ROME SHOT 906

Photo by The Great Roman™

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WELCOME REGISTRANT:

Girl Friday

White to move and mate in 2.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

I’m getting some candles from the sisters. They do more than soap. I’ll get another set of advent candles for next year, which will be upon us before we know it. Also candles for the Two Trinities chapel. They have 100% and 51% beeswax. The 100% are darker and are good for Requiem Masses.

Click!

In chessy news, Ding Liren is going to be at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He hasn’t played chess outside of China for many months, since defeating Nepo to win the World Champ title. He says that he was recovering from psychological illness. He had recently a tournament in China but didn’t do that well. Ding said that he will miss having Magnus in the mix and that he does not agree about the shorter format. He would like, as a matter of fact, a return to the long 24 game struggle. He seems like a rather gentle soul. An account of the interview at Chess.com.

Also, just because this is so fun, at the recent World Rapid and Blitz in Uzbekistan, 8 year old Roman Shogdzhiev defeated FIVE grandmasters!    He started playing at the advanced age of 5.   His rating – rapid 2224 – blitz 2198 – classical 1802 (I guess it might be a patience issue at that age).  Also, a 10 year old, Faustino Oro, beat GM Khismatullin (whose hand J-K Duda wouldn’t shake before a game).