kasparov's simul against the US Junior Team from 1988. Garry plays a boring variation with black against two of the teens, one of them plays on, the other accepts draw offer (that he proposed!), and Garry loses his temper and won't shake hands and rants at the kid under his breath about wasting a chance to play the world champion. At which point Garry apologizes twice then goes back to ranting the kid out even more quietly. Was Garry justified? (From min 3 on).
🤐Some guy found this chess set in his basement. It looks pretty old but it’s also so creepy 😂