Pheochromocytoma

I learned a new word in the past couple months, pheochromocytoma (a typically benign tumor on the adrenal gland). In my case it is on my left adrenal gland and is responsible for generating too much adrenalin in my body (5x the max normal range value). This has interfered with a couple of heart ablation attempts (for my aFib/aFlutter). I will be having surgery sometime in the near future to remove my left adrenal gland to remove this tumor. Hopefully once that is completed then the heart ablation can be retried for a third time.

Ding for the Win

This morning (Sunday) I woke up at 3:45am so that I could watch the final day of the 2023 Chess World Championship between Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Ding Liren (China) which was taking place in Kazakhstan. Today's matches were the tie-breakers after the previous 14 rounds had ended tied 7 to 7. Today was 4 rounds of Rapid Chess (25 min time limit for each player + 10 seconds per move). If the match had still been tied after the 4 matches then they would have gone to Blitz matches (5 min time limit for each player + 3 seconds per move). The Chess World Championship had gone to the Rapid tie breaker matches in the past but had never been decided by Blitz matches. Today sure seemed to be headed toward the Blitz matches but in the 4th Rapid match there was a shocking win when Ding Liren won the match playing with the black pieces after never leading at any other time throughout the entire championships. The surprising thing wasn't just that Ding won but it was how he won.

The first 3 rounds of the Rapid Chess had ended in draws and it looked very likely that this last match was going to end the same way when Ding made a surprise move with 1 min left on his clock where he decided to take a chance and not agree to the draw but instead went for the win (high risk/high reward). The move he made was very risky (pinning one of his rooks to his king) and it seemed to really surprise Ian who had about 3 min left on his clock at that time. Ding pressed hard after that point and put pressure on Ian with a couple of pawns advancing to give him an additional queen. Finally Ian conceeded the match and everyone appeared to be in shock including both players and the commentators. It was probably one of my favorite chess matches that I have watched of all time. Not only because of the stakes of the game but also how Ding took a chance with all of those stakes on the line rather than play safe and try to win in a future game. Because both players were almost out of time at the end, it was being played pretty quickly and was similar to the pace of a Blitz game at that time.

The following story provides a much better description than I can about the match. I am very happy that I woke up early to watch all 4 of today's matches including the final one which crowned the new Chess World Champion. Congrats to Ding!! Great match and great character demonstrated throughout the tournament!!

It's a Wrap on the 2022 World Cup

The 3rd Place and Championship match for the 2022 World Cup went pretty much as I expected (Croatia over Morocco for 3rd Place and Argentina over France for the championship) though I had hoped otherwise. The championship game was a classic with Argentina dominating the first 70 minutes of the match and having a 2-0 lead. It was at the 70 minute mark that France had their first shot of the match which is pretty crazy. But from that point until the end of regulation France created many opportunities and they ended up converting two of them with a penalty kick made by Mbappe and then a beautiful goal also by Mbappe. The match then went to extra time as it was 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes. Unfortunately in the extra 30 minutes France backed off and stopped playing with the intensity that got them back into the match (the exact same fate as the Netherlands against Argentina in the quarterfinals). Argentina scored around midway through the extra time to go up 3-2 and it was only then that France started pressing and with just a few minutes left in the extra time Mbappe got his third goal to tie it up 3-3. Just like the Argentina-Netherlands game the match ended tied up and went to penalty kicks and just like the previous match Argentina came out on top. It was pretty anticlimatic after such a great match but Argentina won 4-2 on PKs after France missed two of their first 4 where Argentina did not miss any.

Overall it was a great tournament and a great final with Messi (2 goals) and Mbappe (3 goals) shining the brightest in the final match. The Golden Boot award goes to the top scorer in the tournament and it went back and fourth between the two of them multiple times during the match until the very end when Mbappe got his final goal which put him at 8 goals in the tournament compared to the 7 that Messi got. So Mbappe got the Golden Boot but Messi got the bigger prize with the World Cup championship trophy (the first in his career) as well as the Golden Ball for the most oustanding player in the tournament.

New Favorite Hot Drink of All Time

December in Illinois tends to be pretty cold. It is not as bad as January/February but still cold. Last night I was feeling the coldness and decided to have some hot chocolate. I am not a coffee or tea drinker so I don't do hot drinks very often. Sometimes when I have hot chocolate I will add chocolate chips just because you can never have too much chocolate. Last night I didn't see any open bags of chocolate chips in the cupboard but I did see some butterscotch chips that my wife had used for baking recently. So I thought that I would toss some of them into my hot chocolate instead. Oh my gosh. It was so good. Just saying. And I may or may not have had another cup of it this afternoon...

World Cup Semi-Final 2 - France vs. Morocco

Morocco gave it their best but it wasn't enough today against France as they lost 0-2. France scored very quick (in the first 5 minutes) and then Morocco looked like the better team for the next 75 minutes of play but could never get the ball into the net. And then France scored again at the 80 min mark and the match was pretty much over. Morocco had a huge crowd (both their own fans as well as others that had jumped onto their bandwagon) and they made themselves heard. But it didn't make a difference as France was able to finish their chances with goals when Morocco could not. This was a record for Morocco as the first team from Africa to make it to the semi-finals and they beat some highly ranked teams in Belgium, Spain and Portugal on the way.

So now we have France vs Argentina in the finals. At the start of the tournament I think that these 2 teams were in many people's top 3 (along with Brazil). It should be a great match and features two of the best players in the world in Lionel Messi for Argentina and Kylian Mbappe for France. They are teammates in club play with both playing for Paris St. Germain. Not only will they be playing for the World Cup trophy but they will also be playing for the Golden Boot award as they are currently tied with the most goals in the tournament with 5 apiece.

I will be rooting for France on Sunday but I feel that Argentina looks like they are in better form and should be considered the favorites. France's defense held Morocco without a goal today but overall they have been giving up a number of goals in the tournament. I think that both teams have great goal scorers but the difference for Argentina will be their better defenders. My guess is that Argentina wins 3-1 and Messi gets both trophies...

There is a 3rd place game being played on Saturday and I predict that Morocco will win it in penalty kicks against Croatia. Croatia got 2nd place in the World Cup 4 years ago and I don't think that they will be super motivated for the 3rd place game whereas I think that Morocco will continue to try to set records for African teams with another win.

World Cup Semi-Final 1 - Argentina vs Croatia

Well, as expected this has been all Lionel Messi and Argentina today (Argentina won 3-0). Messi had a goal (from a penalty kick) along with an assist. The difference between Messi and Ronaldo is that Messi makes the others around him so much better and serves up assists on a plate.

It looks like the final will be either a David and Goliath story (if Morocco makes it through tomorrow) or will be two heavyweights (if France wins as expected tomorrow). Either way it should be entertaining. I am not the biggest Argentina fan but they play very entertaining matches with lots of goals scored. I thought that Croatia might slow them down today but Argentina got the early penalty kick and then scored again quickly after that on a counter following a Croatia corner. The last goal was Messi magic after the Croatia defense had loosened up as they were playing from behind and needing to have more players forward.

Croatia will play again in the 3rd Place game and it will likely be Luka Modric's final World Cup match as he will be 41 in 4 years when the World Cup comes to North America. He has been fun to watch for a number of years but Argentina played their best soccer in this tournament today and Croatia had no answers.

Day 2 of the World Cup Quarterfinals

Once again I got one out of two right in today's World Cup Quarterfinals with me picking France over England correctly but missing the Morocco over Portugal win. Both matches were clean (compared to the Argentina/Netherlands match yesterday) and fun to watch. Though I had picked Portugal over Morocco, I was rooting for Morocco to pull off the upset. They did it with great defense and a well executed header for the only goal in their match.

So the semifinals are now set for Tuesday and Wednesday (12/13 and 12/14)

Argentina versus Croatia
France versus Morocco

I am guessing that Argentina and France will both win but I will be rooting for the underdogs (Croatia and Morocco). Once again I am mostly hoping for fun "beautiful" soccer with matches decided in regular time or extended time (but not via penalty kicks). PKs are exciting but I much prefer goals scored in regular play.

RIP Grant Wahl. Your writing will be missed.