u/AlexP80

So, this summer we had the European Championships of track and field and swimming.

Italy and Great Britain absolutely dominated both competitions.

To my great surprise, great countries like Germany, France and Spain add very modest results compared to the top two. Germany still did somewhat ok, but France and Spain have been outperformed by small countries.

How so?

I'm specially curious about the downfall of France and the rise of Italy.

While GB has always been one of the top dogs in Europe, Italy's rise in global sports in recent years is incredible.

Along with its worst era in football, Italy has been constantly improving in most sports. Track & field, tennis, volleyball, F1, motoGP... even in rugby they are having their best results ever and they still have a very solid waterpolo movement and some top athletes in winter sports.

Part of the reason is the number of athletes with at least one foreign-born parent who widened the traditional genetic pool of the country, but it's not enough to justify this level of improvement.

On the flip coin it's hard to understand powerhouses like France and Germany are doing so... meh.

What do you think?

https://www.european-athletics.com/home

https://europeanaquatics.org/paris-2026/schedule-and-results/#/general-medals

https://preview.redd.it/e80art6moxgh1.png?width=1235&format=png&auto=webp&s=e430721f44dda9a01c7a6960069db5aad9d2268e

Not really a sacrifice, since white can't take (spoiler alert: he took), but the move wins a rook and a great positional advantage.

After studying how to punish fried liver attack, I finally had a chance to get a reward for my effort.

I'm not sure I followed the best line 100%, after the knight sacrifice I was going for intuitive moves, but I found a nice mate

https://www.chess.com/game/171155786612

So, this happens to me more than I like to admit. I study a position, with maybe 10 lines, but I don't have the opportunity to exercise on it and by the time I have an opportunity to play it I already forget the theory.

How can I fix that?

https://preview.redd.it/shv7rlpnh69h1.png?width=1187&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f28a70daa18e3793a59759753095b402c59e0b1

I captured a free pawn with Bxh6. My idea was to bait Qxh6 and then Nf7+ winning the queen. This is exactly what happened. Of course it's not a forced move, but the engine suggests as best .a3, which looks kinda meh. Even if he didn't take the bait, the Queen was trapped

What a match! Down a full rook in the opening I ended up mating with the queen and a bishop I didn't even move. Deep satisfaction for not blundering anything else later on.

My opponent refused a queen trade (big blunder for him) and I could steamroll his position

https://www.chess.com/game/170590543652

https://preview.redd.it/5w0oi3lvfs5h1.png?width=1237&format=png&auto=webp&s=cbd4402ad08537f2c6d9b4a9ed474335a0e29c80

In this position, I took with the bishop Bxd4, but I was wandering if taking with the pawn or the knight was a better choice. I couldn't test the outcome because my opponent ragequitted right after

So, I have a 900 rating with about 140 games played. My problem is... I haven't been playing for like 10 years.

Lately I found again the will to play, but I'm pretty sure my level has dropped significantly.

What is better? Just play, get butchered and low my rating through losses or delete my account and start from scratch?

So, every few years I feel the need to jump back to this genre.

I've played recently The seance of Blake Manor and it awake the itch again.

I've played more point & clicks that I can remember, for sure all of the classics.

I'm looking for something in the investigative/dark genre mostly, but also horror and adventure will do (I'm not really into space sci-fi or fantasy for this genre, although I wont refuse an exceptional title), heavy on narrative and at least mid on puzzles.

Any suggestion will be deeply appreciated, thank you