DAILY ROME SHOT 963

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Photo from The Great Roman™.   He sacrificed himself by going to the Gregorian University to attend a conference held by the Acton Institute in Rome.

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Colleen65
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Still there… still making good coffee. Still building their amazing monastery in Wyoming. Right now they have their “Pascha Java”.

The American Cup is underway.  $400,000 prize fund. Just players playing under the US flag.  In the 1st round there were 13 decisive games, including all 8 games in the women’s section.   I like the format.  These are matches, so there will be four games between each pairing over two days. After a classical game without additional time after the 40th move, there’s right away a gear-shifting rapid with point weight equal to the classical!  For the first match my guy Wesley So is up against the dangerous Sam Shankland and came away from the first round on top with a classical draw and a rapid win.  1.5-0.5  Fabiano Caruana beat one of his coaches, Grigory Oparin (yes, this the American Cup) 1-0 1-0 to lead the gang.  In the women’s section, two-time Cup winner Irina Krush lost to the lowest rated player 16-year old Zoey Tang in the classical but won in the rapid.  14 year old Alice Lee from my native place of Minneapolis (Wesley also), beat Tatev Abrahamyan in both formats so she’s tied with Gulrukhbegim “Begim” Tokhirjonova (yes, this is the American Cup).  Hostilities resume today at 14OO EST (1900 CET).

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in FIVE.

1. Qc7+ Kd4 2. Rb4+ Ke3 3. Qc3+ Ke2 4. Qd3+ Ke1 5. Rb1#
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

The Summit Dominicans would enjoy a visit from you. Take a look at their shop and give them a hand. And if you want to learn or improve your chess…

Yesterday I went to OTB, not feeling particularly well.  With white I had a long bout with the club’s strongest player, over about on and a half hours we settled on a draw at move 36. [FEN – 6k1/p1rb1rp1/1q2p1Np/3p4/2pP1P1P/Q3P3/PPR4R/2K5 b – – 22 35 (flip the board for my view)] I put the game into the machine when I got home.  At my move 36 black was slightly favored.  I had the engine continue playing best moves and we wound up at move 89 with all the pawns gone and white with a knight and rook against black with a rook.  Hence, we made the right decision, though that was with best moves from the engine.

In general my opponents can depend on me snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.