BIRTHS

Frank Brady (1934), an American player,  author and the biographer of Robert Fischer.
Veselin Topalov (1979), a Bulgarian Grandmaster who became the FIDE World Champion in 2005.
Vyacheslav Ikonnikov (1966) a Russian Grandmaster
Avital Boruchovsky (1997), an Israeli Grandmaster who won in 2014 the European Youth U18 Championship.

DEATHS

Akiba Rubinstein (0.12.1880-1961), a Polish chess Grandmaster who is considered to have been one of the strongest players who won everything but never to have become World Chess Champion.
Gerald Abrahams (15.04.1907-1980), an English Master and author.

CHESS EVENTS

1951 The World Championship Match opened in Moscow between M. Mikhail Botvinnik and David Bronstein. According to FIDE regulations, the match for the Championship title consisted of 24 games. In case of a draw 12-12, the Champion retained his title.
2014 In Yerevan, Alexander Motylev (RUS) won his second European Individual Champion title.

WORLD EVENTS

44 BC – Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
856 Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora with the support of the Byzantine nobility.
1521 Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippine Islands, where he was killed by natives the following month
1874 France and Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
1875 Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
1877 First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
1892 Liverpool F.C. is founded.
1907 Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the world to attain full political rights.
1922 Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
1923 Lenin was felled by his 3rd stroke.
1926 The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.
1965 Gamal Abdel Nasser was re-elected Egyptian President.
1974 In Brazil General Ernesto Geisel (1907-1996) became president and ruled for 5 years.
1985 The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
1991 The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.2011 – Beginning of the Syrian Civil War.

GAME OF THE DAY