This question was posed to me, and I was surprised that I could not find a solution (as I thought that all rook tours [open or closed] were possible). Starting from a8, could a rook visit every square on the board once, ending on f3?

I tried a few times, with a few different strategies, but I always ended up missing one square.

It's really easy to burn pairs of rows or columns, so the problem space could be reduced...

...but at some point (4x4), I was able to convince myself that it is impossible (at least at this size and state):

...but it might be possible that shaving off column or row pairs is also discarding a solution?

basically, I have a lot of anxiety when playing with people, and my ranking is around 600ish, but whenever i play a bot the analysis suggests that i paid played at level 1100 or 1500.

Just got this puzzle on Lichess and there's a gorgeous reply to this check threat from white.

Jerry is the best :)

He has passed at age 88, cause not specified.

AP report: https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/boris-spassky-soviet-chess-champion-who-lost-20192861.php

8 games, 60 minutes + 30 second increment for Benjamin, i.e. classical TC though a bit quicker than some. Benjamin gets N odds in all games. Leela will play at bullet speed. The hardware is not specified in the thread I linked. Leela will apparently be running a network specially trained to play with knight odds. Match will be livestreamed on Youtube with GM Matthew Sadler commentating. It will take place over 3 days, January 25 through 27th.

For those not familiar, Leela is a neural net chess engine inspired by Alpha Chess Zero. GM Sadler is a co-author of "Game Changer", a book analyzing a bunch of games of Alpha Chess Zero, so he's just about an ideal commentator for this event. It should be interesting.

Added: official page about match: https://lczero.org/blog/2025/01/leela-vs-gm-joel-benjamin/

Results of first 5 rounds: 0-1, 0-1, .5-.5, .5-.5, 1-0. Leela has white in all games so this means Benjamin won the first two, drew the next two, then lost one (game 6 now in progress). Maybe he is getting tired. He said after the first day that he was "knackered".

Comment on Ding posting he's wearing glasses for the first time :

"People should sponsor you!"

Ding's response :

"I have no commercial value"

JFC

I mostly just have time for puzzles, as you can tell