Issue 23 | MM Chess
It’s the 23rd 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: Jocelyn, Kailash, Evelyn, Elise, Lydia, Arkady, Vians, Ian, Rey, Uma, Armaan, Ananya, Yusuf, Elliot, Shrey, Viaan, Ella, Lily, Kaiden, Gio, Arkady, Eva!
My story 🖼️
This month’s chess news has been dominated by cheating scandals… but I can tell you they’re not new. Around 2009, phones and iPods had strong enough chess apps to help players win tournaments. I remember overhearing grandmasters evaluating games, lowly players checking their phones in the bathroom, and more. I remember the World Open 2013 when a 30-year-old had his father walk in the proper “aisle” (they would create a virtual chess board. For example, the father would stand in the 4th row, 2nd aisle if the pawn was going to g4).
Circa mid-2010s, all electronics were banned. Here is me at the US Under-18 Nationals in 2010 (I was the co-champion), still wearing headphones and blasting Eminem’s new album!
Monthly Tournament ♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will take place on Monday, October 17 at 7pm EST (6pm CT, 5pm MT, 4pm PT). Most of the players will be rated from 500-1800. The tournaments typically have 25-40 students- kids & adults! The Zoom for the tournament is here, and the password is Smile.
To Play: Reply to this email, join the MM team (if you haven’t already) and press the big green button here.
To Attend The Beginner Lesson: Don’t feel ready to play? Help me find the best moves during the tournament games on the Zoom link.
Congrats to Michael (Gold), Ali (Silver), and Yoan (Bronze) this month! There were some big upsets and unexpected wins.
Chess News 📰
🥇There are now 5 (!!) players under 21 who are super-grandmasters, rated over 2700.
🧵 Cheating is the big chess drama this month. Here is what happened, chronologically:
On September 4th, American chess prodigy (world #40) Hans Niemann, who is 19, played world champion Magnus Carlsen and won.
On September 5th, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, hinting it was because he was cheated against. This was the first time Magnus, a generally respected player, withdrew. Hans was permanently banned by chess.com as well.
Various chess grandmasters piped in on both sides, and the topic was covered by every major news source, including our father Elon Musk.
On September 6th, Hans Neimann admitted to cheating on chess.com when he was 12 and 16, against random players.
In response, Chess.com mentioned that they had detailed evidence contradicting Hans’ claim that he cheated “only a few times.”
The renowned cheating expert Kenneth Regan says Neimann didn’t cheat. Top-10-player-in-the-world Fabiano Caruana says that the expert’s analysis should be taken with a grain of salt, he had a personal experience with a cheater who was exonerated based on the Regan analysis. Many other top-10 chess players say they know of cheaters who haven’t been caught.
On September 19th, Carlsen had to play Neimann in a different tournament. He resigns after move 2 in protest.
On Sept 26th, Magnus Carlsen released a statement that Hans “wasn’t fully concentrating on the game.”
On Sept 27th, Chess.com leaked that Heimann’s grandmaster coach, Max Dlugy, cheated many times on chess.com.
On Sept 29th, former world champion Garry Kasparov says he doesn’t see evidence Neimann cheated. He says Magnus had “poor play.”
On Sept 29th, Chess.com asked for patience, as they are compiling a report.
This is where we are now!
🐦What does Misha think? I think that a lot smarter players than me can decide this. Here is what I’ve gathered, though:
Cheating is very rampant in chess. But it is very hard to cheat in tournaments nowadays, mostly with so many people watching.
A player like Hans (#40) only needs help with 2-3 moves against Magnus to tip the scales. He can figure out the rest by himself.
I don’t know if, or how, Hans cheated. It’s not as easy as wearing a wire.
Spotting computer moves is very difficult, but possible. The first generation of computers was fed millions of games, and learned how to play from other humans. The second generation uses AI and plays millions of games against itself until it’s perfected. To spot cheaters, one looks for unnatural moves. Computers will often sacrifice a piece, just to win it back 20 moves later (humans can’t evaluate that many nodes).
I haven’t seen any significant evidence that points to Hans cheating, but I don’t take chess.com and Magnus Carlsen speaking lightly either.
👧Scandal #2: “chess is maybe not for women,” said a live commentator on a women’s event. Gender discrimination is nothing new in chess, and there’s something about Soviet-born grandmasters always speaking their minds. The Grandmaster got kicked off from being a future commentator anywhere.
Fun Facts💡
👩👩👧 Who was the world champion for 1 year, but continues to captivate the chess world? Follow me on Twitter for more chess stories.
📈 Chess players like aggressive openings (well, most of them). Magnus Carlsen plays 1. e4 (a more aggressive opening) about half the time; he seems to play a little bit of everything.
🤓 Chess helps kids think. A speech made by renowned British psychologist Amanda Aldercote at the London Chess Conference. Here she emphasizes that chess enhances schoolchildren's cognitive development, which may increase their overall success.
🤔 Which is the best age for kids to start learning chess? If you need some help deciding the right time for your kids’ brain stimulation, Laura Sherman and Bill Kilpatrick, authors of Chess Is Child’s Play — Teaching Techniques That Work, will respond to all your doubts in this article.
Friends of MM Chess Spotlight 🔦
I want to highlight a friend of mine, Marina Poplavskaya-Guedouar, the mother of an intelligent 6-year-old student at MM. She’s an operatic performer with leading soloist roles with the Bolshoi Theater, London’s Royal Opera, and the Met Opera. She offers voice and performance lessons (this is not a sponsored post, I just think she’s cool!).
🏆 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 beating 1200! He’s having a meteoric rise from 500 to 800 this month.
Congratulations to Aarav and his coach Gabriel, who got 1st place in a rapid tournament (one of the first he’s ever played!).
Congratulations to Kenneth and his coach Gabriel, who got 4st place in his first tournament!