Daily Rome Shot 557, etc. including a crazy solution

Yesterday I posted a puzzle I found it in an issue of the Marshall [Club in NYC] Spectator.

White to move and mate starting 3.  1.e7…

There are several ways to mate black.  However, the most fascinating line is

if 1…Kxf3 2.e8=R and now if 2…d4 3.0-0 mate BUT!!!! if 2…Kg2 3.0-0-0-0 mate.

What on earth is O-O-O-O?

It is a castling move!   At the time, the FIDE rules said that a King that had not moved and a rook that had not moved could castle.  In this case, the promoted former pawn, now a rook, has not moved and the unmoved king are in the same FILE, e, not the same RANK, 1.  So, according to the laws of chess at the time, they could castle.  Now, that cannot be done.  The rules say they have to be on the starting RANK.

Use your phone’s camera!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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2 Comments

  1. SacristyRat says:

    I’ve visited many, if not most of the churches in Rome, but I don’t immediately recognize this side altar.
    I find this picture extremely distressing. These are plastic votive candles. Throughout the past 20 years, I have seen so many of the churches there remove the tapers one would like and insert into a clip, which was a custom from time immemorial. They were initially replaced (if not completely removed) by the half inch candles exactly like one would find in Ikea (called “tea lights”); which gave candle trays the appearance of a Shinto shrine.
    Now this, plastic, electrified tubes. Ghastly and distressing.

    In addition, are my eyes deceiving me or has the mensa been completely removed from that reredos? There now seems to be no reason to return to what has become the Infernal City…

  2. rhurd says:

    I believe the altarpiece in Rome Shot #557 is entitled “The Angel Urges the Holy Family to Flee to Egypt” and was sculpted by Antonio Raggi in 1675. The altar is in the Cappella Lancelotti (sometimes called the Cappella Ginetti) which the first chapel on the right as you walk into Sant’Andrea della Valle church on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.
    Not to be missed is the angel atop the altar, also sculpted by Raggi in the style of Bernini, his teacher. I wouldn’t want to be underneath it the next time there is an earthquake in the Cittá Eterna!

    Courtesy of Google Lens and https://romanchurches.fandom.com/wiki/Sant%27Andrea_della_Valle#Side_chapels

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