Daily Rome Shot 862 – The Bongcloud

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I especially like that the “stemma” above the door is still Paul VI.

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ALSO… along with my donors for the 24th day of the month (oh so few) thanks to JB who kindly sent ad hoc.   BTW everyone – PayPal is great but Zelle is greater (no fees).

ALSO… thanks to the kind soul, whoever you are, who sent an item from my Amazon wish list, in this case some super hot Chinese chili oil.  There was no gift slip in the box.  I can’t tell you how that vexes me.    Some socks came awhile back too… again… no gift slip.  That REALLY steams my xiao long bao.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in FIVE.

1. Bg8 Kxg8 2. Rh8+ Kxh8 3. Qh3+ Rh5 4. Qxh5+ Kg8 5. Qh2#
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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At the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, its draw draw draw, which statistically, given these players, is not a shock. Jan-Krzysztof Duda withdrew from the tournament due to health issues, and his round-1 game will be taken out of consideration for the final standings. Nepo and Fabi had strong chances yesterday but, nope. I think it was Fabiano who said in an interview that – I paraphrase – their brains are mush. They just had the Rapid and Blitz before this. It must be grueling.

In other chessy news Vladimir Kramnik says he has been studying statistics which suggest to him, so he is suggesting to the world, that top players like Hikaru Nakamura are cheating in online blitz. There is now a Twitter war which is getting sharp. In one video short I saw Hikaru opine that Kramnik is “Full of [SYNOD]”. Heating this up is Nepo, who reposted Kramnik’s veiled accusation, thus incurring the wrath of the Naka. Magnus didn’t waste the chance to poke at Hikaru. He posted a screen shot of Hikaru losing a bishop, quipping: “Wins all these online events, yet doesn’t know how pawns capture? Interesting.” Hikaru trolled him back, “I know you don’t know how the knight moves, I was hoping you didn’t know how the pawn moves too!! ”  They play against each other a lot.

As a matter of fact in 2021 one of the funniest chess things I ever saw was when they “Double Bongclouded” each other.

SCHOLION: The Bongcloud Opening is 1. e4 e5 (standard King pawn opening) 2. Ke2. ??? King – e2?  The idea is that this is such a bad move that you would have to have been smoking dope to make it. Super GM’s have used the Bongcloud and won in serious games.

Ahhh… admit it your day couldn’t have been complete without chess news, controversy and hilarity. Will the hijinx ever end? That’s the 64 Square Question.