Interview with Fun Master Mike, Chess Journalist of the Year

  Jennifer Shahade interviews FM Mike Klein of chess.com, now a three-time Chess Journalist of America of the Year (2012, 2015 and 2018), and this month’s Chess Life Magazine cover star. Topics range from the highs and lows of covering an Olympiad, the origin of “Fun Master” Mike and Mike Klein’s new podcast, “Extreme Travel Odysseys.” Jennifer Shahade (JS)- I just re-read our interview from 2012, the first time you won the CJA of the Year Award, and while chess media has changed a lot (and you now work for chess.com), many of the things you said really still resonated (like this):

 My "day job" is teaching chess, so when I go to report an event, I go from the smartest chess player in the room to a guy who tries not to say anything stupid. I ask a lot about emotions during the game, because you never know what a player will discuss. Once, Yury Shulman referenced a Bangladeshi Cricket match while being interviewed. You won't get that if you only ask, "Why didn't you play Ng5?" As for worst question, no player ever seems willing to admit that they have looked more than one game ahead in a round-robin, so there's little use in asking. 

One major change from 2012  is the explosion of social media for players, journalists, fans. What advice do you have for Citizen Chessplayer Journalists? Mike Klein (MK)- (To win) at  Facebook, Instagram and twitter, you want to do two out of three things:

1. Be witty (make people laugh)
2. Be insightful (say something no one else is saying)
3. Be the first to post the story

One great social media user in the chess world is Anton Squared. (He posts) photoshops that gets lots of like or shares. https://twitter.com/AntonSquaredMe/status/974708599703457794 JS-  I got major cred at a Labor Day party because my friend's son was a huge fan of Fun Master Mike. Share your streaming tips please! MK-I’ve become far more knowledgeable about streaming because chess.com has a partnership with twitch. After the Olympiad, I’m going to be doing a lot more streaming as Fun Master Mike at chesskid.com on twitch.tv/FunMasterMike My best advice for streamers is

1. Be yourself
2. Interact with your fans, people like it a lot when you mention their name.
3. Find your niche. Are you going to be a funny streamer or are you gonna be deadly serious but an opening guru? Don’t forget- You’re trying to build a community, not build your own brand.
   Popular streamer Alexandra Botez interviews chess.com CEO Erik Allebest at the PRO Chess League Finals in San Francisco, Photo Eric Rosen 

JS- Tell us more about “Fun Master Mike” Where did this special FIDE title come from? MK-Fun Master Mike came from a happy accident well before I joined the chess.com team, at the Atlanta Castle Chess Camp. This is a very elite camp, there are usually 12 or 13 instructors including 8 Grandmasters, four IMs and me. They know what GM is and they kinda know what an IM is. But by the time I told the fifth kid that FIDE is a French acronym, I got frustrated and started telling kids that FM stands for Fun Master. From that point on, I just ran with it. I have zero chess aspirations now, because if I became an IM, I’d have to lose Fun Master. If you listen to my podcast with our mutual friend Ben Johnson, you’ll understand why. I really enjoy teaching, and really enjoy journalism, but I don’t really enjoy playing as much. JS-What do you most wish would change about the state of chess journalism? MK- Making media interviews the norm rather than the exception. Right now, it’s almost like requiring players to do interviews is an afterthought. Or that we’re alienating players by asking. And for a lot of organizers, it’s more important for them to stay on good terms with the players, rather than push them. In every other sport, you have to sit down after a game, win/lose or draw. I always talk chess about borrowing from other sports.  When in college, I covered Women’s basketball and obviously I was not allowed to go into the locker’s room. So at the end of the game, the sports media liaison would come up to all the journalists and ask "Who you would like to interview?" She would go into the locker room, and they would come out into a press room. The intermediary had that voice of authority. It’s nice when the governing authority says you’re requested. Right now, it’s too easy for players to say no. JS- As an award winning professional journalist, I’m sure you handle it well, but for some newer journos, I worry that fear of rejection can really stunt their growth. Does getting rejected ever get to you? MK- I’m a human.  I’ve definitely done a lot of interviews where they say no, and I walk with them back to their hotel, to try and get one quick quote. It feels a little subservient. JS- You always ask really fun questions at the press conferences I’ve seen you at. One prime example was the 2014 Sinquefield Cup, where you asked everyone to describe Fabiano’s historic result in one word, which elicited the famous "Depressing" reply from Magnus. Do you have any questioning technique to share with our readers? MK- I’m flattered that Maurice always calls on me at the Saint Louis Chess Club press conferences (And thanks back to Mike for helping with Maurice’s videos for US Chess in Batumi!) In that setup, I like to get a unique answer from each player with limited time, so I poll them. There will be plenty of time to ask hardcore chess questions. I also do a lot of post-mortem interviews on the top of the stairs at the Saint Louis Chess Club events. My format is usually to ask about thoughts or motivations behind the moves, without getting too technical. Then I also ask some human interest questions. For those interviews, I write down a list of key words to keep the interview more free flowing. It’s harder than it sounds. I have to come up with five questions I thought of in 30 seconds, because I don’t want to repeat what Maurice just asked. I’ve taken that idea from my podcast, where I have a giant list of questions and possible follow-ups. I want players to know our business grows as chess grows. I’m not there to burn the players. (Still), I’m not going to shy away from hard questions. For example when the Cup ended in a 3-way tie, I had to ask each co-champion about it. https://twitter.com/ChessMike/status/1034629862181548032 JS- The Olympiad is a pretty dreamy event for a chess journalist, being that there are so many human interest stories, as well as elite players. How do you estimate the importance of this event? MK-  Next to the World Championship, there is no more esteemed title than the Olympiad. If you gave most players the choice between the Olympiad and winning an individual event, I think most would pick the Olympiad. When Armenia was winning the Olympiad, they were definitely doing so as a team. Those guys, they went to each other’s weddings. You can see it. While in the US, it’s much more about individuals who come together for a tournament. I did like to see how Sam, Hikaru and Wesley came together as a team in the chess 960 event. This year at the Olympiad, we have  a three person team (me, Maria and Peter) at chess.com. Maria has really good connections. She helped me get my photo  pass. (Find Mike's Olympiad reports on chess.com, and follow his twitter feed for tidbits often focusing on the U.S. squads.) https://twitter.com/ChessMike/status/1047091481461313536 JS -Were you surprised that Fabiano decided to play in the Olympiad despite his World Championship match a month later? MK-Originally yes, but the more I talked to him, the more I realize that this is the perfect gap between events for him. You are rested but still sharp at 4-6 weeks. Taking too much time may not be good in trying to get ready for a big event. We can speculate all we want, but Fabiano knows his body and training regiment. The last month has been more meticulously scripted than I’ve ever seen for him, so I’m sure some thought went into this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_39_E_uL1i4 Fabiano did withdraw from the Isle of Man tournament. It would have been really nice to have a Fabiano-Magnus preview, but we understand that’s not in both of their interests. JS-I have fond memories of being an organizer and ambassador for the IOM International when PokerStars  sponsored it, and it’s so great to see it continue to blossom. https://www.instagram.com/p/BoHjc5Jga9d/?taken-by=jenshahade What are your plans for this year's Chess.com Isle of Man Chess International (October 20-28)? MK-This year I'm going to switch off with Danny Rensch for a new segment we're doing, which is similar to what Grandmaster Cristian Chirila does with his (Count's Corner) but more extensive. After each round, Danny (and then me) are going to be doing live interviews that we turn around into in-depth segments. We'll also set up positions to go over and spend time filming post-mortems. Our goal is to make Isle of Man the most popular tourney for players and fans to watch, so we’re trying to do something noticeably different, not just incremental. We want people to say this is a step up. JS-Tell us about your plans to cover the Caruana-Carlsen World Championship in London. MK-It’s a funny tourney to cover, because we get a rest day every three rounds. And the entire rest of the world is covering it- and you have almost have no access to players. So journos talk to other journos. It’s relaxing but not always intellectually fulfilling. One great aspect: No matter what we write, we got 10x more reads than any other chess tournament, like 250,000 reads in New York and Sochi. We get really quick flash reports out at chess.com.  I’d hit send on my report often within 60 seconds of the game ending. JS- Are you paranoid ever that you'll get it wrong and forget to fix it? MK- I'm absolutely paranoid. I’ve written a flash report, been wrong and had to rewrite everything.   I’d rather get beaten and be sure I’m right than be first and wrong. JS- Back In our 2012 interview, you said you had racked up 55 countries on your travels. How many are you at now? MK- The number is a little blurry. Somewhere in the mid 80s. I’m done some Asian travel, more reporting on Europe. When I’m close to 100 I’ll break out the list. I’m not in a hurry, because I feel like 100 is an arbitrary number. Though the number feels very big, in the real traveler community, there’s always that person who has been on 150. There is a guy named Graham, who went to every country in the World and never got on a plane. It took him about three years! JS-About a decade ago, you wrote a piece for CLO called “Castling Queenside Around the World”, documenting a round the world trip with chess. Tell us about your new podcast, Extreme Travel Odysseys. MK- I’ve always pictured myself as a part-time traveler (not time traveler). I wanted to do a podcast on travel, because it’s my passion and I get to talk to people outside the chess world. I get to ask different questions. I know chessplayers. All my podcast guests have a unique story, and podcasts is great for longform interviews. People listen on a run or working out and I really love that I can explore topics deeply. Extreme Travel Odysseys is where you can go to find all the new episodes. In my interview with Ben Johnson on the Perpetual Podcast, Ben was astute that when chess comes up in the Extreme Odyssey interviews I’ve run away from it. But there are some people in chess community that have done some extreme and outlandish stuff. I’m reminded of Grandmaster Jesse Kraai. There was one year where he flew to Canadian Open, near Banff National park, with his own bike. He won and then he rode five straight centuries in five straight days. JS- What about Michael Le Grand? His Code-In-The-Schools is modeled after Chess-in-the-Schools and he’s a judge on a chess variant competition I’m running with PokerStars. I loved your Extreme Travel Odyssey podcast with him, and the unforgettable party where guests and bingo balls determined where he would spend his life for an entire year. MK- Yes, he influenced me a lot.   That idea that randomness can be a part of the fun experience of travel inspired me to do a mini-version of his epic trip (find out more about how bingo balls determined Mike Le Grand’s fate here.) JS- I remember that party! I voted for Istanbul, and my brother Greg Shahade for Barcelona. Any other chessplayers coming on your pod soon? MK- I’m only on episode 14, so I may be tapping some chess contacts to come on the show. It’s a lot of time, it costs a good amount of money to produce, but I feel invigorated by it. I like the medium and I like how accessible it is. If anyone has any interesting guests, email me and let me know who I should get on. Follow Fun Master Mike on twitter, where he is currently tweeting from #BatumiChess2018 and twitch at Fun Master Mike. Members can download the current Chess Life Magazine here, where FM Mike Klein is the cover star.