Somebody has submitted the item below to be shared by way of light relief from Coronavirus restrictions on life. Humour will of course be difficult for some to share. It is easy to call to mind specific chess-players who

1) are self-employed, and whose incomes will have now dried up, (and chess professionals may be up the creek similarly),

2) are medical staff or care workers, who are confronting Coronavirus, possibly without adequate protection so risking their lives,

3) have pre-existing health problems, putting them more at risk, some receiving care in the home, and some in care homes,

4) work in the Civil Service, dealing with the overload on the already shaky Universal Credit system etc.,

5) are in the 70+ age group now under “lock down”, but with luck having neighbours or relations to help,

6) are police or emergency service workers, also on the front line, (though all chess-playing policemen I know are long retired).

The parallels with the present situation and war are very numerous, and maybe the “mind set” of chess-players helps them to survive war and the like. So, it may be appropriate that the first subject of a series of (daily?) random articles newly introduced to this website under the heading “Thing of the Day” is somebody who survived horrific injury in World War I, yet survived to continue playing and organising chess to the age of 76, a certain Victor Brentnall Rush, whose first chess club appears to have been in Sheffield. Now for the “funny”:

God was seen walking around Yorkshire this morning.

He was asked what he was doing.

“I’m working from home,” he replied.