“For every 20, 000 inhabitants we have a grand master”

Russian oleh with a stellar chess resume arrives in Israel, foregoes living in the mainstream cities, and instead moves to sleepy Beersheva. 35 years and thousands of students later, the city has the highest per capita number of chess grand masters in the world and Israel is ranked 6th in the world in chess. Why did he choose the little desert town of Beersheva? Because he believed in David Ben Gurion’s dream of giving bloom to the Negev Desert.

True Zionism at work…

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themiddle

4 Comments

  • It was the evil show the OC which did it:

    The couple got the idea while watching an episode of FOX’s “The O.C.” in which the term Chrismukkah was coined as a mixture of “the best that Christianity and Judaism have to offer.”

  • Skylar, at the risk of ruining your opinion of me, I will come out and admit that I am Laya.

    PS I love Israel! What’s with you folks and problems with criticizing the things that you love? Haven’t you ever had family squabbles?

    Solomyr, thanks for that list. Israel also seems to have the #30 and #92 players. What’s interesting about that list is looking at the ages.

  • Hey, a heart-warming story about living in Israel. Didn’t Laya really post this, T.M.?