The sad truth is, the length of time you’ve been playing bridge is no indication of how good you are. When I had my first lesson, aged 27, I’d already been playing with friends every week for five or six years. I quickly found out that almost everything we were doing was wrong. I was
Boris Gelfand, the challenger for this year’s World Championship in Moscow, continues, as I write, to lead the Agon/Fidé Grand Prix at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. He is being pursued by a pack of great players which includes Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan and Vesselin Topalov from Bulgaria. The surprise of the event has been the complete collapse of
In Competition No. 2766 you were invited to submit a poem about a phobia. John Samson’s account of what strikes me as a perfectly reasonable fear of Ikea flatpacks stood out in what was another cracking entry. Bill Greenwell, Brian Allgar, Josephine Boyle and W.J. Webster also shone. The prizewinners are printed below and rewarded
Unclued entries (all real words) are not thematic unless they are augmented, in each case by a letter appearing in an appropriate place in the grid. The solutions at 6, 19, 29 and 40 are confirmed in the OED. Across 1 Marine plant-life treated as grass by duck (8) 8 Measure lack of aspiration shown
Unclued lights are PRAYERS. Corrections of misprints (including one in the title) give REQUIESCAT and PATERNOSTER. First prize Patricia Gibbs, Mountsorrel, Leicestershire Runners-up R. Colclough, Didsbury, Manchester; Christine El-Kadi, Sarisbury Green, Southampton
Black to play. This position is from Carlsen-Aronian, Bilbao 2012. Here Black missed a clear win. I only require the first move but look a little further and a beautiful checkmate emerges. Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 9 October or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The
