DAILY ROME SHOT 936 – CATANIA!

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  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.

No, CATANIA! is not a cheer like WAKANDA!   It should be.

Some images from The World’s Best Sacristan™ who was in Catania in Sicily for the great feast of St. Agatha.

It’s sort of a “Rome Shot” since St. Agatha is in the Roman Canon.

A sample of images.

Alas, the videos are not horizontally oriented, but I got them to work.

Thanks to The World’s Best Sacristan™!

This morning I am watching a new chess event which is heavily Magnus-based.  It is a small invitational with 8 players at a super luxury spa-resort in N. Germany.  It is called the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge.   This is classical format Fischer Random 960, which they call “Freestyle” because most people don’t know what that means.  Of course if they don’t know that, they also don’t know what “freestyle” means.  The idea is that the pieces on your 1st rank are in a non-classical position.  The king has to be between the rooks and the bishops have to be on different colors, there are 960 possible arrangements.  That means that the players can’t prepare as they do in regular chess and just blitz out the opening.  Usually Fischer Random is played with a short time format.  This is longer.  Quite a few great players think that 960 is the future.

The coverage… welllll…. right now, there are lots of glitches.  They are trying but they don’t have their act together, technically.  Changing scenes is catching commentators by surprise on hot mics.  Board views are scrambled.  They’ll figure it is.  I like seeing Peter Leko, always good.  Tanya Sachdev… easy on the eyes and knows her chess, but her voice could etch glass. When she is commenting on a game, on concrete positions, she is better, but when she goes into “moderator” or “MC” mode, she is intolerable, repeating what everyone else says and ratcheting up her vocal weapon.

The players have bright jackets in different colors and double cuffs, no tie.  The details of drawing the lot for the position number was reminiscent of some of the TV you see in Europe, painful.  Thank you Miss Angola for the draw, but what on earth was that other gal there for and what was she wearing?

Overall, they are attempting to have a different look, perhaps edgy, perhaps elegant (fail).  Maybe they consulted Puer, Firouzja, who has pretenses in fashion and design.

In the background, during their technical problems, one hears a male voice with an Indian accent.

At the end of the event I expect a bollywood number.

Meanwhile, white to move and 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

Ceterum censeo Alirezam delendum esse.