NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News The game of chess is often affiliated with intellect, but now, an Israeli initiative is trying to determine just how much the game of kings influences cognitive enhancement. Israeli chess Grandmaster and vice world champion Boris Gelfand has set up the Grandmaster Chess Research Program in collaboration with the University of Haifa. The program will develop the first Hebrew-language educational software program to teach chess in schools and kindergartens; and …More

Israel's Boris Gelfand may have come up just short at the World Chess Championship, finishing second to reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand last week in Moscow. But with more than $1 million in winnings as his share of the prize money, Gelfand certainly did pretty well for himself by taking Anand into tiebreakers. He did pretty well for chess in Israel, too. In the wake of last week's World Championship, the country's Sports and Culture Minister, Limor Livnat, announced that an additional one million …More

Russian President Vladmir Putin congratulated the winner of a recent chess championship match, as well as the Israeli player he beat. Viswanathan Anand won the 2012 World Chess Championship in Moscow Wednesday, retaining his title as reigning champion. The win earned Anand and his competitor, second place ranker Boris Gelfand, a 30-minute tea time visit at Putin’s home. Anand lives in India but told the Russian leader that chess training in Soviet cultural centers duirng his younger years turned him into a …More

A tense run at the 2012 World Chess Championship in Moscow came to a close on Wednesday for Israel's Boris Gelfand, who finished second to defending world champion Viswanathan Anand of India after the reigning titleholder scored a victory in the tiebreaker round. After the original best-of-12 series finished in a 6-6 tie (one win for each man and 10 draws), Wednesday's tiebreaker was scheduled to begin with four rapid games, after which a series of "blitzkrieg" games would ensue if there was still no winner. That …More

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulates Boris Gelfand on his “tremendous achievement” in promoting the sport of chess. [The Times of Israel] Defense Minister Ehuad Barak told a security conference that inaction is not an option in regards to withdrawing from parts of the West Bank. [Associated Press] A conference in Tel Aviv exposes the deep divide within the security establishment on stopping Tehran’s nuclear program. [The Times of Israel] Israel increases its imports from Palestinian …More

The Belarus-born Boris Gelfand concluded his best-of-12 series on Monday with reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand of India, playing to a draw with the champ for the 10th time in 12 games, with each man having won once. With the series deadlocked at six points apiece, the two men will begin tiebreaker play on Wednesday in Moscow, where the series is being hosted at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The tiebreakers begin with four "rapid games," limiting each player to 25 minutes, with 10 seconds added to the …More

While the World Chess Championship doesn't have the same furious pace of action or hard-hitting intensity of more traditional sporting events, the action on the field has nothing on the chessboard for closely matched rivals and tightly contested battles. Just ask Israel's Boris Gelfand. After the first six games of Gelfand's best-of-12 series with Viswanathan Anand of India ended in draws, Gelfand finally broke through and scored the first win of the series on Sunday. However, Anand, the defending champion, …More