DAILY ROME SHOT 954

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Meanwhile, white to move.  Mate in 5.  Perhaps tricky.

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

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

I am now a chess.com affiliate.   So, click and join!   Maybe we can build a fun and active Catholic Chess Club within Chess.com.  Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

In physio-chessy news, at Chessbase there is an interesting piece about the heart rates of players even in classical chess (long format).  At the recent Fisher Random “Freestyle” event in Germany, the players had heart monitors.  Some players had rates above 130.  Magnus, 75-95 for whole games.  Blunders provoked spikes.  Rapid and Blitz, they generally run higher.   I read an article years ago about how many calories chess players can burn in a game.  Pretty impressive.  It pays to be in good shape.

Chess boxing, anyone?   Back in the day, I would have enjoyed that, but my things were fencing (sabre and epee) and taekwondo (Jhoon Rhee).   That could be fun.

And since it is leap year, let’s review the nutty stunt of Hikaru Nakamura v. Ian Nepomniachtchi on 9 Jan 2024. This is even longer than the game with Dubov that got them into “trouble”.

Happy Leap Day!  Have a nice knight!

[Event “January 9 Late 2024”]
[Site “”]
[Date “2024.01.09”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Hikaru Nakamura”]
[Black “Ian Nepomniachtchi”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Nd4 Nd5 3. Nb3 Nb6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Ne4 Ne5 6. Ng5 Ng4 7. Nf3 Nf6 8.
Ng1 Ng8 9. Nd4 Nd5 10. Nb5 Nb4 11. Nc3 Nc6 12. Nb1 Nb8 13. Nf3 Nf6 14. Nd4 Nd5
15. Nb3 Nb6 16. Nc3 Nc6 17. Ne4 Ne5 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. Nf3 Nf4 20. Ng1 Nh5 21. Nh3
Nf6 22. Ng1 Ng8 23. Nd4 Nd5 24. Nb5 Nb4 25. Nc3 Nc6 26. Nb1 Nb8 27. Nf3 1/2-1/2

After all that some beer is in order.  So order some beer!