Results were very hard to predict so the winners deserve great credit. >

<virginmind: Hi! You surely meant 195 cm - over at Count Wedgemore forum, a few days ago.>

I measured Kramnik myself with a theodolite. However, he did have cuban-heeled shoes and a big hairstlye: those may have added ~12cm.
******
<thegoodanarchist: <offramp: Results were very hard to predict so the winners deserve great credit. >

Yes, it's hard to make predictions, especially about the future.>

<...When mistakes are made, they are XXXX'd over.>

That reminded me of a humorous but politically incorrect Edgar Poe story:
X-ING A PARAGRAB
<...'Sx hx, Jxhn! hxw nxw? Txld yxu sx, yxu knxw. Dxn't crxw, anxthertime, befxre yxu're xut xf the wxxds! Dxes yxur mxther knxw yxu'rexut? Xh, nx, nx!- sx gx hxme at xnce, nxw, Jxhn, tx yxur xdixus xldwxxds xf Cxncxrd!'> etc.

For example User: kingfish, a strange woman who has an obsession with Nigel Short.

Aronian is 4ft 6in, or 1.37m, and Kramink was twice his size.

My chess knowledge stymied my crossword skill on Saturday.

I was doing the London Times crossword number 27,270.

[ChessHigherCat might be interested in this story.]

Clue 2 down was
<Order gal to feel pulse (9)>
Clearly an anagram of “gal to feel”! And I immediately thought of FEGATELLO, especially as the answer had to begin with F. The definition was “pulse”, however, which didn’t fit at all. But I thought it out... There’s a kidney bean... perhaps there’s a bean that resembles liver. Anyway, I put in FEGATELLO.
It really held me back. The right answer is
FLAGEOLET.

Did you polish off the first 27,269 puzzles before or after breakfast?

<Clue 2 down was
<Order gal to feel pulse (9)> Clearly an anagram of “gal to feel”! And I immediately thought of FEGATELLO>>

I wouldn't have that handicap because I nevuhoydadeguy. Did he invent the Fried Liver Attack?

What would have held me back is that I didn't know this meaning of "pulse(s)"

<seeds such as beans or peas that are cooked and eaten

Pulses include peas, lentils, and chickpeas.>

Do you know Robert Downey Sr? He has a lot of great avant-garde films.

This is a great one about the coming of the Messiah in the wild west:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql1...

This one "Pound" is fantastic but the picture is bad for the first couple minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekS...

<Lichess user german11 just became the first user to reach <300,000> games! Congrats!>

Lichess launched in 2010, so <german11> has played those 300,000 games in less than 9 years. That is, <if> he started playing on day 1.

I reckon that by April 1st, 2023, German11 will be playing his millionth game (at lichess).

I think this is the best film version out of the 0 that I have seen. It is very close to the original text.

But it wouldn’t have been hard to show a huge Castle, with a matte, for example.

Arthur and Jeremiah should have been funnier.

Amelia’s story should have been funnier.

Amerika is a great novel. I was surprised when it was renamed THE STOKER for a recent edition.

I was going to open a bottle of port when I saw a bottle of....ABSINTHE!

Louche absinthe, 50%!
https://www.masterofmalt.com/absint...

I was always nervous when I batted.

[...]
Take my usual working day. If I was faced with batting the next day in any cricket match, I was always at my worst, grumpy and miserable.

[...]
Even when I was tired I would stay up late because I knew that, once I was asleep, my next waking moment meant that batting time was near. I would normally fall asleep about 1 a.m., having fiddled around with my bat to make sure it felt right for a couple of hours, and then wake up again at 5 a.m., opening one eye in the direction of the alarm clock before thinking, 'God, I'm batting today. What's going to happen? Am I going to nick one early on? Am I going to get runs today?'

[...]
From 5 a.m. I would lie there, looking at the clock, hoping it wouldn't move so that batting wouldn't come any nearer.

[...]
I would arrive in the dressing room to pick up my bat, a major deal for me. The bat would never feel the way it did the night before and I would have to take bits of tape off it, or do something to it, to make it feel right again.

[...]
Waiting to bat was the hardest thing. If we had a big opening partnership, I would have used up all my nervous energy in the dressing room. That was why I was always at my best when we lost quick wickets and I could get out there with no one expecting me to do well.

[...]
Whenever I was out, however many runs I had scored, I would always throw my gear around or have a bit of a tantrum in the dressing room. It was how I was. If you failed, you were angry; if you had scored fifty, you were angry you hadn't converted it into a hundred; and if you got a hundred, you were angry you hadn't turned it into a really big one. Even when I scored 207 against Australia in 1997 I was angry, because it was Shane Warne who got me out and I didn't want it to be him.