This is a highly-detailed, sculpted chess set with painted pieces complimented by a top-quality wooden board branded with the Jack Daniel’s logo. Here’s your chance to commemorate your love of deep thinking, the American Civil War, and smooth Tennessee sippin’ with this beauty of a chess set.

Board size: 15-1/2 x 15-1/2 x 2-1/4 Inches

Via – PacProd

Fireworks

In short, no. Many chessplayers will have seen this, or a similar report.

This one comes via ABC Homeopathy Forum:

Dear Mr.Organon,
I recently had a case of HCE (Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis), were I was ask to give my opinion, however, I thought that maybe a good homeopathic Guru like you could help us further, Not to long ago I was invited in what I call one of my most bizarre consultations, nevertheless, the condition of HCE was unknown to me until recently, when I met with some doctors, who were blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain for the bizarre death of a chess player whose head literally exploded in the middle of a championship game.
No one else was hurt in the fatal explosion, but four players and three officials at the Moscow Candidate Masters’ Chess Championships were sprayed with blood and brain matter when Nikolai Titov’s head suddenly blew apart. Experts say he suffered from a condition called Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis, or HCE.
The investigation report said “He was deep in concentration with his eyes focused on the board,” according to a detailed interview from Titov’s opponent, Vladimir Dobrynin. “Suddenly his hands flew to his temples and he screamed in pain. Then, as if someone had put a bomb in his cranium, his head popped like a firecracker.”
I did some research and to my surprise, Titiov’s is not the first case in which a person’s head has spontaneously exploded. Five people are known to have died of HCE in the last 25 years. The most recent death occurred in 1991, when European psychic Barbara Nicole’s skull burst. Miss Nicole’s story was reported by newspapers worldwide.
“HCE is an extremely rare physical imbalance,” So I was told by Dr. Anatoly Martinenko, a famed neurologist and expert on the human brain he was curious to find out if Homeopathy could come up with something, nonetheless Dr. Anatoly Martinenko who performed the autopsy on the brilliant chess expert, was convinced; “It is a condition in which the circuits of the brain become overloaded by the body’s own electricity. The explosions happen during periods of intense mental activity when current is surging through the brain. Victims are intelligent people with great powers of concentration. Both Ms. Nicole and Mr. Titov were intense people who tended to keep their cerebral circuits overloaded. They were literally too smart for their own good.”
Although Dr. Martinenko says there are probably many undiagnosed cases, he hastens to add that very few people will die from HCE. “Most people who have the condition never realize it. Medical science still doesn’t know much about HCE, and since fatalities are so rare, it will be years before research money becomes available.” In the meantime, as advice and goodwill to you I urge you to take it easy and not think too hard for long periods of time.
In case you want to know how to tell if Your Head’s About To Explode
Although HCE is very rare, it can kill. It most be said that being aware of the condition can greatly improve your odds of surviving it. A yes answer to any three of the following seven questions could mean that you have HCE:
1. Does your head sometimes ache when you think too hard? Head pain can indicate overloaded brain circuits.
2. Do you ever hear a faint ringing or humming sound in your ears? It could be the sound of electrical activity in the skull cavity.
3. Do you sometimes find yourself unable to get a thought out of your head? This is a sign of too much electrical activity in the cerebral cortex.
4. Do you spend more than five hours a day reading, balancing your checkbook, or other thoughtful activity? A common symptom of HCE is a tendency to over-use the brain.
5. When you get angry or frustrated, do you feel pressure in your temples? Friends of people who died of HCE say the victims often complained of head pressure in times of strong emotion.
6. Do you overeat ice cream, doughnuts and other sweets? A craving for sugar is typical of people with too much electrical pressure in the cranium.
7. Do you tend to analyze yourself too much? HCE sufferers are often introspective, over-reflective of their lives.
I hope all is in good order and awaiting your remedies

Regards
Dr.Beek

This meme has proved remarkably durable and it is an interesting question as to why this is so, but we will not delve into that for now. Suffice it to say that the report has no basis in fact or in physics. The brain operates at microwattages far to small to cause such an event. The admirable Snopes website gives the lie to this rumour:

http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/chess.asp

In general, Snopes is a good place to check the next time you hear an incredibly unlikely story, be it connected to chess or anything else.

Image credit: hern24 at Flickr.

Made with chess pieces featuring the Big 5 most dangerous wild African animals of Africa, with baboons as pawns, rhinos as knights and white and black buffalo as bishops. Every chess piece is individually handcrafted, cast in marble resins and then hand painted with care and attention to authentic detail. Chessboards are designed and crafted in beautifully polished indigenous South African woods.

Via – KottlersAfrica

The series of IM Andrew Martin’s articles on ChessCube has come to an end, but you can still access this fantastic resource. Andrew Martin’s columns provide excellent game analysis. He analyses both recent and classic games, providing chess players with plenty to mull over.

The quizzes from Andrew Martin are a great way to test your chess knowledge, with Andrew providing further analysis.

These quizzes and columns should be revisited by every chess player who is keen on improving. Follow ChessCube on Twitter for a daily reminder of these articles.

Some artists include Snoop Dogg, Young Jeezy, Missy Elliot, Plies and Ludacris!

The figurines in the Hip Hop Chess set are hand made, and takes about 18 hours to make each piece. A complete chess set of 32 hand made figurines will set you back $5000, or you could order each piece at $300!

Another picture:

More pics and info via: SandraRose

Acres of afternoon and nowhere to go? Respite from your midweek ennui is at hand.

Mig Greengard’s Chess Ninja “Because losing sucks”.

A one stop shop for all you chess news needs:
http://chess.alltop.com/

Checkers has been solved. Does the same fate await chess? What is meant by “solved” anyway? See what Wikipedia has to say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solved_game

Chess icons, wallpapers and other chess related eye candy.
http://www.virtualpieces.net/home

Do you know what a “macheeide” is? Emanuel Lasker was the world chess champion from 1894 until 1921. He wrote a treatise on the philosophy of struggle in which he defined a macheeide as a theoretical being defined as “the perfect competitor”. What happens when macheeide meets macheeide? All you ever wanted to know about Lasker.

En passant, blunders are not always bad! Sometimes one makes moves which are much stronger than one realised at the time. This works especially well against very strong players who can usually see much more than you can. May all your blunders be of this reverse variety!

Simply a thing of beauty!

The pieces and chess board are constructed with .035″ stainless steel and bronze wiring, one of the smallest wiring types in the world! Unfortunately, you can’t just run out and pick one of these up in a store. But if you have some patience and the build info supplied by the craftsman behind the board, you might be able to put on of these together in about a year’s time.

More pics via - Geekologie (Warning – Strong language ahead!)

Watch a live game on ChessCube with commentary:

Put on your “Blue Suede Shoes” and play with the legend himself, Elvis Presley! This chess set commemorates the King with pieces represented by themes such as “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Hound Dog.” With this set, Elvis truly is the King!

Via – PoolTablesUSA

We’ve been hard at work making some exciting changes to ChessCube – take a look and see:

ChessCube - spot anything new?

And, there is more on its way. Keep watching this space for announcements over the next few days.