How to Get Daily Chess News in Your Inbox — Without Refreshing Chess Twitter

What you'll build

I tried the follow-everything approach for years: fifteen accounts, three subreddits, two YouTube channels. I still missed the rounds that mattered. More sources just meant more noise.

A personal brief flips the model. You write one short instruction, and every morning an AI agent searches the web fresh and writes you an email answering it—not a pile of links, an actual note about a decisive game or a shift in the Candidates race, with the primary sources linked.

One great thing a day beats a firehose. And because the prompt is yours, the brief bends to your chess: classical purist, online blitz addict, theory nerd—your call. Change your mind next month? Edit one sentence, not your follow list.

Step by step: from zero to your first edition

The whole setup takes about two minutes. And every screenshot below comes straight from the real product — nothing is mocked up.

1. Step 1 Open morningmail.ai

   Head over to morningmail.ai. You'll see a sample edition and the Compose button — that's your entry point. Nothing to install; everything runs in the browser.

   

2. Step 2 Create your free account

   Sign up with your Google account. Every new account comes with a free first edition built in — so you can send yourself a real email before paying a cent.

   

3. Step 3 Create your first template

   A template is the blueprint of your email: name, delivery time, recipients, and your content sections. Click "New template" and the builder opens with a live preview right next to the editor. Everything saves automatically — there is no save button to forget.

   

4. Step 4 Add a news section

   Click "Add section +" and pick "News topic". You'll see six starters — real, editable prompts for a city, a sports club, a company, a tech topic, a professional field, and a personal interest. Pick one, and you're thirty seconds away from a working brief.

   

5. Step 5 Make it yours: Chess

   In the section picker, choose the "Personal interest" starter and type Chess into the highlighted field. The card rewrites its prompt live as you type, so you read the exact instruction the agent will get every morning—no surprises.

   The starter asks for one great thing a day—a game, a result, a story you'd retell at the club—rather than a wall of results. It works untouched, but chess rewards a little sharpening. Open the module and add something like: "prioritise classical over blitz results; always link one instructive game."

   

   The exact prompt your section starts with

   One thing happening in the world of Chess today, written for an enthusiast — not a beginner. Skip celebrity gossip. Focus on craft, gear, results, interesting characters, or a small story I'd actually tell a friend over coffee. Quality over quantity.

6. Step 6 Set your delivery time and send yourself a test

   Almost there! Choose when the email should arrive and add your address as a recipient. Hit "Send test" — your first edition is free — and check your inbox. If something reads off, tweak the prompt and send again. Then flip the template to Active. Congratulations — you've just built your own morning brief!

   

Get more out of your brief

Name the events you actually follow

The chess calendar is huge, and the agent can't guess which slice is yours. One line like "during the candidates cycle, qualification news always comes first" turns a generic digest into your tournament companion. Outside those weeks, the brief drifts back to broader stories on its own.

Ask for the game, not just the result

"Who won" is a scoreboard; "why it was interesting" is chess. Add "when you report a game, say in one sentence what made it instructive." The agent links the primary source, so you can replay the moves right away.

Decide how much engine and opening theory you want

Some of us love hearing that an engine reassessed the Najdorf; others want humans only. Say it explicitly: "include opening or engine news only when it changes practical play." That keeps the theory useful instead of academic.

Match the cadence to the chess calendar

You pick delivery weekdays with a tap on the weekday chips. I'd go daily during a super-tournament and two mornings a week between events—dense beats padded. The prompt stays untouched either way.

Give the rest of the email a job too

Your template can carry more than chess. Add weather for the walk to the club, your calendar for the day ahead, or a quote up top. Each section has its own length and tone settings, so the chess part stays the main course.

Good sources to anchor your brief on

The agent searches the open web every morning and cites where it read things. These are the sources I'd point it at in your prompt:

• FIDE — The governing body's own channel — world championship cycle news, candidates pairings, rating lists and official regulations, straight from the source your brief will link to.
• The Week in Chess (TWIC) — Mark Crowther's legendary game collection and news roundup, running since 1994. The canonical record of what was actually played, trusted by titled players and hobbyists alike.
• Chess.com News — Coverage of the biggest online and over-the-board events, including the Speed Chess Championship and Titled Tuesday — plus interviews and event reports with broad reach.
• Lichess — The open-source platform's blog and broadcast hub. Strong on community tournaments, studies and thoughtful long-form writing about the online game.
• ChessBase News — Deep analytical reporting with a strong training angle — annotated games, opening surveys and engine-informed analysis from the company behind the database most professionals use.
• New In Chess — The magazine the top players themselves read. Interviews, tournament essays and annotated games with a literary quality that outlasts the news cycle.

Frequently asked questions

What does a daily chess brief cost?

The first edition is free, no credit card needed. After that, each send costs a few credits per section, depending on which AI model tier the section uses—and credits never expire, so an events-only cadence wastes nothing.

Why not just follow chess accounts on social media?

Honestly—I tried, for years. Feeds optimise for engagement, and fifty posts about a handshake controversy will always outrun one quietly brilliant endgame. Your brief works from your written instruction instead: searched fresh each morning, noise skipped, one story written for you with sources linked.

Will it cover both over-the-board and online chess?

Whatever you ask for. The prompt is fully editable, so weight it towards classical tournaments, towards Lichess and Chess.com events, or an explicit mix—"online results only when a top-ten player is involved" works fine.

Can I get the brief only on days I have time for chess?

Yes. Every template has a delivery time and selectable weekdays, so a Monday-and-Friday chess brief is two taps away. Many players go daily during big events and weekly in between.

Does it work in German or other languages?

Write your prompt in the language you want to read—the brief is always written in the language of your instructions. The MorningMail interface itself is available in English and German.