Allow me to tell you about my hobbies:

    I like to teach very much! It started from a very early age when my parents (who have been coaching from 1970) were helping me to improve my chess skills. I started the first serious session of lessons when I was 13 in one of the high-schools in Tel-Aviv (Israel). That session was very successful and I understood that my ability to teach is very high and I should continue with it. Later on in Budapest, where  me and my parents opened a chess academy, I taught for 5 years. My students' level ranged from beginners till titled players with a rating of up to 2500. Most of them were coming to play in the famous “First Saturday” events and very many gained rating or made title norms! The best student was Tomy Nyback from Finland who had an IM title and 2475 rating and came to play in “First Saturday” GM tournament of  Mr. Nagy. Tomy  was studying the very important middlegame and endgame collection created by my parents back in 1992 every day for 3-4 hours. He finished the tournament with big success – he fulfilled his last GM norm!! And also now in Athens, Greece I have many students online – on ICC and playchess.com. If you would like to improve your level, contact me, I will be glad to help you!

    As a professional chessplayer I travel a lot. So far I have been to 18 countries and hopefully will travel more in the near future!

   Sports – I like to jog, I lift weights (5 kg), I walk much with Sotiris, sometimes I go to the gym and I can even make a bridge!

    One of my favourite ways of  having a rest is to make candles! I have all the necessary materials (shaped moulds, different fragrances, parafine, etc) from a special shop where we often go to. I make all kinds of candles : small, big, medium, star-shaped, round, pyramide-shaped, rose-shaped, with one or more colors! We like to give them to our friends. Maybe we should think of opening a candleshop…J! 

    Another way of resting is letting our two-coloured (grey on the back and white on his belly) rabbit run! This brilliant creature can run between the carton boxes for hours! And when it feels happy (which happens very often!) he starts jumping around! Its favourite sleeping place is on one of the sofas! J Ever since my parents moved to Athens we have with us another rabbit (a female one) and every once a while some more!

    We also have other inhabitants in the house! One is a small turtle I found on the street some time ago! It is still very young and spends most of its time sleeping. The other is a small black guinea pig we bought a little while ago! I will soon post some pictures of our new family members!

    Also of course I read. Besides all the chess periodical literature (which is another story) I like reading Russian books. Among the ones I love most are Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita”, Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago”, Anna Akhmatova’s poems and many many more!

    I like many kinds of movies, from action to romantic and usually every week or two we go with Sotiris to the cinema to see the new ones.

    I love to listen to music! Because my father is a professional pianist, who by the way graduated from Saint-Petersburg’s academy, I was listening to classical music, Italian, French, Russian, and many more songs from a very little age! Of course I also like R&B, Soul, Pop and Hip Hop.