Daily Rome Shot 1038

Yesterday in Italy was the observance of the Feast of Corpus Christi.  I am glad that the custom of a Eucharistic procession from St. John Lateran to St. Mary Major has been revived.  I have great memories of years past with John Paul II and Benedict XVI and truly massive throngs of people.

This year members of the Archconfraternity from The Parish™, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, founded by St. Philip Neri, participated in the Mass at St John Lateran and the procession.  You can tell from the seating, how “senior” the Archconfraternity is.  Here are the “guardians” of the Archconfraternity, including The Great Roman™.

Two members were asked to carry the canopy for the procession.

Hey n******ville@fuse.net! My thank you note was kicked back. New email?

Mate in 3.  Black to move.

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

My thanks go out to someone who got one of the Remote Chess Academy courses using my link. I don’t know who or where you are, but thank you! I hope it helps your game. He’s a good teacher.

Everyone blunders.  That is, everyone makes moves in chess which, as soon as your hand leaves the piece you’ve moved, you see that it was a dreadful error, sometimes losing the game (not always).  Yesterday, in Norway, the world champion Ding Liren was pitted against undoubtedly the best chess player in the world, period, Magnus Carlsen.  As you know, Magnus declined to defend his title, which lead to a match between Candidates #2 and #3, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. Dign won. Then Ding disappeared. He has said that he had health problems, which involved depression. Ding will soon have to defend his title against Dommaraju Gukesh. Ding has been playing again but losing a lot. A lot. He is a shadow of his former self. Some of the other players are concerned to the point that they are commenting. Some time ago, Magnus opined that Ding might be “broken”. In any event, yesterday in Norway Ding blundered mate in 2 against Magnus.

An unbelievable moment as Ding Liren blunders mate-in-2 vs. Magnus Carlsen and loses a 4th game in a row! #NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/Dl42HltxKx

— chess24 (@chess24com) June 2, 2024

Here it is.  You can see what’s coming.  White’s queen swoops in on the h7 pawn in a clearance sacrifice.  Black’s king is forced to take.  White’s e4 rook slides over to h4 mate.  The king has nothing, because of the pawn on f5 and the bishop on that diagonal from d5 to g8.  This is so fundamental that everyone watch was shocked.

Magnus said:

“He just seems to be off. You can see it both from his demeanor, but also from the way that he often makes critical decisions quickly. He doesn’t think when he needs to think and just generally plays without any confidence. I wish him well, I hope he gets better, but for now it’s just sad to see.”

In your charity, perhaps you could stop and say a prayer for Ding Liren, who seems to be struggling.