Miscellaneous

In Competition No. 3140 you were invited to submit a poem in the style of a famous poet in which they make a surprising confession. It’s elbow-bumps all round this week: an excellent entry. Douglas G. Brown reveals the raciness (gin; trollops) that lurks beneath Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s high-minded exterior. Nick MacKinnon exposes the jolly, ‘Kumbaya’-singing side of misery guts Larkin. And E.E. Cummings fesses up, via Christopher Davies: it’stime(i came clean)my typewriter(is)broken. Commendations to Peter Mills, Paul A. Freeman, David Silverman, P.M. Davidson and Lachlan Rurlander. The winners earn £25 each. Breathes there a man with mind so prim That he would ne’er indulge the whimOf borrowing his lady’s

We’ve teamed up with Spectator Life’s Best Coastal Hotels to offer our valued subscribers the chance to WIN a limited edition ‘edible garden’ Beatrix Potter-inspired afternoon tea available until 31st March. With beautiful character inspired options for both grown-ups and little ones worth £25 per adult and £12.50 per child. Perfect for Mother’s Day, winning aside! ‍ Teas will be served at your choice of the following Luxury Family Hotels’ properties: · Fowey Hall Hotel, Fowey, Cornwall (as featured in Spectator Life’s article) · Moonfleet Manor, Dorset (also featured in Spectator Life’s article) · New Park Manor, New Forest · The Ickworth, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk · Woolley Grange Hotel, Bradford-on-Avon

Today The Spectator launches a new website, designed to showcase its world-class journalism, popular podcast channels and 24/7 news coverage and commentary. The website has been designed in advance of our 10,000th issue, as The Spectator – the oldest magazine in the word – becomes the first publication in history to reach this milestone The issue, which goes on sale on 23 April – St George’s Day – will look back on our 192-year history as well as mark the start of a new digital era. The website’s redesign pays tribute to the print magazine, while modernising our look and feel to showcase the variety of what The Spectator produces.

In the 1800s, several chess matches were conducted by telegraph. Modern technology ought to make long-distance matches easier than ever, but in fact competitive international chess is almost always played in person these days. That is partly because it is impossible to police computer-assisted cheating if the players play at home. But equally, the practical barriers to travel are (usually) much fewer in the modern age. But prominent chess players (especially in the days of the USSR) have often had to negotiate political obstacles. Shohreh Bayat, from Iran, was in Shanghai in January for the first leg of the Women’s World Championship, where she was the chief arbiter — one

The German word for pawn, ‘bauer’, can also be translated as peasant, or farmer. There are many spectacular games in which the pawns pick up their pitchforks and overrun the landed gentry. A historic example, played in 1834, is the game McDonnell–de La Bourdonnais, in which the Frenchman playing Black advanced his pawns to d2, e2 and f2, overwhelming White’s rook and queen. A modern example is the game Saric–Suleymanli, which I wrote about in December last year. Aydin Suleymanli, just 14 years old from Azerbaijan, acquitted himself well but eventually succumbed to the advancing horde. Much less gets written about failed uprisings, but in this week’s game Suleymanli found