ROME SHOT 903

Please remember me when  shopping online. US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Photo by The World’s Best Sacristan™

WELCOME REGISTRANT
An Old Historian

White to move and mate in 2.

CLICK!

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

The monks of Norcia are building.  Help them and get great beer.

I read that Magnus will not be at Wijk aan Zee but Ding Liren will be! Nepo will play as well as “the Boy” and Anish, Prag, Vidit, Gukesh, the unlikeable Hans Neimann and Jorden van Forest. I think it would be fun to be in Wijk aan Zee during that tournament to catch the vibe, given that in a place like Wijk aan Zee that’s all there would be.

There was a bit of controversy at the World Rapid in Samarkand, when Jan-Krzysztof Duda refused to shake hands with Russian Denis Khismatullin before their game because the latter is vocally and visually pro-Russian v Ukraine. Being aggressively pro-Russian got Sergey Karjakin “cancelled” by FIDE and, these days, all Russian players can’t use their national flag but have to play under the FIDE logo, unless they’ve affiliated with another country. Khismatullin plays under the FIDE flag at tournaments, but his profile has Russia as his federation. Why Karjakin and not Khismatullin? Good question. Another FIDE mystery. Nepo has stated that he is against the war. Historic hand-shake refusals include the “Toiletgate” incident between Kramnik and Topalov in 2007 and Cheparinov and Short in 2008. The handshake before a game is a hard and fast commandment.

Ceterum autem censeo Firouza delendum esse.