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Czech chess champion Koválek dies at 77; Heritage sites hiring guides for upcoming season; Czech Made, episode 1: Sugar Cube

Although there is still little clarity on what the upcoming tourist season in the Czech Republic will look like, several monuments in the Pardubice region are searching for new guides. This year the pool of applicants is much more varied than before, including former actors and writers.

Lubomír Kaválek, an international grandmaster of chess who won national championships in Czechoslovakia and in the United States after defecting to the West in 1968, has died at the age of 77. Once ranked no. 10 in the world, after retiring from international competition he worked to popularise the sport, penning a regular column for The Washington Post for a quarter century.

When was the last time you sweetened your tea of coffee with a cube of sugar? Today we take the small compact units of sugar, the exact size of a teaspoon, for granted, but it was not until 1843 that the sugar cube first saw the light of day on the territory of the present-day Czech Republic. Its inventor was the head of a sugar refinery in the town of Dačice, but the inspiration for the sugar cube actually came from his wife Juliana.

Broadcast in English - 01/19/2021

The Czech lighting and glass artworks company Lasvit has just completed another major project, installing a huge glass and steel pendulum in a medical centre in Abu Dhabi. The stunning, pen-like structure is suspended above a lobby, drawing various images in the sand below using a computer programmed feature.

For a third day running now, the Czech Republic’s coronavirus epidemic has been improving according to the government’s PES counter-epidemic system indicators. However, apart from the reopening of children’s clothing shops and stationeries, the government is not planning any loosening of measures and has asked for the extension of the state of emergency for another 30 days. The reason is the situation in Czech hospitals and the detection of the British mutation of Covid-19 in the Czech Republic.

2021 is an election year in the Czech Republic. Predictions about political developments in any country are difficult under normal circumstances, much less in the midst of a global pandemic. Nevertheless, Vít Pohanka asked Petr Just, a political scientist at the Metropolitan University in Prague, to take stock of where the Czech society and its political representation stands at the beginning of one of the more important years for the political direction of the country.

Broadcast in English - 01/18/2021

Czech foreign troops continue to be deployed in Mali as part of the European Union mission in the West African state. The Czech contingent is mainly involved in field training and is also in charge of guarding the two main Allied bases. In addition to that, the Czech army also plans to send 60 troops to the France-led mission in the Sahel.