Accepting inevitable failure also means accepting inevitable success

Hans Niemann shares unique insights into his chess career

Welcome to my substack

My relationship with social media has been quite tumultuous throughout the past year.

I didn't post on a single platform for an entire year. Traditional social media platforms are not very productive for my chess training, as their

algorithms are designed to get you hooked on quick dopamine hits. I still wanted to connect

with and grow my audience while sharing insight into my life as a chess player. Chess players don't correctly describe the real lifestyle that we chess professionals live. When Substack was recommended, I immediately realized that this was a great way

to build a community and share my thoughts on the chess world and sometimes the outside world. I have always enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts. This community will serve as

a way for me to document my progress as a chess player and all my unique experiences in my world travels. So many absolutely crazy things seem to happen to me every week, and I've always thought that it was pitiful that I never got to share. Readers

of these newsletters might only be serious chess players hoping I will

give instructional chess feedback. This is not to say that there won't be serious chess content,

but my life experiences within and outside chess have taught me

a lot about the world, and I believe these important life lessons must be shared.

Additionally, many things have been written about me in the mainstream media. So I certainly

I would like to offer another perspective of the supposedly illustrious Hans Niemann.

I hope that this develops into a community of not only chess players but a diverse group of people who

not only find the game of chess interesting but the different ways that the game of chess and the lifestyle

Its surroundings are a perfect microcosm to understand daily life, business, and culture.

I want to start my first newsletter by going through different moments of my life where things

were completely out of my control and shifted my life in a different direction. At 7, my mother told me

we were moving to France for her work. I lived in Laguna Beach then and was a very normal kid.

Little did I know, this would be the beginning of any form of normalcy in my life. Instead of moving to Paris, Oracle, my mother's company, relocated her to the Netherlands. At the time, the Netherlands seemed much less enticing than France. Nonetheless, I was quite a curious young boy and didn't mind exploring. As soon as we arrived, my parents decided to put

me in a regular public Dutch school without speaking any Dutch. I nervously went to school, unable to

communicate with classmates. During lunch, I would meet with a tutor, and she would teach me Dutch with flashcards.

For some reason, the umbrella flashcard is vividly engrained in my memory, yet after I moved back to America, my Dutch fluency

became a thing of the past. After six months, I was fluent and assimilated adequately into Dutch society. The name Hans Niemann

certainly made it easier. You are probably wondering how this relates to my chess career, but during my stint in public

school, I constantly complained that the classes were too easy. My parents, convinced I was a genius, had me

take an IQ test to gain admission into the prestigious Leanordo School. It is an international branch of schools where an IQ

test is the entrance exam. After scoring quite well on this exam, I attended this school where chess was mandatory, and that is how my life changed forever. With my newfound confidence in being a super genius, I was not very pleased when the chess coach told me I wasn't good enough to be a part of the school team at the national championships. I immediately

called my mother, complaining that my genius wasn't recognized. This was the beginning of others' doubts about my potential, resulting in me working tirelessly to prove them wrong. I have always wondered if I would still become a chess player if I never moved to the Netherlands. I'd like to believe that I was fated to be a chess player and that I would have discovered the game at some point. I was briefly introduced to chess at the age of 5 during Christmas when my aunt had a Christmas-themed chess set, yet I didn't take it too seriously then. I made decent progress in the Netherlands, but we moved back to the Bay Area after two and a half years. Little did I know then that the Bay Area produced the most chess talents in America. Probably because of the density of tournaments and chess clubs. I was in the perfect place to develop as a chess player; I played every tournament I could, sometimes two a day. While I could continue, I'd like to skip to a more recent critical moment of my career. March 2020 probably stands out to everyone as a turning point in our lives, but it was significant for me. I lived in New York then and was a Junior in High School. I was already financially independent at the time, practically emancipated. I was teaching chess almost full-time to support myself, and when COVID hit, all of my classes were canceled. I needed another way to make money, so I started streaming to pass the time. This was an extremely important period for me, as I could compete against the best players in the world, and I slowly started to believe in myself again. The idea of becoming a chess professional suddenly became possible. From March 2020 until

In November 2020, I played thousands of blitz games against the best players in the world, and I slowly became convinced that I had a lot of potential and that I would not let it go to waste. So, on December 8th, I made one of the best decisions of my life. I was supposed to play two tournaments in Charlotte over the holidays, and I already booked tickets and a hotel and paid entry fees. However, a tournament in Spain followed by two in Italy offered better opportunities to compete against stronger opposition. Three days before the tournament, I made the impulsive decision to forfeit around 2000 dollars and fly to Spain during peak COVID measures to get my Grandmaster title at all costs. I didn't expect to not return to America until May 1st, 2021. I stayed in Europe, living in hotels and playing tournaments nonstop with almost no rest.

My rating was 2472 when I left, but six months later, I returned with a rating of 2566. My hard work had paid off, and absolutely nothing would stop me. Something that should be noted is that I was still a Senior in High School and didn't attend classes for almost four months. If not for COVID-19, my absence would certainly have raised a few more eyebrows. Despite my four month absence, I did show up to give a talk to parents of potential students about the chess program and how supportive the school has been. So, the school wasn't too inclined to punish me for my flexible attendance. I finished about four months of work in 2 weeks, so it's not like my education suffered. If not for COVID-19, I might have continued to college, which would be a path to endless misery. I have always wondered if I could have made it as a chess player, and I am very happy that I sacrificed so much. This should be a lesson to everyone when you get your chance, even if it is a complete long shot. You have to take it because that regret will stay with you forever. I have lived in hotels for the past three years, taking every single opportunity that presented itself. Was it miserable to live out of a suitcase at times or completely exhausted from the endless traveling? Of course. But to live life is to live without regrets and without hesitation to do what you know is necessary. Sometimes, we need some help from the universe to point us in the right direction. When you feel like your chance comes, take it.