Issue 14 | MM Chess
Welcome back. It’s the 14th 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 January we welcome the newest MMChess.org students: Grant, Colin, Lilly, Yeojoo, Matthew, Ryan, Sean, Tadhg, Abhik, and Henry!
My story 🖼️
My parents likes to brag that my dad taught me to play at 3 years, 10 months. Here’s me trying to teach the game to my sister, circa ~1997. (And by the way, age isn’t so important - the world champion only learned at 5.)
Chess News This Month 📰
🏆 Well, Magnus Carlsen is still the World Champion. Magnus Carlsen won the world championship decisively in 11 games, 7.5 - 3.5. The loser, Ian Nepomniachtchi, took home 800,000 Euros for second place. Not bad being second best in the world.
🧠 A 17 Year Old Is the World Rapid (<1 Hour Game) Chess Champion. There are 3 main types of chess tournaments: Standard: more than 1 hour per side, Rapid, wheres end within a hour (for example, 25 minutes on the chess clock per side), and Blitz, where games are less than 15 minutes.
💥 A 17 Year Old Is ALSO the Women’s Blitz (<15 Minutes Game) Champion. Kazakh Women’s Grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva took down the best of the best in the Women’s World Championship. These young players are showing what they' learned during the pandemic!
🥇 Arik Armstead is the San Francisco 49ers Chess Champion. It was their first “championship.”
Tournaments Have Big Prize Funds. Where Is That Coming From? Unlike American football or soccer worldwide, chess is much harder to follow. Luckily, in the past 15 years, chess has benefited from many online sponsors, with 12.84 million Euros in prizes coming from FIDE, the intentional chess organization.
😂 Chess Has A 50-Move Draw Rule. In a tournament, if no pieces are exchanged in 50 moves, it is considered a draw. Unfortunate for Egyptian grandmaster Amin Bassem, who’s 51 move would have been checkmate (black plays Rg8, white does Rxg8 mate).
Chess Ideas 💡
⚔️ Why Were Soviets So Good At Chess? "It was a game of skill, and the USSR prided itself on its intellectual talents. It was cheap, and anyone could play it. And to Soviet leaders, its back-and-forth dynamic reflected the dialectical concept of history.” Even today, if you look at the top chess players, many of them come from the Soviet Union.
🌎 How Many Grandmasters Are In Every Country? Based on 2020 statistics, the USA has 85, Israel has 40, India has 36, and China as 34.