Daily Rome Shot 1017

The photo does not do it justice.

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At the Rapid and Blitz in Warsaw, the lowest rated seed, Kirill Shevchenko (a Ukrainian playing under the Romanian flag) went 3 for three to lead the pack after day 1 with a score of 6/6. Magnus and Nodirbek follow with 4/6. It is, of course, still early days.  At 33 years old, Magnus is the oldest player!

Meanwhile, it’s blacks move. Mate in 3.

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

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

I am sorting mail these days, which piled up during my Roman Sojourn.  One thing I am doing is looking for things to read for a new edition of News of the Church.  I immediately noticed interesting news of from the wonderful Benedictine nuns of Gower Abbey in Missouri, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.  So, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, they have two new music CDs (and downloads).  One of them focuses on martyrs.  Here are three tiny tastes.  I like that they put the famous Ut queant laxis into the collection.  I did a podcast about it back in 2007!

US HERE – UK HERE

Let’s see if we can sell out all the discs and break the downloads.

You get their music.  They get more income.  They open more daughter houses.  More room available for vocations and happy traditional nuns.

See how that works?

Also, lest I forget, the chess.com Classic is revving up.  Several of the players are also playing in Warsaw.  There were real fireworks yesterday, with some spectacular blunders (which I find consoling) and missed mates (which I do often when playing fast).  The highly unlikeable Hans Niemann with what was probably a mouse-slip blundered his queen. He’s out.  Play continues today.  Several players have already made it to Division 1 because of past performances, including Magnus.

Because this is a chess.com event, chess.com is offering discounts on premium memberships (there are free memberships, too).

Go Wesley!