Daily Rome Shot 543, etc.

In chess news… it seems there is to be a merger of chess.com and Magnus Carlsen’s group of companies (e.g., Chessable, Chess24, New in Chess).

Chess.com has, already, some 90 million members who play some 10 million games a day.

On 24 August 1972 in Reykjavík, Iceland, Game 18 ended in a three-fold repetition. However, the Icelandic Chess Federation put police guards on a 24 hour watch around the playing site and roped off the area. The Science Institute of Iceland was brought in to examine everything, lighting, the chairs, etc. There had been an accusation that the Americans were using some sort of technology to undermine Spassky’s ability to play. The entire lighting canopy was dismantled, reveals the amazing discovery of two dead flies. The electromagnetic field around the playing area was measured. The chairs were X-rayed for devices. It was found that Fischer’s chair was set higher, because Fischer was four inches taller than Spassky. However, the X-ray of Spassky’s chair found a strange metal object inside. Carpenters and investigators were summoned. Witnesses were gathered. The chair was dismantled. They discovered a hole in a part of the wooden interior. The company that made the chair said that sometimes they patched the plywood interior with a wood filler that had some metal. Was it radioactive? Was it toxic? But the patch was … gone! A search was undertaken to find the wood filler patch. No joy. The match proceeded without certainty as to the location of the missing wood filler patch.

As it turns out, one of the policemen had found and pocketed the patch. He wrote an article about it with a photo some twenty years later.

Behold the patch.

White to move and win.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE