[HN Gopher] Tani Adewumi is now a chess master
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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.
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