I’ve just come back from Herning in Denmark, where the European championships are taking place. I was playing with my friend Catherine Draper (herself a former gold medallist) in a side event, the European women’s pairs – brilliantly organised, and open to anyone. We qualified for the A-final, but finished a disappointing tenth. I can’t
There is a sublime satisfaction in a good detective thriller. We will, of course, have accessed the same facts as our sharp-witted sleuth. The fleck of yellow paint on the raincoat meant little to us, as did the creaking door and the page missing from the notebook. But at last the alibi is dismantled, and
White to play. This is a variation from Gelbmann–Gyimesi, Hungary 1996. Black threatens mate with …Qh4 or …Qh3. How does White turn the tables? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 6 July. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address. Last week’s solution 1
In Competition 3356 you were invited to imagine a conversation between some objects that don’t normally talk. This was inspired by the funny/spooky ‘Green Candles’ by Humbert Wolfe (a popular poet in the 1920s and 30s), which ends with these sinister lines: ‘I know her little foot,’ grey carpet said: ‘Who but I should know
The unclued lights, four of two words, two individually or six pairs bear a common feature. One of the words does double duty, and another appears in two forms. Ignore three accents in the completed grid. Across 1 Criminal having cheese biscuit that’s not bad (4-7) 7 Found in cage in tribunal
The unclued lights are synonyms for GOSSIP, as Brewer confirms. First prize Joanne Aston, Norby, Thirsk Runners-up Malcolm Taylor, Eskbank, Midlothian; Roderick Rhodes, oldsborough, N. Yorks
