White to move and mate in two #441 — Havana and the Finca Vigia, 1985

by dkosdan

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday, Dec. 07, 2023 Thursday, Dec. 07, 2023 at 3:00:10pm PST

no image description available — White to move and mate in two. The chess puzzle is published on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is customary for advanced players to wait till midnight ET before posting the full solution. Before then, they provide some stats about the solution (e.g., the number of distinct checkmate moves), help guide others, and sometimes post hints. But, there are no hard-and-fast rules, feel free to post comments as you please.

The Reader’s Companion to Cuba edited by Alan Ryan

…
The Museo Hemingway, temporarily closed to the public for repairs, is wildly popular with Cubans. They come again and again, bringing picnics to spend the day, after a respectful tour of the house. The long driveway is flanked by towering royal palms and sumptuous jacaranda trees. I couldn’t believe my eyes; I remembered nothing so imposing. The driveway curved to show the house, now glaring white and naked. “It looks like a sanatorium,” I said. “What did they do to the ceiba?”
Forty-six years ago, I found this house through an advertisement and rented it, for one hundred dollars a month, indifferent to its sloppiness, because of the giant ceiba growing from the wide front steps. Any house with such a tree was perfect in my eyes. Besides, the terrace beyond the steps was covered by a trellis roof of brilliant bouganinvillaea. Flowering vines climbed up the wall behind the ceiba; orchids grew from its trunk. All empty gi bottles, and rusty tins, and trees. The house was almost invisible but painted an unappetizing yellow; I had it painted a dusty pale pink; the Museo changed it to glaring white. The great tree was always the glory of the finca.
“The roots were pulling up the floor of the house. The Museo had to cut it down,” Gregorio said.
“They should have pulled down the house instead.”
...

— Martha Gellhorn