Magnus Carlsen Has A Personal Chef Named... Magnus
The best monthly chess newsletter you receive.
Issue 33 | MM Chess
It’s the 33rd 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 student: Moises!
Student Success🏆
Every month we’re highlighting some of the successes of our students. Proud of something chess-related? Send me photos!
Congrats to Aarav, who placed tied for 2nd in the Under 1800 and gained 100 points!
Congrats to Omar, who’s had a quick rise in 3 months from 1100 to almost 1600!
My story🖼️
Earlier this month, my wife and I took a timeshare vacation. Someone offered us a free hotel in Costa Rica if we attended a 2-hour presentation, so of course we had to take it. In the meantime, I met up with coaches Edwin Urbina and Emanuel Vaglio, and we got some great chess in!
Monthly Tournament♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Wednesday, August 23rd, 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 33 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 The Zoom for the tournament is here, and the password is Smile.
Congrats last month to Omar, Aarav, and Yoan!
Chess News 📰
❤️ Love is in the air, and on the chessboard! Two of the world’s best players have tied the knot and become a power couple. Hikaru Nakamura, the US superstar and bullet king, and Atousa Pourkashiyan, the Iranian champion and Olympian, have announced their marriage. They’ve been together for a while, but now they are officially a team. They are also one of the strongest chess couples ever, with a combined rating of over 5000! Congratulations to Hikaru and Atousa, who have found their perfect match in chess and in life!
👑 Ju Wenjun keeps her Women’s World Championship crown! Wenjun beat Lei Tingjie in a nail-biting final game to win her fourth world title and €300,000. Lei was a fierce challenger who got €200,000 for her efforts. Both players showed great chess spirit. They also shared some secrets and feelings after the match. Don’t miss Ju’s next challenge in the FIDE Women’s World Cup in Baku!
🧑🏽 Move over, Magnus! India’s whiz kid Dommaraju Gukesh just smashed the world record for the youngest player to reach a rating of 2750.
😮 Gukesh is one of the best Indian chess players of all time! The Chennai 17-year-old is now close to former world champion Anand’s rating after two wins in Turkey. He has been unstoppable since the Olympiad in 2022. His coach says he has an amazing self-belief that makes him stand out from the crowd.
💂🏻♀️ London was chess-mad as thousands flocked to ChessFest, the UK’s biggest chess bash. The free event had live chess, master challenges, ChessKid puzzles, and more. ChessFest also happened in Nottingham and Hull, where they beat London online. ChessFest 2024, it’s going to be epic!
🥇 Who’s the best chess player ever? For women, it’s Judit Polgar, no doubt. She’s a commentator now, but held the title for the strongest female chess player for 25 years. She was the only woman to reach 2700 as well.
📋 FIDE ratings are going down, and that’s bad for chess. FIDE has a plan to fix it: a rating bump for most players in January 2024, and some tweaks to the rating rules. They got Jeff Sonas, a math and chess whiz, to explain it in the link above. They invite us to give our feedback by email before September 30th, 2023. The final changes will be announced in December 2023 and in action in January 2024.
🧕🏻 Sara Khadem, an Iranian 26 years old chess star, ran away to Spain. She supports protesters in Iran who were mad over a woman’s death for not following the dress code. She got Spanish citizenship and played chess with the Prime Minister. Now she can live freely with her husband and son.
🌍 Chess Day in Monrovia: Training and Fun for All. The Liberia Chess Federation (LCF) celebrated International Chess Day on July 20, with a public training program in Monrovia and its surroundings. The event attracted both seasoned and novice chess players and encouraged young people, to take up chess as a tool for mental development and life preparation. LCF President, Mr. Thomas Karyah, said chess was not just a game; it was a sport that could give young people educational and career benefits.
Fun Facts💡
🎩This appearance of chess in “Sherlock Holmes: a game of shadows” is just so epic, you must see it.
🧑🍳 Magnus Carlsen has his own chef to prepare meals before matches. And his chef’s name is… Magnus.
Since chess can be such an energy-intensive game, many professional players prepare a diet plan before entering a championship or tournament. In this case, the Magnus² team is way ahead of competitors .
🍬 Chewing gum can help you make better players! I often chewed gum when I was tired - and to annoy my opponent. Chewing gum can be beneficial for concentration and focus, which could actually make you play better on the board.
Magnus Carlsen himself chews gum in games. Researchers say that the increase in concentration and memory, if true at all, could be caused by chewing, which producing a better oxygenation of the blood in the head. Are any doctors here? What do you think about this?
🏎️ Our favorite chess streamer are on F1? Yup, but not necessarily driving the car! As a part of Kick’s (a videogame streaming platform) sponsoring of the Alfa Romeo F1 team, they will include Hikaru.