Fr. Z's Blog

Welcome new registrant:

twe

Welcome back!

StCorbiniansBear

Meanwhile, white to move.  Mate in two.

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

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Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE

My Roman Sojourn is coming up, so I am very busy taking care of many things.  One thing I am reviewing is my comms.  I have had an Italian mobile number since the day that the Italian Bishops Conference said that priests should not have cellphones.  I laughed and got one that very day.  At first it was Omnitel, which was absorbed by Vodafone.

In any event, in those days when it was difficult to use your mobile for the internet, I got a mobile “hot spot” through Keepgo, which is still listed as one of the best services of its type.  I have a data plan on my Italian phone.

Also, with ATT (gotta review that) you can use your phone as if you were in these USA for $10/day.  But I am not interested in a $400 phone bill, as you can imagine.  I tend not to turn on cellular on my US phone when in Rome, maybe once a week.   Also, my US phone is still locked into ATT. My older Italian phone is unlocked.  It doesn’t have the best camera however.  Which means carrying more gadgets – two phones – than I would like when I hit the streets for those daily Rome pics.  I feel like a drug dealer.  I’m going to update my Keepgo as a backup for internet right now.  Also I may get an ESIM for my US phone.  I’ve never used an ESIM.  I’ll dedicate one of my reader donations today to find out!    So…

Thank you DD.  You are one of the famous “200!” who has been so kind and faithful all this time.  You “200!”s were a life boat in a storm.  My gratitude to all the “200!”s who are left, and “100!”s, too.  All you regular donors have my daily prayers.

The other option is buy an unlocked phone with a better camera for my Italian number.  Unlocked phones can be spendy.

If you want to try Keepgo, a mobile hotspot, for travel, here is my referral code.  Each time someone gets some data through Keepgo, I get some data too: 3GB.  That helps.

http://keepgo.refr.cc/S2BDR7V

Photo by The Great Roman™

Welcome new registrant:

Ranchoseco

I can’t push Benedictine wine all the time.  So, let’s break it up with Benedictine BEER. I can personally attest that it is really good, and I am not much of a beer drinker.

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE

This isn’t all that hard, but it has a fun feature.  BLACK to move and win.

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

Chess news… Magnus beat Hikaru 3.5-12.5 in the Final of the 2023 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship.

My chess news… I played like a moron today, losing three straight, each time with an avoidable blunder. In my defense there were a lot of distractions. Frustrating.

On another note, I am grateful to a reader who sent, some time ago, a set of tech tools. I fixed something today and thought of you.

Also, thanks to CG who sent TOMATOES and a few other things which helpful. You are very kind.

Meanwhile,….

Black to move (despite board orientation).  White has made a bad move with h4. Punish it.

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 checked the “Earth Labora” page of the traditional Benedictine monks of Le Barroux, who are making good wines from the ancient vineyards left by the Avignon popes.  They have 10 and 20 and 40 year PORTS.  HERE  I haven’t had any yet.

For 10% off at their store use the code FATHERZ10

They also have an assortment:

Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalis Wine Assortment

Of course it is mostly red.  I’ve had all three of these wines.  Very good.  HERE

Featuring 10 bottles of Via Caritatis Lux Red wine, this wine assortment was created in honor of his eminence Cardinal Mueller’s recent visit to Washington, D.C. It also includes one bottle each of the Via Caritatis Lux White and Lux Rosé wines, as an additional gift.

Remember that Card. Müller has been pretty vocal lately with a) his concerns about the upcoming “walking together” (toward the cliff) and b) pressure on Bp. Strickland.  A toast to Card. Müller!

I’ve been hearing more and more about ChatGPT, which is an online A.I. site.  You can ask questions or even put it to tasks.  About a year ago, one of you readers had ChatGPT write a poem about “walking together about walking together-ity” upcoming in October.  Since I will be in Roma at that time, I hope the air quality isn’t reduced because of their gaseous emissions.  I digress.  That eerily accurate and pretty good A.I. generated poem is HERE: It ran…

Synod on Synodality: A Poem by ChatGPT

In chambers where agendas play,
A Synod’s dance begins its sway,
A masquerade of “dialogue” they say,
Yet veils are thin, truth’s price to pay.

Synod on synodality, a modern scene,
Where liberal dreams may intervene,
A clever ruse, a cunning scheme,
In name of progress, they convene.

With every vote and subtle nod,
A liberal agenda seeks to prod,
Traditional hearts, they aim to sway,
But through the haze, we see their play.

Oh, Synod’s charade, you’re quite the show,
A liberal fest, with pomp aglow,
They whisper change and “open minds,”
Yet core beliefs, they leave behind.

Synod on synodality, a circus grand,
Where principles shift like shifting sand,
Tradition’s voice they try to drown,
While “tolerance” is their new crown.

But we’re no fools, we see the game,
Behind the curtain, it’s all the same,
A liberal masquerade, oh what a sight,
Where truth and orthodoxy take their flight.

So Synod, dance with your intent,
Your liberal leanings, blatant and bent,
A spectacle of “dialogue” and “new,”
Yet through it all, tradition rings true.

Meanwhile, white to move.

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

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE

In chessy news, in Berlin, Wesley beat Nordirbek to emerge from the lower bracket to the final against Jan-Krzysztof Duda.  Duda won, garnering €80K.  This tournament was pretty kitchy in its coverage, but it was, I understand, broadcast live on TV in some places. I used YouTube to see it at a convenient time.  Wesley So secured €20K for 2nd.  The event shows that short-time format chess is on the rise.  A sign of the time.

Tomorrow, 22 Sept – the Birthday of Bilbo and Frodo – Nakamura v. Carlsen in the Speedchess Championship.

And…

? An incredible performance by 9-year-old FM Faustino Oro (2325)!
The ?? Argentinian prodigy scored 6,5/9 in the ITT Copa Ciudad de Comodoro Rivadavia with a performance rating of 2452 and achieved his first IM norm. ?

? El Mundo del Ajedrez pic.twitter.com/BFRQiY0t6O

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 18, 2023

Photo by The Great Roman™

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in two.

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

In Berlin yesteday for the kitchy but lucrative “Armageddon” blitz, Wesley So defeated Richard Rapport and must now face Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The winner plays Duda for €80,000!

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Meanwhile, I watched a podcast yesterday Fabi, Christian and Yassir and learned about Chessify.

This is really interesting. Instead of getting ever stronger computers to handle chess databases and analysis, you can use a cloud based super-computer. You “rent” time on it. It can do things that our home computers couldn’t dream of… not that our home computers… at least I hope not. I’m not sure what my computer is doing when I’m away.

Anyway, Chessify gives access to the best engines and tablebase. There is a free level that analyzes at 1,000 kN/s speed. Paid, up to 1 BN/s. Not sure exactly what that is or how it might translate into actual language. One billion N per second where N is… “nodes”. Okay… HERE…

A node, … is a chess position with its evaluation and history, i.e. castling rights, repetition of moves, move turn, etc. Once you make a move, the engine starts calculating various continuations in search of the best move. This process can be described as a decision tree with its root being the current position. Every legal move creates a new position, known as a child node, and each of those child nodes, in turn, grows into more branches with every legal move.

FWIW… after White’s first move the number of possible positions is 20 (16 pawn moves, 4 knight moves). After 2 moves: 400 distinct chess positions. After 3 moves: 5,362 distinct chess positions or 8,902 total positions after three moves (White’s second move). You see where this is going. After 7 moves: 3,284,294,545.

The total number of chess positions is called the Shannon number, which is 10^120,.

That’s a lot of nodes. Anyway,

Stockfish working on 4 CPUs of an average local computer considers around 5,000k nodes per second, which is insufficient for in-depth analysis. A local high-end computer, on the other hand, can support up to 20,000 kN/s; and a special pay-top-dollar local server, which may be owned by some super GMs only, will provide around 50,000kN/s. Higher speeds are possible to reach only with cloud servers: from 100,000 to 1 million kN/s and even higher if needed.

When I turn on Stockfish to analyze something, immediately the cooling fan revs up.  I really need a new computer.

Fun facts.

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE