It’s the 41st 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: Suyash, Adriano, Warren, Michaela, Chloe, Luke, Oliver Evie, & Konstantin.
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!
David’s student, Phillip Schiff, took the 2nd place in u1400 Southern Class 2024 Florida!
Gabriel’s student, Shrey Satish won 1st place in a scholastic tournament, he won all 5 games.
Yeison’s 7-year-old student Raphael has been playing chess for about a year. He just won 1st place in the U1400 section!
“Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of having an evil thought during the game.”
– Wilhelm Steinitz
My story 🖼️
I have many jobs. After-school chess programs are notoriously hard to run because there are a lot of logistics: finding a good teacher, insurance, and student drop-off coordination, to name a few. That’s one of the reasons I became the Midwest Director of Nexplore After-School Enrichment. Reach out if you’d like a chess program at your school!
“I go over many games collections and pick up something from the style of each player.”
– Mikhail Tal
Monthly Tournament♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Friday, April 19th, at 6:00 pm EST (5:00 pm CT, 4:00 pm MT, 3:00 pm PT). Most of the players will be rated from 500-1800. In the last tournament, there were 29 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 April Arena.” The Zoom for the tournament is here.
Congrats last month to Aarav, Sophie, and Artur! You rock, guys!
(Jaden with his prize last year!)
“Weak points or holes in the enemy position must be occupied by pieces, not pawns.”
-Siegbert Tarrasch
Chess News 📰
🤯 Mini-Masters Unleashed: Why Your Kid Could Be the Next Chess Sensation! Breaking Records and Making History, the pandemic has turned the chess world upside down, with kids achieving grandmaster status earlier than ever. It’s a checkmate from the next generation!
👑 Calling All Chess Queens: Let’s Rule the Olympiad! FIDE’s “Empowering Queens of the Chessboard” project aims to boost women’s teams at the upcoming Olympiad. Join the chess revolution!
🤖 Brain vs. Board: How a Chip Turned Paralysis into Chess Triumph! From wheelchair-bound to chessboard conqueror—this incredible journey will leave you amazed!
✨ Chess Magic: Meet Dolly Teasley, the Olympiad Medalist Who Disappeared Like a Chess Wizard! From newspaper reporter to IBM tech writer, Dolly’s life took a twist. But her chess prowess remained legendary. Get ready for her inspiring checkmate story!
🏆 Calling All Mini Grandmasters! Join the Ultimate Chess Adventure! The first-ever FIDE World Cup for young chess enthusiasts is happening in Batumi, Georgia. Kids aged U8, U10, and U12 can battle it out in this epic tournament!
“All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess”
– Bobby Fischer
Fun Facts💡
🦕The Oldest Known Chess Problem Dates Back to 9th Century Baghdad! It's a Shatranj (predecessor of chess) puzzle, but since the pieces involved (king, pawns, and possibly rooks) function very similarly to their chess counterparts, it's considered the oldest chess problem.
🤖 ChatGPT’s Inability to Recommend Good Chess Moves is just a show of how complex chess is, and how beautifully smart we are in predicting the future, or better said -thinking strategically-
☝️ Chess is a Mandatory Subject in Armenia, maybe that’s why they have won every single major chess title a country can win, like the Olympics, world team champions, and European champions!
It’s cool to see culture and education resulting in this proliferation of the sport in a country. Like how Finland (where the driver’s license course is the hardest in the world) dominates rally.
📢 Garry Kasparov Wasn't Just a Genius on the Board but Also a Popular critic of Russia’s Government, something that in 2013, made him decide to relocate and show us how big of an influence athletes can be on the masses! Today he splits his time between the US and Croatia.
📱 We have Grandmasters as Young as the iPhone! Back in 2007, Steve Jobs announced Apple’s groundbreaking phone, in the coming years GMs Marc'Andria Maurizzi and Bharath Subramaniyam were born, and GM Abhimanyu Mishra in 2009.