The Costa Rican Chess Championship is the yearly national chess championship of Costa Rica. The first edition was played in 1927.
 |
| Nr | Year | Winner [1] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1938 | Rosalía Escalante de Serrano |
| 2 | 1977 | Emma Hernández |
| 3 | 1990 | Laura Granados on tiebreak match (2.5–1.5) over Silvia Arroyo |
| 4 | 1991 | Laura Granados |
| 5 | 1992 | Natalia Chaves |
| 6 | 1993 | Karla Ramírez on tiebreak match (2–0) over Adela Navarro |
| 7 | 1994 | Meylin Villegas Loaiza |
| 1995 | cancelled [2] | |
| 8 | 1996 | Karla Ramírez |
| 9 | 1997 | Meylin Villegas Loaiza |
| 10 | 1998 | Meylin Villegas Loaiza |
| 11 | 1999 | Meylin Villegas Loaiza |
| 2001 | Carolina Muñoz [3] | |
| 2002 | Sofia Lowski [3] |
The "Himno Nacional de Costa Rica", also known by its incipit, "Noble patria, tu hermosa bandera", is the national anthem of Costa Rica. Its music was composed by Manuel María Gutiérrez Flores, who dedicated the score to French adventurer Gabriel-Pierre Lafond de Lurcy, and adopted in 1852. The music was created to receive delegates from the United Kingdom and the United States that year for the Webster-Crampton Treaty. It was the first Central American national anthem.
Costa Rican culture has been heavily influenced by Spanish culture ever since the Spanish colonization of the Americas including the territory which today forms Costa Rica. Parts of the country have other strong cultural influences, including the Caribbean province of Limón and the Cordillera de Talamanca which are influenced by Jamaican immigrants and indigenous native people, respectively.
Steven Bryce Valerio is a Costa Rican former footballer. Bryce was well known throughout his career for his versatility, playing as an attacking midfielder, winger, striker or right back, as needed; and possessing good skills, pace, and strength.
Luis Antonio Marín Murillo is a Costa Rican former professional footballer, who played as a centre-back, and former captain of the Costa Rica national team. He is currently the manager of Pérez Zeledón.
Bribri, also known as Bri-bri, Bribriwak, and Bribri-wak, is a Chibchan language, from a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of those countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. As of 2002, there were about 11,000 speakers left. An estimate by the National Census of Costa Rica in 2011 found that Bribri is currently spoken by 54.7% of the 12,785 Bribri people, about 7,000 individuals. It is a tonal language whose word order is subject–object–verb.
Zarcero is a canton in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Costa Rica, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. Catholicism is also the state religion, but the government generally upholds people's religious freedom in practice.
Tourism in Costa Rica has been one of the fastest growing economic sectors of the country and by 1995 became the largest foreign exchange earner. Since 1999, tourism has earned more foreign exchange than bananas, pineapples and coffee exports combined. The tourism boom began in 1987, with the number of visitors up from 329,000 in 1988, through 1.03 million in 1999, over 2 million in 2008, to a historical record of 2.66 million foreign visitors in 2015. In 2012, tourism contributed with 12.5% of the country's GDP and it was responsible for 11.7% of direct and indirect employment. In 2009, tourism attracted 17% of foreign direct investment inflows, and 13% in average between 2000 and 2009. In 2010, the tourism industry was responsible for 21.2% of foreign exchange generated by all exports. According to a 2007 report by ECLAC, tourism contributed to a reduction in poverty of 3% in the country.
Costa Rican literature has roots in colonization and is marked by European influences. Because Costa Rica is a young country, its literary tradition is also young. The history of Costa Rican literature dates to the end of the 19th century.
Manuel Aguilar Chacón was head of state of Costa Rica from April 1837 to March 1838.
Eduardo Patricio Iturrizaga Bonelli is a Venezuelan-born Spanish chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2008, making him the first Venezuelan to achieve this. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2015. He is a four-time Venezuelan champion and has represented his country at eight Chess Olympiads.
Karen Cope Charles is a beach volleyball and volleyball player from Costa Rica who played the 2006 and 2010 FIVB indoor World Championships and the 2015 World Championships and the 2016 Summer Olympics in beach volleyball.
The national chess championship of Mexico has been organized annually since 1973 by FENAMAC, the Mexican chess federation. Known since 1997 as the National Absolute Championship and previously as the National Closed Championship, it was initially organized as a round-robin tournament. However, several editions in the 1990s were organized as a series of elimination matches, and the championship is currently run as a Swiss-system tournament. In some years it serves as a qualifying stage for the FIDE World Chess Championship and is designated as sub-Zonal tournament 2.3.1 in such cases. A different tournament is the Mexican Open Championship, which is not limited to Mexican nationals and has been held annually since 1954.
Mirta González Suárez is a Costa Rican social psychologist and novelist. She is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Costa Rica, where she has conducted research in women's studies and political psychology. Her first novel, Crimen con sonrisa, won a national literary award, the Aquileo J. Echeverría Award in 2013. In 2016 she won the award "UNA palabra" by the National University of Costa Rica for her novel "La gobernadora" and in 2021 the "Juegos Florales Hispanoamericanos de Quetzaltenango 2021" for the novel "La Independencia".
Guillermo Vassaux, full name Guillermo Enrique Vassaux Estévez, was a Guatemalan chess player, teacher, and writer, and fourteen-time winner of the Guatemalan Chess Championship from 1934 to 1973.
Alicia Miranda Hevia is a Costa Rican writer. She is known for her literary work, as well as for founding the small press Editorial Montemira.
The Pan American Team Chess Championship is an international team chess tournament open to national federations affiliated to FIDE in the Americas. It is organized by the Confederation of Chess for America (CCA), and the winner qualifies to participate at the next World Team Chess Championship.
Francisco Javier Hernández Basante is a Costa Rican chess player. As part of the Costa Rica national team, he has participated in five Chess Olympiads. He received the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) in 2000 and FIDE Trainer in 2005. His peak FIDE rating was 2320 in July 1998.
Miguel Colón Romero was a Puerto Rican chess player, who won the Puerto Rico Chess Championships six times.