That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for February 16, 2021

Man waiting for telegram from grandson with the next chess move.

well, he’s certainly no Anya Taylor-Joy

Stanislav is thinking how he can cheat while his opponent takes a bathroom break.

What is it with Russians and chess? They treat it like Americans do basketball. People play ‘pick up’ games in the parks.

Russian speed chess: In order to speed the game up, the players get to take a shot of vodka after each move.

The War with the Roses?

Vladamir didn’t want tocomplain, but he didn’t need a shave when the game started!

Bored game.

In his younger days his opponents called him Ivan the Invincible. Now they just call him Speedbump.

spoiler alert – the name of his chess board is ‘rosebud’…

There’s room for a musical here…

Playing with himself? – hmmm… how does that work when both his hands are on the table?

This is what David Letterman is doing now that he’s not taping interviews.

“Maybe I could hide an extra rook in my beard to castle with?”

I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole.

Zzzzz…sorry this painting is actually putting me to sleep.

That’s what happens when you are in lockdown for months

Considering how best to polish the bishop.

I bet he wins.

More like he played himself with those awful moves.

Wondering how the hell did he get beat by a flower

“he’s dead, Jim”

“huh, {snort}…wha…?”

“He dead, your opponent, he died waiting for you to move.”

“huh? oh. Good, then I can take his pawn.”

The Bachelor episode where he takes his 1-on-1 date on a date to play chess. (The episode never aired because she beat him.)

Old Boris sat stupefied/ he could not comprehend (though he tried)/ how his Queen could be gone/ (taken out by a pawn !)/ t’is a law of Nature – defied !

The odds are incredibly scant/ (who’d ever believe it ? I can’t !)/ yet a Russian Grand Master/ (oh, what a disaster !)/ has been checkmated by a plant !

Not much else to do during the 9 month winters…

Must. Not. Fall. Asleep. Must. Not. Fall………

It’s mobile, nearly anyone can play, it takes only two, it is intelligent. There is no comparison to baseball.

My Uncle Dan taught me how to play chess back in the 1950s. I must have been seven or eight years old at the time. I lost a lot. He never “let” me win. It took about two years before I played him to a draw. I must have been twelve or thirteen years old before I finally won a game. I remember the feeling of accomplishment and pride when he smiled, and said, “Good game, bud.” When I graduated high school, my graduation present from my uncle was that battered, well-used chess set. I still have it. As Cedric Diggory remarked to Harry Potter, “Some game, eh?”

He is thinking, “Who left that rose here?” Now I can’t concentrate on my move!

O.K. Fess up! How many of you chess players out there spent time trying to figure out his next moves?

You sunk my battleship! (Oops, wrong game.)

He has chosen the Sicilian Defense, forgetting “never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”.

It was the War of the Roses, and the Rose was winning!

Even a grand master knows / When playing chess with a rose / If it gets too late / To get checkmate / Just pretend to doze.

♫ ♪ Petyr shouts g** dammit when faced with the Queen’s Gambit in the moooorrrrrring♫

Lemme see . . . I can’t remember if I’m playing white or black.

“Should I try to buy ‘Boardwalk’?”

Portrait of the chess player A. D. Petrov or Alone with the chess game: 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myasoedov_Chess_with_himself_1907.jpg 

has info and links that point to more info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/grigoriy-myasoyedov 

http://www.artcyclopedia.ru/myasoedov_grigorij_grigorevich.htm 

https://prabook.com/web/grigoriy.myasoyedov/3743020 

http://www.artsait.ru/art/m/mysoedov/main.htm 

http://artpoisk.info/artist/myasoedov_grigoriy_grigor_evich_1835/bio/ 

https://vsdn.ru/museum/catalogue/category70207.htm 

all have info, or links that point to more info (especially the last), about this artist (again, Google Chrome can automatically translate as necessary), perhaps in addition to what’s pointed to by the title URL. So far, 2 works by him have been used here. 

https://www.gocomics.com/that-is-priceless/2014/04/18?comments=visible 

has the prior, which while my comment is still there, with the line breaks removed, its 15 hyperlinks remain inactive, ?&@#!#%&!, but the text may be informative.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (⌘- or Ctrl-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2643 (February 15, 2021) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment.

White: “Guard your King, Black.”

IBM: “Checkmate!”

After all it was a nice Valentine’s Day. He still has the rose.

He’s got a date with Beth Harmon.

four years after the game, Adolph sat and wondered how on earth a young girl beat him so badly. he was in his 95th year. and thought he was playing checkers

Or Letterman…..

Speed chess – good idea. Speed dating – good idea. Combine the two - not so much.

Despite his best efforts, Yuri was still beaten in chess by the cut rose.

That’s not how I do it…

“David Letterman Playing With himself”