Hello again chess-enjoying individuals! This week’s newsletter highlights more Olympiad-focused think pieces, some excellent chess improvement reflections, and also touches on books, chess history, and raising a prodigy as well. I hope you enjoy something in it (or everything).
The Olympiad Revisited
Colin McGourty shares 14 key takeaways from the Olympiad highlighting India’s dominance, Turkey’s ascendance and much more. (Chess.com News)
Leonard Barden takes a look back at a historic Olympiad. “On Wednesday, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, received the two Indian teams at his residence to congratulate them on their achievement, while Gukesh’s win against China’s Wei Yi has been awarded the Olympiad Best Game prize.” (The Guardian)
I envision this newsletter as primarily a tribute to written words about chess, so I don’t often link to videos (or podcasts), but the above 20 minute highlight reel of the Olympiad awards ceremony is beautifully done by the Chessbase India team. You can feel the camaraderie and palpable joy of the team members after a lifetime of intense work.
“OntheQueenside” highlights standout performances from the Women’s Olympiad. “This Olympiad belonged to the youth. All of the individual board gold medallists were 21 or younger. And every single one of the nine stars on this list are also 21 or under.” (LiChess Blog)
A proposal to remove FIDE sanctions against Russia was resoundingly defeated at the Olympiad (Tarjei Svensen for Chess.com)
Chess Improvement
Dr. Nick Vasquez is back with another great post summarizing why it is so dang hard to improve at things, including chess. “In my experience, that is the absolute beauty of a failure-based approach. You don’t need to wonder if you should be working on endgames, openings, strategy, or whatever the latest course is. You know exactly why you’re losing games.” (Chess In Small Doses)
FM Nate Solon explains the “blank slate drill,” a great method to actively review your openings (Zwischenzug)
Dr. Benjamin Portheault shares advice for how to focus, including a “just chess” drill. (Mindcreaser)
“TheOnoZone” writes about the Challenges and Rewards of Making Friends Through Chess (LiChess Blog)
Books
Renowned Irish novelist Sally Rooney is out with a new novel, Intermezzo, featuring a (fictional) character who is a competitive chess player. I am always curious how chess players will be portrayed in the arts. The good thing about novels is that the creators can’t put the pieces on the wrong squares (as is often done in film). (Constance Grady for Vox.com)
Nicholas Sloan on how reading GM Jonathan Rowson’s classic Seven Deadly Chess Sins led him to a realization about his own game. (Highground Chess)
Misc.
“Simaginfan” highlights the annotations of another all-time great, this time Alexander Alekhine. “Even as a lonely, isolated, homeless individual, in the most horrible of circumstances - alcohol dependent and basically living hand to mouth - he produced (outstanding annotations)” (Chess.com Blog)
The relaunched ICC is starting to post some news and chess interest stories. Here is Alejandro Oro, IM Faustino Oro’s dad reflecting on raising a prodigy. “As a parent, you never imagine that teaching your son to play chess could be a turning point in your family life, that something so trivial like teaching him how to play a game could turn everything upside down. (Internet Chess Club)
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