most important piece of research you will watch today

alright alright pipe down

might do the thread in the morning, or maybe a 6-7 megathread before the rest day, kinda bushed for tonight picture somewhat related youtu.be/6yTPneTHNz0?...

Only 3 things are certain in life, Death, Taxes and Sindarov winning in the candidates

will he be stopped? can he be stopped? www.youtube.com/live/l8gyL05...

youtu.be/Bv0QQDdnkso?... in case you prefer your recaps to have moving diagrams

r5 thread headlines: open - sindarov continues to dominate, fabi wins a nice game vs bluebaum, wei yi shows a equality nr. 27 vs the catalan, pragg with a bit of a pull vs esipenko but gets nowhere with it women's - lagno wins a sharp game vs bibisara, zhu jiner continues to impress 1/n

NOW THAT'S A GOOD FRIDAY

back for more: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV1t...

excellent thread, this

Every year when I sit down to write a preview of the county championship, I realise how hard it is to write one succinctly yet informatively. Anyway - here's this year's attempt ... www.thetimes.com/sport/cricke...

In space no one can hear you Teams.

Don't know about Twitter, but this is my favorite Tumblr post

r3/r4 roundup #candidates in round three, we finally saw the deadlock broken in the women's group, and in the open, two of the pre-event favorites had huge wins, none bigger, ofc, than sindarov winning with black vs pragg - someone, coincidentally, who, prior to this game, had his number. 1/n

obligatory strained joke about the much needed rest day coming up, and its influence on fighting spirit of the players picture of dog link to stream www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug2Y...

Amazing scenes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as cricket and rugby nation Italy come within a kick of making the football World Cup! The fairytale wasn't to be, but maybe these players can inspire a generation of Italian kids to look beyond Tommaso Menoncello and Anthony Mosca as their sporting heroes.

It’s time for some unsettling disloyalty: If England’s leaders aren’t being ejected then some of the players will be… but which ones? www.kingcricket.co.uk/its-time-for...

i might still do a thread, but i ended up talking for 25 minutes for the fide yt channel (note to self - you were asked to do a short recap, stfu) so this will do for now, maybe www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g_w...

starting soon

r2 thoughts: a quiet day in the open, with only Pragg missing a real chance, although in fairness, it's not that easy to appreciate in-game just how good your position is here because white hasn't done anything criminal. still, black is better after c4 with the intention of pushing on the qside.

brief summary of R1 in the open, pragg's win was the best of the three - a very interesting opening idea, and then calm increasing pressure after anish managed to stabilize, which eventually led to mistakes. fabi will get over the near misses - a point is a point, but it's not his best ever effort.

the wait is almost over, and in a couple of hours the candidates will finally take off. i'll try to post some thoughts about the rounds after end of play, but for now - very happy to be here, with jan, to talk about my favorite event as it unfolds. www.youtube.com/live/fGON0E0...

very late to this but last one laughing is amazing. i am watching season one, and while anything with richard ayoade and bob mortimer is going to be great, the rest of the cast is tremendous too. i think i'm in love.

Frank Herbert's Dune

blood for the blood god

There's a specific tone of cheer when a guy and his bros realize a complicated low-stakes scheme is going to work. It's the sound of dudes rocking and it's the most beautiful sound in the world.

no words

remember writing this and thinking 'maybe i'm being unfair to pmarca'. good to see that i needn't have worried.

At the airport. A distressingly small number of people seemed amused when they paged a person who had left multiple items, including a wallet, behind at TSA while pressing on to the gate. A person named - wait for it - Leroy Jenkins.

Sinners deserves Best Cinematographer simply for the fact that it's a modern movie where you can tell what's going on during all the night scenes

we're on our second, or maybe even third, croc. this one has clearly seen it all and is extremely done with joyce's bullshit. look at those dainty crossed paws though

Giving the ECB a seriously disapproving stare on this one www.thetimes.com/sport/cricke...

Italy: Beat USA in baseball. Qualified for t20 World Cup. Hasn't made a football World Cup since 2014.

Winter wonderland my ass. eatf.art/blanket

i talk too much. in general, but also in this video

Baturday Bat World Sanctuary

well, i am very upset, i guess that counts

jonathan is excellent, as usual

not the match i expected to watch today. well played to the hairy fruits. here's hoping for another upset tomorrow

more ultrawide content for your televisual feast

finishing industry s4. it's great, but also - the last ep would never get past the editor even 5 years ago? too caricaturey, too on the nose? but in 2026, i wouldn't be surprised if those are just direct quotes lifted from some heterodox maverick's substack, paid subscribers: jd, miller, pmarca

'play rehan you cowards' has been a group chat refrain for about two years now. they still won't, even after this - but it's nice to feel vindicated. compulsive viewing, this eng team. arguably the best attack in the tournament, and the batting is just the right mix of clown car and 'whoaaa'

Jan Timman (1951-2026) My obituary: www.chess.com/news/view/ja...

good to see those two nod to each other and shake hands after all the carnage. both of them playing in a different game to the rest of their teams also those twos are just ridiculous, they ran twenty! of them apparently

bannerman alert (yes i know i know)

very important video please watch

recent clues in @cluesbysam.com made me very sure they're on bsky even before i checked. gg wp

This is the most incredible footage of blue whales I’ve ever seen

jan was a wonderful person - funny, engaging, and deeply in love with chess (and, of course, very good at it - i think i have a minus score against him, and he was in his 40s when we first met). i can still picture him at dinner, a bottle of red inevitably close at hand, with that impish smile..

Timman was also one of the people I missed most when leaving Chess twitter. He shared endgame studies he was working on and weekly quotes from other players on chess. Plus this gem: his cat Artemis with what appears to be an amazing collection of antique chess sets. I would love to see the rest