My Chess song with Anish Giri about Nakamura & the PogChamps

I made my first music collaboration with a GM!  Check it out:

It's a Chess version of LP's song 'Lost on You',

Lyrics were adapted by GM Anish Giri, and it talks about

Hikaru's recent victory over Magnus at Lindores Abbey Semi Finals 

(Magnus Carlsen Invitational). 

It's also inspired by Chess.com's Pog Champs Tournament

and Hikaru bringing Twitch Gamers to Chess,

which is a really cool and creative way of 'growing the game'.

The idea of making a Chess cover with Anish came to me like this:

After I released my original Chess song 'You Better Resign' at

'Online Nations Cup', Anish kindly shared my song on Instagram,

already teasing me with an advice based on the topic of my song!

Then, the real trolling came!

Few weeks ago when I released my Ed Sheeran Chess cover 

'Thinking MVL' with Chess lyrics of my own, inspired by

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. 

Anish came up immediately with a new lyrics version of my Chess version

on Twitter! Dedicated to troll his friend GM Laurent Fressinet!

And I replied 

Anish's Lyrics dedicated to Fressinet: 

So funny!

Good thing was MVL liked my song, replied to me on Twitter and invited his Instagram followers to watch it, saying: "I endorse it!"

This encouraged me to make a new Chess cover collaboration,

like the one I did first with my close friend IM Anna Rudolf,

a cover of Camila Cabello's hit 'Havana',

telling the story of World Chess Championship in London.

So I took my chances and wrote a direct message to Anish,

whom I haven't met personally, but once we took this picture at

Tata Steel Chess Tournament back in 2018.

I asked Anish, since I admire his sharp style, witty humour

and such song lyrics were already flowing naturally for him,

what if we picked up a song we both like and adapted the lyrics

to a Chess story... and he said yes!

We agreed on the topic: the Nakamura - Carlsen Chess Drama,

and this was happening during the second day of the 3-days-long

tight Lindores Match.

After 5 emails polishing lyrics details back and forth, our song was ready!

Those days I was interviewed about my Chess Songs by Chess24 Italy,

but I kept the song we were making as a secret 

Then I filmed with a friend who beautifully recorded video

and audio Live. I directed the video myself, and chose Budapest's

majestic 'Heroes Square' as the perfect location.

It's really cool to see Top grandmasters willing to share their knowledge

and charisma in such a generous way.

This was so much fun to do!

Thank you Anish for putting such positive energy

on this creative experiment to bring Chess and Music together

in a new fun way.

And thank you GM Hikaru and Pog Champs for the inspiration!

FIND MY ORIGINAL CHESS SONGS AT  JUGAMUSICA.COM

Now some funny anecdotes:

THE SIMPSONS CHESS PARODY!

Only days ago, I watched this hilarious Simpsons Chess Parody made by

an Agadmator follower, staring: 

Nakamura, Pog Champs, Agadmator, WFM Alexandra Botez,

elitism in Chess and ignoring the haters!

It features World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen as Bart Simpson,

GM Ben Finegold as Homero, IM Lawrence Trent as Marge,

and me as Lisa Simpson! ( an honour, jaja!)

Turns out that this comedy master really likes my Chess songs,

and posted this the day we released the song!

Here is Nakamura's reaction to the Simpsons video:

I also made a version with captions and subtitles on my social media

for people outside Chess to understand it better, watch here.

And last but not least...  The day I met Rock Star LP!

Back at World Chess Championship in London November 2018, when I released my "Isolated Pawn" song 

I ran into LP (Laura Pergolizzi) herself at the venue's hotel!

Yea I did some fangirling to her... we talked for a while

and I told her how I was writing songs about Chess!

She replied, in her chill style: "Wow meeeeen, thats sick!"

I took that as a compliment

Hope you enjoy!

Love, Juga