Wednesday night is league night. Sacrosanct. I’ve missed only one in seven years and that was when my daughter was giving birth. Priorities, you know. But last Wednesday I had an offer I couldn’t refuse: dinner with Henry Kissinger. Not a date, I reluctantly confess, a smallish dinner, but you can’t have everything. He may
In the James Bond film From Russia with Love there is an evil mastermind named Kronsteen. The character is in some ways based on the Russian chess genius David Bronstein, and the chess game ‘from the Venice International Tournament’ that forms the backdrop to the opening sequence is taken from a game between Bronstein and
In Competition No. 2891 you were invited to think of the most boring lecture topic possible and submit an extract from that lecture. Christopher Gilbert gamely -submitted an extract from a real lecture he is due to deliver on the impenetrable-sounding topic of heteroscedasticity. But Brian -Murdoch, observing that it was all ‘a bit near
The unclued lights (including one of three words, one of two words, and one hyphened) form two thematic groups in the grid. They consist of a theme word, four lights which it defines in one sense, and three which it defines in another. A fourth example of this latter group, part of an unclued light,
Seven unclued lights are ANAGRAMS (23) of numbers. 2 (7A) + 11 (17) + 10 (40) + 16 (5) + 18 (6) + 3 (31) = 60 (36). First prize Jack Shonfield, Child Okeford, Dorset Runners-up Michael Ollerenshaw, Bowdon, Cheshire; M. Purdie, Cupar, Fife
White to play. This position is a variation from Bronstein-Zilberstein, Tbilisi 1973. Bronstein has just given up a piece on d5 but has a clever tactical idea in mind. Can you see the key move? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 7 April or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. The winner will be the
