It’s the 28th 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 students: Anthony, Noah Yu, Chi, Siddharth, Jasper, Tristan, Jason, Mike and his wife (Valentine’s Day present!), Bianca’s husband (Valentine’s again!), Santosh, Ryan, Shrey, Priyansh, Alyssa, Sebastian, Carter, Jack, Evelyn, Jane, Vihaan, Ved, Neysa, Abhinav, Lauro, Prassana’s son, Martin, Saira, Tanish, Jace, Rio, Amanda, Ritam, and we welcome back Gabriel!
Student Success🏆
Every month we’re highlighting some of the successes of our students. Proud of something chess-related? Send me the photo!
Congrats to Rapha, who scored 1st place with 4/4 in the 500-900 category! And he’s only been playing chess for half a year!
Our student Gideon R. is a Youtuber! Follow Gideon for more great chess content.
My story🖼️
No big story this month, and it’s not even my anniversary. I just appreciate my wife (she let me top our wedding cake with chess pieces 😊)!
Monthly Tournament♟️
📅 This month’s tournament will occur on Wednesday, March 15th, 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 53 students, both kids & adults!
To Play: Reply to this email or press the big green button here (or here if you’re over 1500) 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 Yoan (Gold), Anish (Silver), and Saketh (Bronze)!
Chess News 📰
🙌 Just in 2023, India reaches its 4 new Chess Grandmasters (GMs)! Sayantan Das, a 26-year-old, emerged victorious at the Cannes Open with a score of 7.5 out of nine and became the 81st Chess Grandmaster of India. It's amazing to see the number of GMs produced every decade. This chart displays the total number of GMs and the average number of GMs per year for each decade. The Chess boom is undoubtedly real!
🥵 The longest match at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament was 6 hours long and only 85 moves… And ended in a DRAW! Imagine battling for 6 hours and still not winning the match…at least after a long tennis match, someone emerges as a winner!
😎 GM Vidit Gujrathi won against Magnus Carlsen in a Pro Chess League encounter on Tuesday. World #19 Vidit played for Indian Yogis and Carlsen for Canada Chess Brahs. It seems that Magnus has a lot to all the up-and-coming Indian GMs!
😱 Cheater Alert! During the fifth round of the Romanian Championship, a player named Paul-Stelian Mihalache was expelled from the tournament after a phone was discovered in the restroom showing his game's position after move 15. C’mon guys, you have got to get more creative than the bathroom-in-phone.
🤝 The Russian Chess Federation decided to join the Asian Chess Federation. One of the main benefits of joining the Asian Chess Federation is the exposure it provides to a wider range of players and tournaments because they can’t play in Europe because… well… Russian atrocities in Ukraine.
Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com
😟 GM Alejandro Ramirez was accused by Jen Shahade of sexual misconduct involving minors. Unfortunately, I saw it with my own eyes back in 2010-2013.
😂 ChatGPT just made its debut in chess! Making really weird (and laughable) moves against Stockfish (Chess.com’s chess bot). On YouTube, the well-known streamer Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman (who reached 3M subscribers recently!) presents a game in which ChatGPT allegedly played against the Stockfish. This is pure comedy!
🥳 Levon Aronian wins WR Chess Masters 2023 and at on the last day, the organizers put together a bughouse (2 vs. 2 chess) tournament for all the participants! Fun fact: I’ve beaten many grandmasters at bughouse!
Fun Facts💡
⏲️ The longest-recorded chess game in history lasted over 20 hours! It was played between Ivan Nikolic and Goran Arsovic in Belgrade in 1989. This game consisted of 269 moves and lasted over 20 hours, ultimately ending in a draw. It is interesting to note that ten games have reached 200 moves or more in tournament play. However, a chess game can theoretically go up to 5,949 moves.
🤯In July 2005, Grandmaster Susan Polgar played against 326 opponents simultaneously. This happened at a shopping mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Out of the 326 games, she won 309, drew 14, and lost 3, achieving an impressive winning percentage of 96.93%.
♛Many players say Spain overpowered a single piece by giving it the freedom to move as many slots as you want (the queen). Now imagine having 6 on the same board! In a match between Szalanczy and Nguyen, Budapest 2009, 6 Queens were on the board at the same time! Who do you think won this game?
🏔️Iceland has the highest per capita chess population in the world. In December 2005, Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland, was home to 8 grandmasters, despite having a small population of 110,000. Moreover, Beersheva, a city in Israel, has the highest percentage of grandmasters per capita compared to any other city in the world!
📈 Chess analytics in one click for Lichess and Chess.com! ChessMonitor.com is a website that connects your accounts and gives you analytics about your games. Would you give it a try?
🤔 How can black defend the knight from coming in and taking rook/queen?
Isn’t he cute? 8-year-old Fabiano Caruana with his coach Bruce Pandolfini at Washington Square Park, New York, early 2000s!
