I don’t know about the only gay in the village but I am starting to feel like the last woman standing. In the two most recent events I have played, the Cavendish Pairs in Monaco and the superb Vilnius Cup, I was the only female playing and frankly, ladies, I missed you. Vytas and Erikas
Recently Professor Jackie Eales gave a lecture in Canterbury on ‘Queenship in the Age of the Enraged Chess Queen’. (The title of course refers to the new powers conferred on the queen as a piece after the transition from the slower Arabic and medieval games.) In 1560 the bishop of Limoges, the French ambassador in
In Competition No. 2867 you were invited to add a final stanza to a well-known poem. Nicholas Stone imagined how Coleridge might have continued had it not been for the intrusion of the Person of Porlock. Tracy Davidson’s coda to ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ painted a picture of interspecies conjugal bliss turned sour. And
The unclued lights are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 1 Poet has overdose first (5) 6 More than one figure of speech is about Roman soldier (7) 11 Where to eat, relax and gossip once about god (10) 15 Note this colour for French artist (4) 16
The unclued lights are abbreviations of seven English and one Welsh county, which themselves are inflected headwords in Chambers. (Consequently, Hants at 35 Across was disallowed) First prize Christina Casement, West Harting, Hampshire Runners-up R.C. Teuton, Frampton Cotterell, Nr Bristol; Jane Smith, Beeston, Kings Lynn, Norfolk
White to play. This position is from Keene-Nunn, Surrey Junior Championship 1963. This game started with the Scotch Game opening. White is winning easily but what is the quickest kill? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 7 October or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will
