QUOTE OF THE DAY

BIRTHS

Jan Dobrusky (1853-31.05.1907) Czech chess problemist. He is considered as one of the fathers of the Bohemian chess school of compositions.
Josza Langos (1911-17.05 1987), International Women Master and International Arbiter. The first Hungarian women to get an international title.
Gerhard Latzel (1912-14.09.1970), German-Polish chess composer.
Kevin O’Connell (1949), Irish chess amateur, chess collector, author and FIDE officer born in London.
Jeremy Silman (1954) American International Master and author. He is one one for the few who won the US Open, the American Open, and the National Open.
Emmanuel Omuku (1958), Nigerian player and FIDE officer.
Edhi Handoko  (1960 – 17.02.2009), Indonesian Grandmaster who won four times the Indonesian Championship. He  died at the age of 48 following a heart attack.
Mircea Sergiu Lupu (1962), Romania Grandmaster who is currently living in France.
Daniel John King (1963), English Grandmaster, author, and chess commentator.
Sergey Vokarev (1970), Russian Grandmaster.
Sebenik, Matej, (1983)
Aleksandr Rakhmanov (1989), Russian Grandmaster.

Tairova, Elena,

DEATHS

Leopold Hoffer (1842-1913) English chess player born in Hungary, journalist, organizer and the co-founder of Chess Monthly.
Erich Cohn (01.03.1884-1918), German Master He died in the western front, as a field doctor of the Red Cross, at the end of World War I in France.
Ruben Gunawan 17.04.1968 – 2005), Indonesian Grandmaster and 1983 Asian Junior Champion. He died following heart failure and pneumonia.

CHESS EVENTS

1928. From Bad Kissingen where he was leading (and later winning) the tournament, E. Bogoljubow sent a challenge to play for the world title A. Alekhine. Alekhine was happy to use it as a pretext to avoid to play J.R. Capablanca.
1936. The Nottingham tournament, one of the strongest pre-war international event ended with a shared victory of M. Botvinnik and J. R.Capablanca. The main reason of this organization was to shadow the ‘Unfficial Chess Olympiad’ organized at the same time in Munich where the USA, England, Palestine, and the Soviet Union refused to participate in it.
1956 FIDE registered the first tournament in Mongolia.
1956 The FIDE GA approved India, Lebanon, Indonesia and Philippines as full members. FIDE has now 54 members.
1957 The team of USSR won the first European Team Championship in Vienna.
1974 A.J. Miles (ENG) won the title of World Junior Champion, in Manila, Philippines.
1983 Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria became World Junior Champion, in Belfort, France.
1985 The qualifiers from the Interzonals of Biel were R. Vaganian (USSR), Y. Seirawan (USA), A. Sokolov (USSR) and N. Short (ENG).
1985 The FIDE GA approved the use of the six-hour first session for all FIDE competitions except those of the current World Championship cycle.
1995 FIDE opened its new Secretariat in Lausanne. A Presidential Board meeting was organized, attended by H. E. President Samaranch, A. Karpov and G. Kasparov. Mr. Samaranch asked FIDE to present a definition/justification, why chess was a sport and said that ”if we have this clear definition, maybe one day the participation of chess in the Olympic program would not be a dream but a reality”.
1999 Alexander Khalifman of Russia became the 14^th World Champion in Las Vegas. In the final match of the World Chess Championship, he defeated Vladimir Akopian of Armenia 3½-2½.

WORLD EVENTS

1189 Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.
1521 The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
1849 After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria.
1898 Caleb Bradham invents the carbonated soft drink that will later be called “Pepsi-Cola”.
1916 World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.
1937 Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech.
1963 The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, the longest floating bridge in the world, opens between Seattle and Medina, Washington, US.
1990 Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.1996 – Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales divorce.

(Source: Wikipedia)

GAME OF THE DAY