Dallas to me was an Eighties TV series with huge shoulder pads until I arrived there to play the American Spring Nationals last week. The American Nationals are bigger, better and brighter than anything we Brits can imagine — after the first week they had filled over 7,000 tables — and it is organised so
This week I focus on a number of key positions from the World Championship qualifier, the Candidates tournament, which concluded at the beginning of this week in Khanty-Mansisk in Siberia. The Candidates was a remarkable event, with two former world champions, Viswanathan Anand (the ultimate winner) and Vladimir Kramnik, competing, along with a former Fidé
In Competition 2841 you were invited to paint an amusing portrait in verse of the vice and folly of humankind. It was William Congreve who wrote that it is the business of a comic poet to paint the vice and follies of humankind, and I thought I would give you the opportunity to do just
Seven items of a kind read clockwise round the perimeter. In ten clues, cryptic indications omit reference to parts of answers; these parts must be highlighted, to reveal a definition of the perimeter items. Letters in corner squares and those adjacent to them could form WADERS, NOT OLD. Across 11 Spirit and
Corrections of misprints in clues form the phrase BAIT AND SWITCH. Unclued lights are examples of bait (10, 16, 23, 38) and switch (15, 20, 31, 37). First prize Robert Hinton, Swansea Runners-up Mark Roberts, Luxembourg; Roger Sherman, Richmond, Surrey
White to play. This position is from Topalov-Kramnik, Fidé Candidates, Khanty-Mansisk 2014. Kramnik has badly misplayed the opening and now Topalov crashed through in decisive fashion. Can you see the key move? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 8 April or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner
