MM July Tournament And The First Time India is Hosting The Chess Olympics
The best monthly chess newsletter you receive.
Issue 20 | MM Chess
It’s the 20th 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. We welcome the newest MMChess.org students: Yoav, Johan, Yosef, William, Aziza, Gavin, Adi, Edward, Kingston, Luke, and Gurpreet!
My story 🖼️
As some of you know, I got married last summer. This month, Yana and I finally went on our honeymoon to France and Italy. By happenstance, I ran into an old student that moved to Paris last year. I can’t believe how small the world is and regret not getting a selfie!
Monthly Tournament ♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Monday, July 25th at 8pm EST (7pm CT, 6pm MT, 5pm PT). Most of the players will be rated from 500-1800. The Zoom for the tournament is here, and the password is Smile.
To Play: Reply to this email, or press the big green button here.
To Watch: Don’t feel ready to play? I will be analyzing the games live - we’ll be looking for the best moves during the tournament. Come join me!
Chess News 📰
🇮🇳 India is hosting the Chess Olympics later this month. India has become a world-class chess nation in the last 30 years. The Chess Olympiad (AKA the Chess Olympics) is being hosted in India for the first time, where 2,000-plus players from over 185 countries will compete from July 26 and August 8.
🔥 A torch relay for the Chess Olympiad? With an impressive ceremony at the IG Stadium in New Delhi, India stepped up the game: PM Modi handed the torch to 5-time world champion Anand!
👦 Who Plays For The World Championship? FIDE, the international body of chess, created a system: the winners (“candidates”) of major tournaments during the year play in the Candidates Tournament for a chance to challenge Magnus Carlsen.
With only a few rounds to go, last year’s challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi is in the lead. See the games, results, and live broadcast FIDE Candidates tournament.
👧 Irene Jiao Fei wins the Under-9 FIDE World School Chess Championship in Panama. It’s good to see that the US wins “gold” again!
🇺🇦 MM Chess sent food packages to Ukraine. I sent funds directly to coach WIM Maria Efimenko, who diligently worked to find volunteers that bought and distributed food and baby formula to the front lines in Kharkiv and Zaporozskii Oblast right next to Donbas earlier this week.
Fun Facts💡
💯 Top 100 Players By Age. The US Chess Federation keeps these lists and updates them regularly. Many of you aren’t too far from making it to the top 100!
🗺️ Many US states have chess openings named after them. Can you guess what these chess openings are? No, they aren’t all the Maine line.
🖱️ Hikaru reflexively reaches for a mouse….in an in-person game. Hikaru is the greatest chess streamer of all time AND #8 in the world. Here, he’s playing the Candidates tournament mentioned above. Ha!
🏆 Student Success
Every month, we’ll be highlighting some of the successes of our students. Please send me a message if you need help finding local tournaments to attend.
Congratulations to Adi (and his coach Steven) for 3rd place, under 1600!
Congratulations to Danny (and his coach Emanuel) as well!
That’s all, folks!