[HN Gopher] Tani Adewumi is now a chess master ___________________________________________________________________ Tani Adewumi is now a chess master Author : Dangeranger Score : 39 points Date : 2021-05-08 19:50 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com) | 29athrowaway wrote: | This may be a better link for this event. | | https://new.uschess.org/news/tani-adewumi-national-master-ag... | [deleted] | havermeyer wrote: | Archive link: | http://archive.today/2021.05.08-195117/https://www.nytimes.c... | szundi wrote: | Now we all know who had money to spend on this newspaper. | dane-pgp wrote: | An inspiring story, but the writer makes a thought-provoking | point: | | "Winning state chess tournaments is not a scalable solution to | child homelessness." | | It's a pity that needs to be highlighted, but it's a reminder of | how complicated the problem of homelessness is. | AkshatM wrote: | What makes homelessness complicated as a problem? It seems like | there are many straightforward solutions to it from a | government policy perspective - pairing rent control with | welfare, building more housing tenements, and in general | building out a social safety net. In what way are these | solutions insufficient? | compiler-guy wrote: | Many people on the street have mental health issues. Yes, | just having more housing would go a long way, but many choose | to live on the street rather than deal with rules about drugs | or caring for the housing. | | Also rent control keeps the lucky few in their home, but | doesn't get people off the street. | lisper wrote: | Homelessness is not a single problem but a manifestation of | at least half a dozen different underlying problems, | including mental illness, substance abuse, housing policy, | and personal choices. It's very, very complicated. | | Source: I spent four years hanging out with homeless people | and made a documentary film about the experience: | | http://graceofgodmovie.com/ | sky_rw wrote: | Doesn't seem that thought provoking. Winning chess tournaments | isn't a scalable solution to any problem. | dane-pgp wrote: | I think what struck me was the juxtaposition of how well it | worked as a solution for Tani's situation, compared to how | poorly it would work in general. | | No one would be surprised to hear that this solution doesn't | scale, but the thoughts that it provokes in me are questions | like "How does society produce outcomes that are nearly as | good, but which can help more than just one person?" | | Often there is an 80:20 approach, or the hard part is going | from helping zero people to helping one person, but there | doesn't seem like there's any way to adapt the success here | to other instances of the same problem. | | In fact, the magnitude of the success here could even be a | distraction from more scalable solutions, either because | people think that all such stories must have a happy ending, | or that the only people who deserve such a positive outcome | are those who are lucky enough to have rare talents. | ChrisMarshallNY wrote: | Local boy makes good (I am from both Nigeria and Long Island). | comodore_ wrote: | Besides his age, the main reason for this story is probably the | fact that he is a homeless teenager and that it is very rare that | kids with such a background excel. He cannot be the only one who | is obviously highly gifted, it is a tragedy that these children | are deprived by the system to be sufficiently empowered and thus | sustainably break the cycle of poverty. | | This, and the fact that california is planning to eliminate or | drastically reduce the gifted education program in calculus in | the name of equity!, which essentially will deprive especially | gifted poor kids of even the slightest chance to get noticed, | makes me sad and incredibly angry at the same time. | eBombzor wrote: | Source? | t-writescode wrote: | Hey, I just heard about him on GothamChess. Good for him! | [deleted] | bko wrote: | > Told that Tani needed a top chess coach to develop, the family | scrimped and hired a grandmaster, Giorgi Kacheishvili, to coach | Tani three times a week. | | Honest question, could you be an effective chess coach if you're | not a better chess player than the student? | | [Edit] Tani has a rating of 2223 and Giorgi's rating is 2582, so | it appears Giorgi is better | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgi_Kacheishvili | Kranar wrote: | Being a good coach isn't really about "uploading" existing | knowledge, but a lot more like being a good manager. The role | has more to do with things like maintaining good discipline and | habits, keeping you motivated and focused on your objective, | organizing your schedule, identifying key areas for | improvement, being on the lookout for opportunities, so on so | forth... | prezjordan wrote: | Not a very good chess player but I'd imagine it's a similar | phenomenon to any sports coach. Tani clearly has an incredible | ability that his coach can help unlock. EDIT: This is a really | good question and I like these answers - unsure why OP is being | downvoted! | qsort wrote: | At a low level, obviously no, you can't. At a professional | level, you are more of a sparring partner than a teacher. Maybe | you're an expert of a certain opening or endgame, or you're | trying to identify specific weaknesses in someone else's game. | mtbomb wrote: | 1. Tani is rapidly moving up the ranks. He's only 10. | Presumably the rating difference was much larger just a few | months ago. | | 2. 300 points is still quite a large rating difference. | | 3. In many disciplines the best practitioners are often not the | best coaches. You might speculate that being the very best and | most talented would make a worse coach since the struggle to | increasing levels was easier. | | 4. Even Tiger Woods had a coach at his peak. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-05-08 23:01 UTC)