Has anybody ever heard of this. I studies Neuroscience at
the University of Hartford for 2 year and never heard of
anything even remotely related.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 18:55:53 -0300
Reply-to: Jose Manoel Cruz Pereira Nunes <jmpnunes at MATRIX.COM.BR>
From: Jose Manoel Cruz Pereira Nunes <jmpnunes at MATRIX.COM.BR>
Subject: WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, May 24, 1994 MOSCOW
To: Multiple recipients of list CHESS-L
<CHESS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, May 24, 1994 MOSCOW
Doctors are 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.
"He was deep in concentration with his eyes focused on the board,"
says Titov's opponent, Vladimir Dobrynin. "All of a sudden his hands
flew to his temples and he screamed in pain. Everyone looked up from
their games, startled by the noise. Then, as if someone had put a
bomb in his cranium, his head popped like a firecracker."
Incredibly, 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 just three years
ago in 1991, when European psychic Barbara Nicole's skull burst. Miss
Nicole's story was reported by newspapers worldwide, including WWN
"HCE is an extremely rare physical imbalance," said Dr. Anatoly
Martinenko, famed neurologist and expert on the human brain who did
the autopsy on the brilliant chess expert. "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 lots of current is surging through the brain. Victims
are highly intelligent people with great powers of concentration. Both
Miss Nicole and Mr. Titov were intense people who tended to keep those
cerebral circuits overloaded. In a way it could be said 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 it will never know. At this point, medical
science still doesn't know much about HCE. And since fatalities are
so rare it will probably be years before research money becomes
available."
In the meantime, the doctor urges people to take it easy and not think
too hard for long periods of time. "Take frequent relaxation breaks
when you're doing things that take lots of mental focus," he
recommends.
(As a public service, WWN added a sidebar titled HOW TO TELL IF YOUR
HEAD'S ABOUT TO BLOW UP:)
Although HCE is very rare, it can kill. Dr. Martinenko says knowing
you have 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
an indicate overloaded brain circuits.)
2.Do you ever hear a faint ringng or humming sound in your ears? (It
could be the sound of electricity in the skull cavity.)
3.Do you sometimes find yourself unable to get a thought out of your
head? This is a possible 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 ever overeat on 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-thinking" their lives.)
Jose Manoel C. P. Nunes
e-mail: jmpnunes at matrix.com.brhttp://www.matrix.com.br/jmpnunes/xadesczz.htm
Caixa Postal 3066, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, ZIP:
88010-970
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Here are my two cents on HCE, which has got to be of greatest concern
to all of us serious chess players.
Of course, I am shocked by the above report. It did not mention the
*most* serious danger sign that you are at risk of HCE: spending more
than five hours a day every day analyzing all 3,667,324,221
significant variations, subvariations, and sub-subvariations of the
Ruy Lopez?
By the way, for those of you that scoff at this story, did you know
that the first well known victim of HCE was none other than Paul
Morphy?
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JAMES W. REVAK - San Diego, CA - jrevak at cts.com
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JAMES W. REVAK - San Deigo, CA - jrevak at cts.com
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