EP 337- NM Nate Shuman- A Scholastic Champion on How Mindfulness Practices Helped Him & Can Help All Competitive Chess Players

Nate Shuman is a New York City-based high school student who founded an organization called Mindmates . Mindmates has already facilitated workshops for many of the top scholastic chess organizations in the New York City area. Nate has experienced the benefits of mindfulness first-hand, as it helped him get through a lengthy chess plateau that he felt threatened to sap the joy of chess from him. In our conversation, Nate shares a couple of basic mindfulness techniques that can help any tournament player, and he reflects on his own chess career, including a 7-year plateau while going from 2100 to 2200 USCF. You can find the timestamps for the topics discussed below. 0:00- Thanks to our presenting chess education sponsors, Chessable.com. Their new courses include Starting out with 1. D4 by GM Ben Finegold . And The Audacious Milner-Barry Gambit by NM Han Schut. You can also see a list of my recommended courses here: You can check out some of my recommended courses here: https://go.chessable.com/perpetual-chess-podcast/ 0:02- Nate shares how he got into chess at one of the top chess programs in the U.S. The Dalton School. How is chess taught there? Mentioned: WIM Beatriz Marinello, David MacEnulty, FM Gus Huston, NM Corey Evans, NM Yevgeny Feldman, GM Max Dlugy 13:00- What did Nate learn from experiencing a lengthy chess plateau at the 2100 level? 21:00- What is the vision behind Mindmates, Nate’s mindfulness-based organization, ? Mentioned: Episode 289 with Tony Ballard of The Gift of Chess Episode 155 with Elizabeth Spiegel 34:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What adjustments does Nate make for teaching younger kids?” Mentioned: How to Chess Episode 12 with Dr. Benjamin Portheault Dr. Benjamin Portheault’s course: https://mindfulness-for-the-tournament-player.teachable.com/p/mindfulness-for-the-tournament-player 38:00- Nate walks us through a couple of simple mindfulness exercises 46:00- Nate gives examples of affirmations chess players can use before games. 47:00- Nate discusses his future plans for MindMates. You can learn more about Mindmates via their website: https://www.mindmates.org/ Email: Nate.Shuman at Mindmatesdot.org Follow @MindmatesChess on Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices