DAILY ROME SHOT 960

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A glimpse from The Parish.™ Photo from The World’s Best Sacristan™

Meanwhile, in chessy news, it seems that Canada finally granted the necessary visas to players in the Candidates to be held in Toronto. Indian and Russian players were being held up. FIDE finally made a major public appeal. There were political reasons behind the delays it seems. ChessBase wrote that an Indian immigrant to Canada had been assassinated and Canada blamed India. Arguments ensued. A lot of Indian players visas were held up. Also, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina are Russian citizens. Canada has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters after the Russian attack. Happy ending. All the players have visas now.

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 2.  How long did it take you?

Click!

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

3:16 isn’t just in John.Ceterum censeo Alirezam delendum esse.

Oh… and another thing.  The other day I mentioned something about a new chess variant called chess boxing, which is a real thing.  Play some rapid, then box a round.  Repeat. You can win in either activity, on the board or in the ring.  But fatigue becomes an issue with the clock.  I opined that I would have been interested, back in the day, in chess karate or chess fencing.  WELL… at a recent event in Charlotte NC where there is a large chess club, there was help a festival called Chess Kids.  They had chess fencing.  Yup.  That would be fun.