At first, this seems a straightforward triumph of America vs. the Dreaded Furriner. There can’t be a more American name than “Smith”, while Black’s name sounds like one of those Russians or Slavs or Whatevers who have corrupted the Freedom of American chess by playing well. Never mind that his bio says he’s from the USA. This is clearly a game picked by the e Republican Party.

Or is it? Once the smoking ban takes effect, the scene is dominated by the White Queen (clearly a reference to Hillary Clinton), who takes over the action as Black’s Towers (clearly a reference to Donald Trump) prove helpless to stand against her.

In desperation Black tries to build a wall, but the peons come rushing through. The finale sees the Separation of Church and State, a fine political principle but a good way to drop your bishop in chess.

Elbridge Gerry replied “Oh Dear, this is awkward. What shall we do?”

Robert Paine chimed in “Why not select 5 of the most distinguished authors, and have them write up some sort of watered-down version explaining the independence resolution. A declaration, if you will”

“Its brilliant” said the Guinness man, “We'll call them the fantastic 5, no, how bout the fabulous 5, no,...I know, we'll call these 5 gentlemen the Committee of Five. Furthermore, I nominate Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston to make up this committee. Its brilliant I tell you, its brilliant”

And work they did, non-stop through July 2, July 3 and July 4. Two matters of subject could not be agreed upon and heated arguments ensued. One involved inflammatory language directed towards English people in general. Franklin had them roaring with laughter with his passage on the “The English and their Dental habits”; the other involved a denouncing of slavery. In the end, both passages were rejected and the Congress voted its approval of the final Draft of this declaration late in the morning of July 4, 1776.

But wait, this was only the approved 'draft copy'. What was needed was a 'fair copy', this being the 're-drafted-as-corrected' copy prepared for the broadside printer, a Mr. John Dunlap. But this copy wasn't finally released til July 5, 1776.

So what is the real Independence Day? Is it July 2, 1776 when the approval of independence was voted on by the 2nd Continental Congress? Or is it July 4, 1776 when the Congress voted to approve declaration as submitted by the Committee of Five? Or is it July 5, 1776 concurrent with the final release of the Dunlap broadside? The problem is none of these dates can be absolutely verified. Oh dear

Perhaps we should designate April 19, 1775 as our Independence Day.

I copied some of that writing, and now my own handwriting is also pretty good.

And now, my young daughter also has very good handwriting. I wonder if she will be one the last generation that needs to use pen and ink?

My cursive is quite good but strays from time to time, so when I really want to get my point across, I go with block

If nothing else, this freezes and stuns the reader

The problem with 25. Bxe7 is that Black isn't forced to capture, eg:

25. Bxe7 Bxe6