Victory's Day. We will always remember.

Hello everybody!

I'm at the airport in Atlanta right now, after a very busy week-end with 2 simuls and thousands of signed photo-cards, scoresheet books, medals, t-shirts and hundreds of photos taken. I'm heading back home. Everybody in America is celebrating Mother's Day today and I want to send my warmest wishes to all the moms in the world, especially the chess moms!

But in Russia the 9th of May is Victory Day. It's a very special day for all Russians and it is widely celebrated in Russia with parades, fireworks, special songs and movies. We will always remember all those who sacrificed their lives in order to bring peace to the world and end this terrible second world war.

Also with great sadness I'm writing that during this week-end the chess world lost two wonderful people and chess enthusiasts. On May 8 in Budapest the oldest chess GM Andor Lilienthal passed away at the age of 99. The TWIC web-site published a very nice article about this Grandmaster with best results and games of Lilienthal's career, you can read it here.

Below I post the position of the most famous game of Lilienthal, where he managed to beat Capablanca in 26 moves. Try to find the best move for white.

The same day, May 8, in Kishinev Fedor Skripchenko, the father of my dearest friend Almira Skripchenko, passed away. I'm sending my deepest condolences to the families of Andor Lilienthal and Fedor Skripchenko. These people have done a lot of wonderful things for the chess community and we will always remember them! RIP, Andor and Fedor!

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com