(Moscow Bureau CNN) -- 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," said Titov's opponent, Vladimir Dobrynin. "Suddenly his hands flew to his temples and he screamed in pain. Then, as if someone had put a bomb in his cranium, his head popped like a firecracker."
Incredibly, Titov'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 in 1991, when noted British psychic Barbara Nicole's skull burst. Newspapers worldwide reported Miss Nicole’s story.
"HCE is an extremely rare physical imbalance," said Dr. Anatoly Martinenko, famed neurologist and expert on the human brain, who performed the autopsy on the brilliant chess expert. "On its most basic level, it is a condition in which the neurons in the brain become overloaded by the body's own electricity. Our theory is that the electrical currents in the brain can become so large, they actually break down some of the cranial fluid into hydrogen and oxygen, which form small bubbles within the brain.  Eventually, a spark is created, and the brain detonates.  The explosions happen during periods of intense mental activity when current is surging through the brain. Victims are always intelligent people with great powers of concentration. Both Ms. Nicole and Mr. Titov were intense people who tended to keep their cerebral circuits overloaded. 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 the condition never realize it. Either their condition is not so severe that they need worry about rapid cranial expansion, or they simply don’t use their brains enough to trigger an episode.  Medical science still doesn't know much about HCE, and since fatalities are so rare, it will be years before research money becomes available." In the meantime, the doctor urges people to take it easy and not think too much.
Although HCE is very rare, it can kill. Dr. Martinenko says that being aware of the condition can greatly improve your odds of surviving it. According to Dr. Martinenko, a yes answer to any three of the following seven questions could mean that you have HCE:
1. Does your head ache when you think? Head pain can indicate neural overload.
2. Do you ever hear a ringing or humming sound in your ears? High levels of electrical activity sometimes affect the auditory nerves.
3. Do you sometimes find yourself unable to get a thought out of your head, such as a tune repeating itself over and over? This occurs when high electrical potentials in the cerebral cortex create a feed-back loop, which is believed to be the precursor to a catastrophic HCE attack.
4. Do you spend more than five hours a day reading, balancing your checkbook, or engaging in other thoughtful activity? A common precursor to an HCE episode is over-use of 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 over indulge in ice cream, doughnuts and other sweets? The reasons for this are not clear, but 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-reflective of their lives.

Getting it in a little late, are we?

Still got 17 minutes.  Better late than never.