Mark Heimann

For Fun

Outside of computer science I have the chance to participate in many activitites. I am thankful for the lessons I've learned, the memorable experiences I've had, and the gracious and talented people I have come to know through each of them.

Chess

I am an International Master, one of the highest titles awarded in chess. Over the course of my competitive career, I have won several national scholastic championships and state open championships, as well as national collegiate team championships from my years playing chess for the WUSTL and U of M collegiate chess teams. In the 2018 and 2019 PRO Chess League seasons, I played for the Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers; our team made the playoffs in 2018. In 2020, I also played first board for the Michigan team that made it to the finals of the inaugural online States Chess Cup. For several years I also taught chess in private and group lessons, organizing intensive chess camps as well as after-school programs.

Selected News Coverage:

My college team's National Division II Championship victory in the 2012 Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, where I played first board. Two years later, Florida State University's first board scored a large individual upset over me in the first round of Pan Ams and wrote an article for US Chess about it...you can't win 'em all :) congratulations to him on a well-deserved victory.
US Chess News coverage of the 2020 States Chess Cup playoffs, including my annotations of two games I played (one was another upset loss in the finals :) although the other allowed us to advance in the playoffs)
A kind feature by the WUSTL student newspaper, picked up by Chess Daily News, covering chess and some of my other interests (e.g. music).

I am also an occasional chess writer, having published in the United States Chess Federation's Chess Life magazine.

An article I wrote about achieving my first norm toward the international master title as a non-career chess player. Nominated for "Best Personal Narrative" award by Chess Journalists of America.
Coverage of the 2023 US Amateur Team North Championship, where I and a team of several University of Michigan alums competed in 2023.
Coverage of the 2024 National Open, describing the intense roller coaster that was the fight for grandmaster title norms in one of the biggest open tournaments on the American chess circuit.

Powerlifting

In graduate school, I took up lifting weights as a nice contrast to the abstract and cerebral nature of research. This eventually led me to the sport of powerlifting.

I have qualified for the USA Powerlifting open division national championships multiple years (in 2022, I competed in it simultaneously with the historic National Open chess tournament, coincidentally held down the hall!), and as of 2023 my competitive results rank in the top 2% of raw, drug-tested male powerlifters worldwide according to the Open Powerlifting project. I also am a national referee and have refereed multiple state and national powerlifting championships.

Creative Interests

I also play a fair amount of music. I own and play a variety of instruments, of which one of my favorites is the hammered dulcimer. I've played it in a couple of weddings and other assorted events, and you can hear a bit of it in an EP some of my talented college friends put together. At last count I've performed or recorded on five musical instruments.

I enjoy cooking and baking, mainly because I prefer hobbies to chores and when I reached adulthood I realized that feeding myself would have to become one of those two things.