All the best players today are technically excellent in card play. They know all the odds and end plays to bring home their contract or thwart the opposition so the important differences are often in the bidding. Finding the best game, slam or partscore, played from the right hand, is vital. But there is another
The Azeri grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has been distinguishing himself recently at both classical and speed chess time limits. Last month he emerged as the overwhelming winner of the elite tournament in Biel, taking first prize and defeating world champion Magnus Carlsen in their individual clash. Mamedyarov went on to St Louis where he took the bronze
In Competition No. 3063 you were invited to submit a poem about puns containing puns. Dryden regarded paronomasia as ‘the lowest and most grovelling kind of wit’; Samuel Johnson took an equally dim view. But this most derided form of humour produced a witty and accomplished entry that elicited only the occasional groan.
The unclued lights (three of two words) are of a kind. Across 1 Slices top of sausage in front of dogs (5) 6 Starting at Keele, say, in flames? (7, two words) 11 Former England captain has Alec Robins out (10, two words) 15 Heartless Valentine’s streamer (4) 17 Wild chatter has teeth
The unclued lights and those clued without thematic definition (2, 11, 26, 33 and 42) are Irish forenames. Nuala Considine’s crossword compiling career spanned over 70 years. Doc was privileged to meet her five years ago when Saga magazine invited five British compilers to a photoshoot to accompany an article about the hundredth anniversary of the
White to play. This is from Mamedyarov–Georgiadis, Biel 2018. Many of Mamedyarov’s games feature a kingside attack based upon a powerful bishop on the b2-square. Here, his next move led to a decisive increase in pressure against the black king. What was it? Answers to victoria@spectator.co.uk by Tuesday 4 September. There is a prize of
