It’s the 40th issue (wow!) 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: Taeyang, Liam, Anton, Derek, Fletcher, Elisa, Artie & Philip.
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!
First off, congrats to Emanuel’s student Gavin Sexton for winning 1st place in the Unrated section of the 2nd MAGE Classic!
Congratulations to AJ’s student Srithan, for winning 3rd place!
And to Ray, Marc’s student for winning clear 1st!
“I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”
– Marcel Duchamp
My story 🖼️
Nexplore ran our first tournament of the year, the 2nd MAGE Classic, in Chicago! We had an incredible showing of 49 kids attending. MM Chess student Gavin Sexton won 1st place in the Unrated section, and MM Chess students from our school programs won many of the top prizes. I’m so proud!
“There is always something more to learn. Even for a master”
– Master Oogway 🐢
Monthly Tournament♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Tuesday, February 13th, at 7 pm EST (6 pm CT, 5 pm MT, 4 pm PT). Most of the players will be rated from 500-1800. In the last tournament, there were 26 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 February Arena.” The Zoom for the tournament is here.
Congrats last month to Ezra, Yoan, and BoringNames! You rock, guys!
(Jaden with his prize last year!)
“Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.”
– Rudolf Spielmann
Chess News 📰
🚀 17-year-old Gukesh joins the elite and qualifies for Candidates: GM Gukesh has made India proud by qualifying for the FIDE Candidates 2024, the tournament that determines who will face the world champion in a match. He is the youngest Indian to achieve this honor, and the second-youngest in the world, after Sergey Karjakin. He will join seven other top players in the Candidates, which will start in March 2024.
👸🏻 Lan Yao - The WGM who never gives up: Lan Yao has accomplished a great goal by becoming a WGM, the highest title for women in chess. She is a strong and determined player, who has also earned her first IM norm and her fifth WGM norm recently. She is a success story for chess and a mentor for women in chess.
🏆 Carlsen reigns supreme in Samarkand: Rapid and Blitz double. The world champion displayed his brilliance by winning both the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Uzbekistan. He is the only player to accomplish this four times in his career, holding all three titles at the same time. In the women’s section, Anastasia Bodnaruk and Valentina Gunina claimed the rapid and blitz titles respectively.
👽 Nakamura Wins Bullet Brawl With Extraterrestrial Gambit: GM Hikaru Nakamura won his 17th Bullet Brawl title with an impressive score of 67.5 points out of 73 games. He also tried a new opening novelty, the “Alien Gambit”, which he copied from a regular player. He overcame GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Jose Martinez, who came second and third respectively.
🤯 Leonid Ivanovic: The 8-Year-Old Chess Genius Who Beat A Grandmaster. Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia has created history by becoming the youngest player ever to beat a grandmaster in a classical chess game. He overcame GM Milko Popchev in the Belgrade Open, at the age of eight years, 11 months, and seven days. He is ranked fourth in the world for players born in 2015 or later.
👑 How to become a chess queen: FIDE and World Chess invite female players to join the Women’s Wednesday online tournament series. If you are a female chess player, you don’t want to miss the Women’s Wednesday online tournament series, hosted by FIDE and World Chess. This is a chance for you to compete with other women from around the world, improve your chess skills with the guidance of the world’s elite coaches, and win prizes. Women’s Wednesday is a celebration of women in chess, and a platform for you to shine.
“Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.”
– Rudolph Spielmann
Fun Facts💡
🧠The golden age of chess performance seems to be 25 to 37 years old, as well as mathematicians. On the other hand, most writers achieve peak productivity after turning 50! This says a lot about what exact mental processes are active when playing chess, and how your brain is working out.
🕵️Black pieces checking his opponent forty-three consecutive times? This happened in the match between Britton and Crouch in 1984.
😵Back in 1984 a match got so intense that the reigning champ, Mikhail Antipov, shed a whopping 22 pounds after a 5-month chess match! Crazy, right?
Fast forward to 2018, and scientists cracked the code on chess' hidden workout. Turns out, a two-hour chess match burns a cool 560 calories for a grandmaster – that's Federer-on-the-tennis-court territory! But next time you lose to your grandpa, don't feel bad – you just got a stealthy cardio session in!
📓 If you’ve followed us for long enough, you know chess is more than just a game played on checkered squares, but did you know it’s a mandatory subject in some schools? Yep, in the country of Armenia, every kid from the age of 6 gets to sharpen their strategic minds with pawns and bishops!
👀We’ve all dreamt of checkmating our opponent in a flash. The legendary "Fool's Mate" delivers just that! A quick two moves and you won the game, starring the Black Queen, it can happen in just two moves, but even beginners rarely fall for it.