Joe OConnell

@Madulime @ImShahinyan Not Re7 since it’s stalemate

White mates in 2 Can you solve this in 3 minutes? ⏳

@JColemanChess @ImShahinyan No since Kf7

@ImShahinyan Re6

@EmilSutovsky Emil, during these sad and emotional times, keep your profound insight at the forefront of your thoughts: “emotions are rarely a good companion of wisdom.”

Dear friends, Reading your comments to my previous tweet, I realized that it should have been clearer and more responsible. It was obviously not aimed at Danya's close friends or God forbid family. I was referring to people who now refer to themselves as friends, but did very little to help. It did annoy me, and does annoy now. I never had a privilege to call Danya a friend, but I acknowledge that FIDE also could and should have done better. We need to look into our policies, and probably not to wait for a formal complaint, but to step in and protect the people in such a situations. Very difficult to balance it all, but we will do our utmost. On a personal level: the news of Danya's passing shocked me. It triggered a lot of feelings, and maybe I was too emotional writing about it. And emotions are rarely a good companion of wisdom.

@sxnksati @SusanPolgar A good try, but @SusanPolgar is ~always correct. Black’s best after 3.Bxf7 is 3…Nxd8. Now 4.Rh8 loses both the Rook and the game.

White to move. #ChessTactic #ChessPunks #ChessPuzzle

@AarundhChauhan @SusanPolgar Good try but no, 1…Nxd8 is not forced. Best for Black is 1…h6 giving Black’s King a flight square and avoiding a forced mate for dozens of moves.

@SusanPolgar RD8 NxD8 NE7+ KH8 RxF8#

@GMIgorSmirnov Mate in 6 with best play

Brilliant Move, But Why? 🤔🤔

@RightNUFC PTO = personal time off (from work).

The legend that is Melani is back with the latest We Do Not Care Club announcement. Absolutely ON POINT as usual! It is true, cleaning your phone with your boobs DOES work. 😅 #WDNC

@GMIgorSmirnov The real puzzle begins after 1…Rc2 2.Qd3 Rxb2 3.Kg1 — what now? I couldn’t work it out so had to use an engine :( Igor’s puzzle this time was much more difficult for me.

Can you find a way to disrupt the White's position? Black to Play🤔🤔

@chessmensch White’s blunder 1.Bd2? should have been a huge red flag since White had been better, so this should have alerted Black to danger. Instead of blundering 1…Bxd2? Black saves the game and equalizes with 1…Be6

Landed the perfect trap for online blitz. Opponent must have thought I mouse slipped the bishop on the way to e3. What happened after Bxd2??

@SusanPolgar @SusanPolgar Wow - an extremely beautiful and complex puzzle. I failed to solve it, since there are too many possible lines for me. Question: how did Herbstmann & Kubbel prove their solution, decades before computers and tablebase; and did they publish their solution?

Beautiful maneuvering! White to move and draw! Note: This is difficult and lengthy 😀 Herbstmann & Kubbel, 1st Prize, 1937 #PuzzleSolving #ChessPunks

@jk_rowling “Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is.” An existential truth precisely articulated.

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points. I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days. Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them. However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created. When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said. The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness. Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison? I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges. The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest. Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

@ppd4444 @thewriterme Tx

There was a time when proper tariffs were in place, we did not require taxes. Taxes were supposed to be temporary. Trump is Righting this ship.

@Michael951413 Profound insight - source?

Now I Know! x.com/i/grok/share/l…

HELP: The Peacock / NBC app is dismal - I signed up to watch the Tour de France but the Peacock ios app crashes constantly and streaming on the Firestick is no better. Please explain how I can configure my NordVPN to watch the rest of the Tour. Tx

@danielyoung_ff Get help from a VSO (Veteran Service Officer) at your local Disabled American Veterans or VFW or American Legion etc. A VSO is highly trained and charges no fee whatsoever! Don’t try to DIY unless you hold a PhD and have several hundred hours to learn the system.

Hey fam. Question. I filled recently for disability with the VA. I realize it’s a huge pain process. Anyone have words of wisdom?

Donald Trump just announced via Truth Social that the United States has bombed 3 Iranian nuclear sites and has now called for peace 😳 "NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!"

@MadhurKapoor12 Yes, White has a forced mate, but it’s much more difficult to find than others have posted. After 1.Qxe4 Ne5 (Black’s best try!) 2.Qxe5+ Be6 (again Black’s best)! Now White has to calculate carefully to find the Mate in 8!

What is going on here? Explain Why? I'm assuming there was a pawn at E4 of black which White queen just captured Repost please!

@laffer747 @MadhurKapoor12 No, there’s no stalemate. As shown, 2.Kc2# is mate. And if 1…Kxc1 then 2.Qa1# and 2.Qf1# are mate.

@MadhurKapoor12 1. Kc3 Ka1 2. Kc2#

White to play, mate in 2 Repost please!

Yes, but then what? Answer: immediate mate with the pawn: 1..Rh1+ 2.Nxh1 g4# It’s mate since the White King cannot move out of check, because the Black’s Bishop is now attacking h2. This is a “clearing move”: by sacrificing the rook, Black “cleared” White’s Knight from giving the King the escape square.

@MadhurKapoor12 No clue. G3 to H1 is the response.

Explain why? Please repost!