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Paul, Tyke
I mis-heard the vociferous tackle. I thought he said "veracious". I must have been thinking of that as it was the answer to the only Times clue I could not solve yesterday. Vicious, vociferous, voracious, veracious... very... confusing.
After the 3 game marathon yesterday, I see there are 4 per day for the rest of this week! Enjoyed Saudi Arabia beating Argentina this morning.

Orson
I agree with you re Latte, and it is certainly how Italians pronounce it. The lartay brigade dont realise it is a foreign word. Chambers is wrong.

Latte/lartay reminded me of another foreign word beginning with l: lingerie, so often pronounced 'laungerie'. Should it not echo the vowel sound in the French 'cinq'?

Well, knock me down with a feather. Soon after I posted my #523 a contestant on 'The Chase' has a job as a bra fitter. She mangled even the last syllable, so 'lingerie' became 'laungeray'.

Paul
I dont think I have ever spoken the word but I think you are right. Did you watch Pawn Sacrifice last night. I watched half and recorded it for tonight. Was it representative of Fischer's early life. The blonde on the beach scene surprised me. The dialogue between players seemed odd, and the game opening h4,h6, if I saw it correctly, was ridiculous.

jigjag #525

'Pawn Sacrifice' film not generally admired by chess players. To be fair, it's incredibly difficult to portray such a niche activity realistically on screen. There is no doubt that 'Queen's Gambit' has come closest and received wide approval from chess players who are accustomed to seeing even basic mistakes such as the board being set the wrong way, e.g. in advertisements. (There should be a white square to each player's near right).

Even the premise of the Queen's Gambit, a woman winning the World Championship, is dubious in reality. The current top woman, Hou Yifan of China, is ranked 115th. The best ever is Judit Polgar of Hungary (8th), an extraordinary achievement but she got nowhere near winning the World Championship. Her father took her and her sisters our of school from an early age to concentrate exclusively on chess. Unlike Fischer, whose single-minded devotion to the game left him immature and increasingly obnoxious and weird in later years, the Polgar sisters are well-rounded human beings.

Paulh, I've never worked in women's underwear (ho, ho) so I'm no expert but I think this clip supports what you say (the relevant bit starts at about 35 seconds).

https://youtu.be/j8ns5OG0Rt0

Masterchef: tortellinis!

How can chefs use Italian words without having a passing knowledge of Italian grammar?

Paul
Thanks for the information. I enjoyed Queens Gambit. I was surprised to read that the film company is being sued for millions of dollars by an ex-Womans World Champion, for damaging her reputation. I remember watching a program about the Polgars, have you played any of them?

chrisE
I agree, there lots of "tortellinis" and "a tortellini". A poor show by the chefs. I was delighted though when the commentator and Greggg both said "a raviolo".