The Hubert Phillips Bowl is one of my favourite tournaments of the year: a friendly, knockout event with a rather quaint rule that all teams must include at least one woman. For some reason, this normally leads to teams of men plus exactly one woman — as though the woman represents a handicap. So, in
The grandmaster Nigel Davies has just written a new book on the Pirc Defence, a variation in which Black sacrifices immediate control of the centre to White’s pawns, in the hope of a later counterattack, designed to paint the centre of the board black instead of white. Davies is a solid, dependable and reliable guide
In Competition No. 2950 you were invited to propose a new and ludicrous piece of legislation along with a justification for it. Although Basil Ransome-Davies makes it into the winning line-up, some might argue that his proposal is far from ludicrous, given that cats are taking over the internet. Another suggestion that struck me as
Each of twelve clues contains a misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell a four-word phrase forming an indication of the unclued lights in each of four columns in the grid. Ignore an accent in one unclued light. Across 1 Tremulous nut faced by snake (5) 4 Photograph taker’s last
BUTTONS AND BOWS (1A) is a song in the film THE PALEFACE (10), sung by BOB HOPE (27). Other unclued lights are buttons (7, 12, 31) and bows (16, 39, 40). First prize John Nutkins, Twickenham, London Runners-up Paul Machin, London N11; Elizabeth Feinberg, Carlsbad, California
Black to play. This is from Cherin-Pedini, Italy 2016. Black has just sacrificed some material as he could foresee a simplifying manoeuvre leading to a winning ending. How did he continue? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 7 June or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. There is
