Knight behind 6,25

Stefan Stojacic is member of the Serbian national team that just won the U19 World Basketball Championship after beating USA in the finals. He threw in some of the crucial shots behind the 3-points line. Stefan could have been chess Grandmaster by now:

"First I started playing chess and I trained every day. At the European U10 championship I finished 3rd but then I started following my dad (while he played basketball). At the age of 11, I quit chess and decided to go on with basketball. I would like to play chess again, but I can't sit for that long. My last game at the European championship lasted 5 hours."

From "Chess Precision" in daily newspaper "Kurir".

Chess Blogs Recognized

US Chess League commissioner Greg Shahade understood well which part of the chess community is giving the best PR effect to his project. It comes as no surprise that he announced "Blogger of the Year award" for the upcoming season. The award includes a $100 prize and can be won by anyone from any team, or by any fan of a team.

English Chess Federation is one of the world's most respected chess organizations, in spite the fact that "ECF can't make BBC News Online to have regular chess coverage". After only 8 months of activity, and "due to its unique features and good links", the Streatham & Brixton Chess Club's blog has deserved the prestigious Website of the Year 2007 award. Wonderful news. Congratulations guys!

Radjabov-Carlsen Video

Cyril Humeau made a short video during the Porto-Vecchio match that took place back in May:

See also Cyril in lightning action against Chinese top Grandmaster Ni Hua:

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Achieve a lot in your personal development

Ok, I borrowed this title from the BlogoSquare "About Us" page. This explains it why the popular website, mainly dealing with Wordpress blogging platform and other web 2.0 resources, digressed into "6 Games To Supercharge Your Brain".

"The main advantage behind playing chess is that you develop a critical mind at the same time. You learn to judge the value of each decision you make and each step you take, you learn to improvise and develop strategies on the go and at the same time think fast within a time limit if you are playing with a clock."

Other games listed: Sudoku, Go, Defense of the Ancients, Mastermind and Ogame. I've played Ogame, it's addictive and time consuming.

Don't limit yourself to reading the linked post only, browse around the BlogoSquare, lots of interesting items there.

MonRoi Hiccuping

As reported earlier at the European U18 Team Championship website (now removed):

[sic]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

As you probably noticed, this is second day that it is not possible to broadcast game by "MonRoi" system.
Broadcast delay occurred because of mistake on server, and it is responsibility of "MonRoi" company.
Organizer of Championship provided all necessary conditions for regular broadcast.

Tournament Director
Vladimir Sakotic

Action in Andorra

Until the webmaster decides to post the final results/standings of the 25th Open International d'Andorra (which ended two days ago), let's enjoy some clock slamming by GMs Oscar De La Riva Aguado and Karen Movsziszian.

Kaupthing Open 2007

The Kaupthing Open is taking place on 7-14 July in Differdange, Luxembourg. The organizer, Cercle D'Echecs Le Cavalier Differdange with support from numerous sponsors, has provided 20.000 Euros purse.

The top rated participants are GM Vadim Malakhatko (BEL 2590), GM Humpy Koneru (IND 2572), GM Leonid Kritz (GER 2571), GM Hannes Stefansson (ISL 2568), GM Vladimir Georgiev (MKD 2567), GM Philipp Schlosser (GER 2562), GM Nenad Sulava (CRO 2544), IM Viktor Erdos (HUN 2523), IM Dejan Bojkov (BUL 2520), GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2481) etc. Open "A" has 88 participants, Open "B" 70.




Official website