Issue 13 | MM Chess
Welcome back to the 13th 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.
In December we welcome the newest MMChess.org students: Bradley, William and Lennon, and welcome back Irina and Sebastian!
1st MM Chess Tournament 🏁
And one more exciting things… announcing the MM Chess Tournament! The tournament will happen on Tuesday, 12/29 at 10:30am EST. I invite all the MM Chess students to join the tournament and the Zoom from 10:20am - 12pm EST. More details to come later this month.
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4945297684
Sign Up: https://lichess.org/tournament/zZoXMuEB
My story 🖼️
December marks a year since I started MM Chess with the simple idea that chess lessons should:
Be affordable
Be taught by qualified coaches; and
That chess teachers can give over confidence, analytical thinking, and serve as good role models through chess lessons.
On our one-year anniversary, we’ve grown to more than 50 active students. For those taking lessons, thank you for giving us a chance — and I always welcome your feedback!
Chess News This Month 📰
😂 The World Champion Was Forced To Use A Salt Shaker. An article from The Onion.
🧠 Watch The World Championship, Live. The world championship between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi is being played from November 23rd to December 16th, with one long game a day. You can watch it live on Youtube, starting 7am EST.
💥 The World Championship Games Have Been Chaotic. GothamChess has a great recap of Game 1 below. Despite ending in a draw, both Magnus and Ian had chances.
⚔️ “That’s My Boy!” - Anand on the World Championship. On the aforementioned YouTube link, Viswanathan Anand is one of the live commentator. He clearly has a favorite!
🥇 The Next Generation Of Indian Chess Players Is Here! At the Lindores Abbey Blitz tournament Tata Steel Chess Rapid, relatively unknown 18-year-old Arjun Erigaisi swept the floor and outplayed more than a dozen top-20 players.
🏆 Firoujza is the new World #2. A clear prodigy since he began playing at 8, Alireza Firouzja at 18 is the youngest player EVER to break 2800, breaking the record that Magnus Carlsen set. Originally from Iran, he won the Iranian championship at 12. Calling it now: I predict that he will be a future world champion!
Chess Ideas 💡
🌎 A (Difficult) Outdoor Puzzle. This puzzle (I couldn’t find where it was drawn) was composed by Nikolaj Ivanovich Belik, and published in the Cherkasy Pravda in 1990. Send me a message with the answer!
🌎 Chess Opening Names. A user made a “map” of all the chess openings. Warning: black openings are after 1. e4 (King’s Pawn).