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On Friday, the spring 2013 session ended at Hilldale Elementary School, in the after school enrichment program on chess, conducted by Enrich and Grow Academy and coached by me.With 3 points, Sunny Yu won the tournament. A half point behind, Aneesha Bhattacharjee took second honors. Edward Lai and Prithu Dhawan tied for third and fourth, with 2 points each. The nine students in the class received copies of Chess Life for Kids magazine.

At 8:24 PM here on the Isle of Man on Thursday, June 13th, 2013, PokerStars reached a mind-blowing milestone in our corporate history (and really in the history of poker) - we dealt our one hundred billionth hand of poker. Let me write that number out for you: 100,000,000,000 I won't try to draw any real world parallels, but suffice it to say few of us can wrap our heads around a number like that. But I'm not here to talk about the size of the number; I want to talk about running the 100 billionth hand and how it's a proxy for how we got there in the first place. Annnnd we're there. I had the supreme honor of being the host for that hand. I got to tell the players what was happening, who won what, and so forth. But that was the easy part. Behind the scenes (where I was lucky enough to be), it was like Mission Control at an Apollo rocket launch.* My 30" monitor was covered with windows - three separate chat windows, my "script" for hosting the hand and, of course, the client itself. *That's an exaggeration, obviously. But if all our people had been wearing white shirts, dark ties, and black-rimmed glasses, it might have looked somewhat similar. One of those chat windows was a 20-way IM chat among many of the key staff members. The software developers, the CRM (Customer Relations Management) folks, the poker room management people, the tournaments people, customer support... "250K+ RM" A note from the head of the poker room saying that we have over 250,000 real money players on the site... See, as far as our 407,000 customers on PokerStars at that moment were concerned, it was just another day at the playground. Well, not just another day; it's not every day that we deal our 100 billionth hand of poker and give away a million dollars in half an hour. But our customers expected that our games would run just as smoothly and continuously as they have for almost 12 years now. We had to make sure that the tsunami of poker players didn't cause any glitches. "OLTP-MAIN is creeping up in the monitor" One of our servers is beginning to show a little strain under the record crowds. The database team wants to be sure that the number of transactions doesn't affect the march toward 100 billion and asks the poker room to take down the play money Zoom games. "PM Zoom is killed - last hands being dealt now..." The poker room takes down the play money Zoom games; as soon as the big hand is over, they'll be brought back up. The customer support manager chats that he'll get the message to our support representatives so they can answer the emails ("Hey - where'd our Zoom games go?!?!?"). As the counter on the client spins up, the chat actually slows - things are going according to plan. At 8:24pm the counter in the software client lobby counts down those last few hundreds of thousands of hands and then the message flashes up on the client: The Milestone hand #100,000,000,000 is being dealt at Euryalos XI The Million Dollar Hand The poker world and Twitter explode with the news while, in the meantime, there is "guarded optimism" in the IM chat. "Home stretch..." "Here we go" At the PokerStars office, people crowd around monitors, the CEO whips out his phone to take a picture of the table... And, just as planned, the table pauses. I go to the chat box at Euryalos XI and type (actually copy/paste from the script): Hi all - Welcome all to the final step in the Road to 100 Billion. And we're off. I don't watch the IM chat - I'm too busy chatting at the table - but they had paused dealing at the table, and everybody is watching as the observer count at the table climbs to 20,000; 30,000; 40,000... by the time we actually deal the hand, 67,000 observers are watching a single hand of poker. That is approaching the capacity of Manchester United's Old Trafford. Visualize Old Trafford almost full of poker fans breathlessly watching the turn of a river card. The hand goes off exactly as planned. A low-stakes poker player call

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Slyde has today been revealed as the Official Watch Sponsor for the European Poker Tour Season 10. Winners of this season's Main Events and High Rollers, inclusive of the PCA 2014, will be lucky enough to strap on a specially-designed luxury Swiss watch of their own. This is the second season that Slyde has sponsored the EPT, which is Europe's richest and most popular poker tour no less. Here's the breakdown of what you could win (alongside €100,000's, of course): EPT10 Main Event winners: a 'Black and Steel' design watch worth €5,680. EPT10 PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final champion: a 'Black and Rose Gold' design watch worth €9,000. EPT10 High Roller winners: a new limited edition watch design worth €5,470. PCA 2014 Main Event winner: a 'Steel and Black' design watch worth €5,550. PCA 2014 High Roller winner: a 'Steel and Rose Gold' design watch worth €12,800. PCA 2014 Super High Roller champion: a 'Steel and Diamond' design watch worth €15,600. The Slyde 'Black and Steel' design You can take a look at some other Slyde watches by clicking here and find out more about Season 10 here. "The EPT is delighted to be working with Slyde for the second season in a row. These watches truly are works of art and we are very pleased to be offering our winners these customised time-pieces as part of their prize," said EPT President Edgar Stuchly. According to the a press release sent out earlier today, "Slyde watches are made according to the traditional standards of top-grade Swiss watchmaking and represent a revolution in watch-making by combining traditional horological craftsmanship with modern design and the latest technology. The innovative sapphire crystal display is equipped with an intuitive touch screen enabling the user to generate an infinite number of personalised interfaces for a customized indication of the time." That sounds pretty special to us. Well, they sure do look pretty anyway. We caught up with the creator of Slyde, Jorg Hysek at EPT Barcelona at the beginning of last season to explain how the watches came about. Read that interview with Hysek here. Jorg Hysek, Mr Slyde himself "We are very pleased to be working with the EPT again for Season 10. Slyde is a company that values creativity, innovation and quality, and we are very pleased to be aligning ourselves with a brand like the EPT that has a similar focus. We are looking forward to presenting the winners with their watches and congratulating them on their success at the tables," said Hysek. Further details about the EPT and how to qualify for the opening event of Season 10, EPT Barcelona (28 August - 7 September) can be found at the European Poker Tour site. Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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12th Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Latest Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013Hi everyone, Swedish Grandmaster Nils Grandelius has won the 2nd Golden Sands open tournament that was held 10-18th June in the Bulgarian sea resort Golden Sands. Grandelius defeated Indian GM Arun Prasad in the last round to complete the tournament with 7,5/9 points. Vladislav Nevednichy and MR Venkatesh were also victorious to catch Zbynek Hracek and Vladimir Georgiev in shared second place. WGM Mary Ann Gomes was the best placed woman with 6,5 points. (Chessdom.com) Final standing in the extended post.Final standings:1 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2544 – 7.52 GM Hracek Zbynek CZE 2625 – 73 GM Nevednichy Vladislav ROU 2580 – 74 GM Georgiev Vladimir MKD 2532 – 75 GM Venkatesh M.R. IND 2506 – 76 GM Solak Dragan TUR 2598 – 6.57 GM Nabaty Tamir ISR 2579 – 6.58 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2554 – 6.59 IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2472 – 6.510 GM Arun Prasad S. IND 2522 – 6.511 GM Spasov Vasil BUL 2565 – 6.512 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2600 – 6.513 GM Petrosian Tigran L. ARM 2649 – 6.514 IM Raznikov Danny ISR 2491 – 6.515 GM Rusev Krasimir BUL 2556 – 6.516 GM Chatalbashev Boris BUL 2560 – 6.517 GM Sengupta Deep IND 2548 – 6.518 GM Vajda Levente ROU 2617 – 6.519 WGM Gomes Mary Ann IND 2408 – 6.520 GM Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 2565 – 621 GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 2605 – 622 GM Blagojevic Dragisa MNE 2524 – 623 GM Mareco Sandro ARG 2557 – 624 IM Bernadskiy Vitaliy UKR 2475 – 625 FM Bonafede Alessandro ITA 2353 – 626 GM Abasov Nijat AZE 2492 – 627 GM Grover Sahaj IND 2478 – 628 IM Givon Asaf ISR 2415 – 629 GM Shyam Sundar M. IND 2502 – 630 GM Sveshnikov Evgeny LAT 2512 – 631 GM Gopal G.N. IND 2522 – 632 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian ROU 2565 – 633 IM Narayanan Srinath IND 2464 – 634 GM Drenchev Petar BUL 2485 – 635 IM Debashis Das IND 2482 – 636 IM Galinsky Timofey UKR 2439 – 637 IM Karthikeyan Murali IND 2435 – 638 IM Rombaldoni Axel ITA 2484 – 639 FM Ali Marandi Cemil Can TUR 2383 – 640 FM Lilov Valeri BUL 2434 – 5.541 IM Sanal Vahap TUR 2409 – 5.542 Paravyan David RUS 2373 – 5.543 IM Javakhadze Zurab GEO 2450 – 5.544 GM Berescu Alin-Mile ROU 2461 – 5.545 IM Arnaudov G. Petar BUL 2490 – 5.546 FM Anurag Mhamal IND 2401 – 5.547 GM Grigoryan Avetik ARM 2605 – 5.548 IM Stany G.A. IND 2384 – 5.549 Sagar Shah IND 2359 – 5.550 IM Ghosh Diptayan IND 2477 – 5.551 Pettersson Anders 1991 SWE 2279 – 5.552 IM Gorbatov Alexej RUS 2350 – 5.553 IM Dimitrov Pavel BUL 2310 – 5.554 WGM Pogonina Natalija RUS 2488 – 5.555 IM Cvetkovic Srdjan SRB 2387 – 5.556 FM Stojanov Stanislav BUL 2307 – 5.557 IM Georgescu Tiberiu-Marian ROU 2375 – 5.558 GM Gavrilov Alexei RUS 2454 – 5.559 FM Das Sayantan IND 2332 – 5.560 IM Skomorokhin Roman RUS 2331 – 5.561 WIM Raeva Elitsa BUL 2258 – 5.562 IM Arsovic Zoran SRB 2433 – 5.563 IM Kukov Velislav BUL 2396 – 5.564 IM Kanmazalp Ogulcan TUR 2382 – 5.565 IM Gagare Shardul IND 2407 – 566 IM Sveshnikov Vladimir LAT 2411 – 567 IM Swapnil S. Dhopade IND 2469 – 568 IM Arngrimsson Dagur ISL 2396 – 569 GM Ermenkov Evgenij BUL 2425 – 570 FM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. IND 2328 – 571 IM Chighladze Iveri GEO 2396 – 572 IM Karavade Eesha IND 2398 – 573 GM Spassov Liuben BUL 2335 – 574 IM Nakar Eylon ISR 2390 – 575 GM Iturrizaga Eduardo VEN 2645 – 576 IM Atakisi Umut TUR 2351 – 577 IM Gagarin Vasilij RUS 2329 – 578 IM Roeder Matthias GER 2409 – 579 GM Drasko Milan MNE 2469 – 580 Iovcov Valerii MDA 2178 – 581 FM Friedrichs Klaus GER 2293 – 582 Baralic Nebojsa SRB 2259 – 583 WIM Baciu Diana MDA 2249 – 584 Tscharotschkin Michael GER 2217 – 585 WGM Soumya Swaminathan IND 2289 – 586 IM Virovlansky Semen RUS 2432 – 587 Goumas Georgios GRE 2401 – 588 Banov Boil BUL 2165 – 589 FM Hainke Guntram Dr. GER 2310 – 590 IM Dimitrov Radoslav BUL 2429 – 591 Xylogiannopoulos Antonios GRE 2129 – 592 GM Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag BRA 2544 – 593 FM Skomorokhin Vadim RUS 2383 – 594 IM Dimitrov Atanas GRE 2349 – 595 WGM Sukandar Irine Kharisma INA 2364 – 596 FM Bykov Alexey RUS 237

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