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In chessy news, FIDE announced qualification changes for the path to the Candidates. This is important and good… if the changes are good. Alireza “Puer” Firouzja will forever be stained by his unsporting but technically legal scramble to oust the deserving Wesley So. Now the World Champ runner up (“1st loser”?) does not automatically get a slot. Highest rated gets in. FIDE Circuit (2 spots). FIDE World Cup (3 spots). FIDE Grand Swiss (2). Hence, Candidates 2026 will have 8 players. However, the ratings issue had to be settled. Now, the six-month average rating applies, which greatly diminishes the cobbled-up grasps at the rungs in December.
Ceterum censeo Alirezam esse delendum.
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In my own chessy news, I played yesterday to a 35 move defeat with black. I put the game into an engine when I got home and found some good information. There were moments when both I and my opponent totally missed huge opportunities. I found the precise moment that moved and the entire momentum of the game shifted away towards ultimate defeat. Even then, I recovered ground at one point, but it was too little and too late. It is amazing what roles “time” and “space” play on the board. It is amazing how one seemingly little move can dramatically alter the outcome. For example, in yesterday’s game, one of my moves allowed for the enemy to make a cross-board, long diagonal bishop sac to open up an attack on the other side of the board. Well-done.
Life is like that, isn’t it. In the blink of an eye, life can change. A single careless moment in the kitchen. Putting your foot wrong. Forgetting to mail that thing. Weather. Illness. Things forced on you.
Nevertheless, even in these moments, as is my hard-learned experience, it is the hand of God that moves you upon his board according to a game plan which He conceived before the creation and ordering of the cosmos and all within it, including the holy angels. God created a specific angel to be your Guardian Angel before the creation of the material universe. That angel’s sole eternal task, other than the glorification of God, is to help you.
Contemplate the depths of the plans of God and economy of salvation. Perhaps this is why step by step through scientific developments we can see more of the visible vast and invisibly tiny universe: to give us a sense of the infinite nature of God. Perhaps this is why, as we advance in maths we have realized the even the tiniest increase or decrease of nuclear forces at the first microsecond of the universe would have prevented the formation of the building blocks of life. The perfect balance points to a Divine mind and purpose. Before all of that, before the “Spirit moved on the waters” of the Tohu-wa-bohu, the primordial chaos, God chose YOU. He brought YOU into existence NOW. We, here and now are God’s “team” for his Will. The Digitus Dei guides us, and even the quark, in our paths. In our striving to do God’s will according to our vocations, his hand rests upon us. He gives us all the actual graces we need to do His will.
One mathematician supposed that, including nonsense games, the number of possible games was something like 10¹???. To scale this down a little bit, after white’s 8th move (15 half-moves), there are 2,015,099,950,053,364,471,960 possible games. That’s after 7.5 moves. I am always amused when one online chess commentator says, “And it was after this move that we have an entirely new game.”
Every day is like the day before if we are disciplined and have a rule of life. And we should. The Church get’s this, which is why we have the canonical hours of prayer for the Divine Office, why we have firm points for devotions of, say, the Angelus at 6 – 12 – 6. Everyday is like the one before, but it’s not. They get longer and shorter, colder and warmer. Every day known by God which is why He chose to place you HERE and NOW. Pure love.
Meanwhile, you will love the wine made by the traditional Benedictines in France at Le Barroux.
If we can trust God, we can’t trust big corporations. Read my piece about Federated Computer. Please. Do you have any sort of online presence? Why pay companies that mine your data and can switch you off? 
In the traditional Roman calendar, today is the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor. He was a great warrior for the Church in the face of the Protestant Revolt.
On this coming Sunday, Holy Church begins to sing in a new key. We have come around, in the traditional calendar, to Pre-Lent.
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