A Horse Named Stranger

Bayern are narrowing down their list of candidates for the headcoach position. Frontrunners for a permanent appointment: Rangnick and Emery (no longer on the list: Zidane, and de Zerbi). They met with both and had first probatory talks with them Frontrunners for an interim appointment (1 season + option if things work out): Flick and Favre. Tuchel apparently really not willing to prolong his stint. He wants to salvage as much from the season (plain speak CL) as he can and then just move on. Bit surprised that Favre is apparently a candidate, but then again him and Eberl know each other from their Gladbach days with quite a bit of mutual respect. The arguments in favour of the temporary solution. They could give their preferred solutions a new go. Alonso (obviously) and Hoeneß (yes, Uli Hoeneß's nephew, right now in charge at Stuttgart). Maybe even Klopp after his sabbatical.

Didn't Kirschner address the issue a while ago? I think he assumed, that the protection of 45 behind bars would be the responsibility of the US Marshall service, as they have the experience and expertise on that matter.

Gukesh did what he had to and was supposed to do. Calmly drew his game against Nakamura and then wait and see what happens on the other board. Congratulations to him, deserved winner. Story of the round will be the Carudrama against Nepo. Once again, both in a must-win situation. Fabi managed to get into a winning position. Then around time control he made life more difficult (narrowed the path to victory significantly) than it had to be with the more active 39.Bh7!? (which once again, was still winning) but this allowed Nepo to give up an exchange to eliminate one of Fabi's extra pawns and allowed play against the white king with 39...Rxg5! 40.Qxg5 Qxh7, which was virtually the only chance Nepo had to stay in this game. We are not talking about winning, just not losing was an achievement at this point. We reached move 40 thus extra time for both players, esp. for Fabi, who desperately needed it. Alas, the first moves past time control are among the most error rich (yes, I am also speaking from experience here). 41.Ka1?? was an error (41.Ka2! keeps the winning chances, subtle differences) Nepo seized his chance 41...Qc2! and the position is level, based on perpetual ideas with around Nb3+;Nc1+. The position is objectively drawn, but the path to the draw is very, very narrow and not trivial. 42.Qg8+ Ka7 43.Ka2 a4! 44. f4 Nb3?? this once again puts Nepo on course to a loss. 44...Ka6!! was the right move, as the white queen has to keep watch over the a2-g8 diagonal and not allow her black sister to give checks there, the Knight has to stay on c5 for that. It's not an impossible move to find, but the two natural Knight jumps to d3 or b3 as in the game are both losers. The trickiest thing about 44...Ka6!! is you have to calculate the lines after Qa8+ and arrive at the conclusion that it's merely a perpetual. Again, doable for players at that level, but not trivial. Anyway back to the game after 44...Nb3?? 45.Qg7+ Ka6 46.Qc3 Qg2 47.Qc4+ Kb7 48.Re1 Nc5 +-. White has managed to stabilize, he has freed his rook and driven the Knight out from his b3 outpost. And from here you just assume that Fabi converts this. And he keeps on winning for the next 20 moves or so, until he slips again and the position peters out into a drawn queen ending. Super resilient play by Nepo and a super painful draw for Caruana, which will feel like a loss for quite some time.

I have the feeling that the last laugh of the day will be on Liverpool, tho. No idea if the thread will be open long enough tho.

lol

Meanwhile after back-to-back loss winning a game again felt nice. At least keeping the 5 point cushion to the play-off rank intact. And almost equally important increasing the distance to our dearest neighbours to 11 points with 4 games to go. Run-in is rough. But play-off rank is secure, now it's just about staying on the direct promotion spot(s). Again, I don't care if we go up by winning the bloody league or by finishing second. I could just do without the bloody play-off games.

Personally I think best chess playing millenial not named Magnus is Levon (also best player, who never wore the crown).

And indeed both Gukesh and Caruana are now winning. Assuming nobody suffers a heart attack and thus Gukesh and Caruana will be able to convert. We would go into the final round with Gukesh in the lead 1.Gukesh 8.5 2.Caruana, Naka, Nepo 8 5.Pragg 6 6.Vidit 5.5 7.Firou 4.5 8.Abasov 3.5 Edit: No heart attacks, thus those are standings before the final round. Pairings: Nakamura (8) - Gukesh (8.5) Caruana (8) - Nepo (8) Abasov (3.5) - Pragg (5.5) Firou (4.5) - Vidit (5.5) Nice thing that the contenders have to play each other, with Naka, Caruana and Nepo being in must win situations. 9 Points are the requirement to get into the tie-breaks, assuming that Gukesh doesn't win. If Gukesh wins, it's game over for the pack.

I mean Ken fucking (it's his middle name) Buck called out her incompetence and insanity and fell out of favour with the MAGA crowd and he essentially had to resign. So while some mainstream conservatives might have grown as tired of her as you and the rest of us, the main chunk of her party hasn't.

Nepo - Nakamura was a draw afterall. As was the dead rubber game between Vidit and Abasov Pragg has found a nice defensive resource. Essentially ejecting an exchange to stabilize things and have better squares for his pieces and coordination. I still believe in Caruana, but it will be a long day at the office for him. Gukesh - Firouzja is wild, I still back Gukesh.

Call me when she loses her seat (either in a primary or GE)

When has the prospect of failure ever deterred the Trailer Gweene?

Somewhat disappointingly, there's no major transfer saga this time around (apparently). Altho, we official have no REAL idea where Mbappe is headed... I mean there's this mild rumour of Musiala being a priority target for City (isn't it fun, when money is no issue). There's potentially Davies to Real. We have Leverkusen's Grimaldo being linked with several destinations (likesay Bayern). I am more curious, why there's no real fight over Olmo. Barca is once again linked to him, and with a € 60m release clause, it's not like he is unaffordable for the big boy clubs.

I think Caruana and Gukesh will win their games, at least that's my feel from looking at the games. Nepo-Nakamura is anyone's guess. Like I said, I'd rather play Nakamura's position (just looks more harmonic/better coordinated), but I don't have a concrete winning idea. Pragg's position just looks like utter misery. Barring some disaster it's probably just a question of when Caruana will break through, not if.

Looks like Gukesh has managed to seize the initiative against Firouzja. += sorta stuff Nepo looks to have missed something against Nakamura. Engine might say it's still equal, but I'd much rather have black there. Pragg - Caruana is swinging into Fabiano's direction. I think this will be 0-1. Feels like Pragg has flamed out, and has to fight with his fatigue and frustration of no longer being in the race for the WCC match.

I see what you did there.

A lot of defending is about knocking attackers off balance. That's too broad imo. Question is how the defenders does it/if he crosses a line. Referee said no, I agree with that call. You disagree with it. I think a penalty call would've required more contact. I'm sure you could possibly find a referee in a game that draws the line elsewhere and awards that penalty. Ultimately I think, it was the right call, you disagree. Fine, let's move on. Bayern back to pretending that they are good by pummeling Union today. The latter are far from safe in the relegation battle. Just three points on the play-off spot, and Mainz will play Freiburg tomorrow. So it's entirely possible that they could close the gap.

Too little force for a penalty imo. Refs are usually a bit more lenient with fouls in the box, because a penalty (likely goal) is quite impactful. And refs really don't want the game and subsequent headlines to be about them (at least the good ones) and their decissions. So they are rather cautious in those situations. It also wasn't a clear and obvious error, but rather within the discretion of the on-field referee how he judges that situation. So also not a VAR thing. The handball I have a much harder time to justify the inaction of the VAR.

Mine does. Altho, I don't use that setting for enviromental reasons. Lower temperature and soak/tub (no idea what the English word for Einweichen on a washing machine program is) function will do the trick and cost less energy (for those who didn't know, the really energy intensive part for the washing machine is heating up the water, so the higher the temperature of the washing machine the more energy it consumes. Pre-washing or the soak/tub functions consume less energy, even if the machine runs longer on a lower temperature).

Assuming 1. was the handball, yeah, that should've been a penalty. VAR will have some explaining to do (again) there. 2. Too little for a penalty imho. If Chelsea had been awarded a penalty for that, then City for once would've had more right to complain about that call, then Chelsea about it not being given.

I'm disappointed with AI there. The obvious nickname for the orange felon is obviously *drumroll* Fartosaurus Snore I admit, his previous short lived name Don Snoreleone was better, but it omitted the farts. I suspect your diet might be a wee bit healthier. Obviously I could be wrong, and you ignore medical advice and also go hard for the MacDonald's BicMac with fries and ketchup diet. YOLO?

You did? Thought you got around paying him out, by letting him go there for free...

The Saudis helped to move dead wood from a few clubs, not just Chelsea. Liverpool managed to elegantly offload Henderson and his contract this way, while Henderson could get rid off his SJW label. United managed to get rid off C. Ronaldo Bayern could sell off Mane without having to write off any value.

How to put it... I thought crabs were endangered in the western world due to loss of their natural habitats. (that was so elegantly put, I kinda have to applaud myself here). And how did this discussion move away from ty and MTG - Minor Trunk Growth (it was either that or Make Trunks Great).

In other news, in other lands, namely the Netherlands. Vitesse is the first team relegated (after 35 years in the Eredivisie). They were already bottom of the table and were likely to go down, before they were hit with a deduction of 18 points. They are now sitting on -1 point. The club have accepted the ruling of the indepedent regulator and admitted to have messed around with their balance sheets. There's also another investigation into Vitesse going on. Focus of it potential ties to Abramovich (yes, he is sorta like herpes, you can't get rid off him), who is (as we all know) under EU sanctions.