Simon Gillis’s team has had a very successful year. They won the Gold Cup (for the second time), they joined the Premier League in the second division and got promoted, and they won the team’s event in the 2015 London Year End congress. This year the congress went slightly askew for him. His 16-year-old son
Magnus Carlsen has retained the World Championship but only after Sergei Karjakin, the challenger, missed some glorious opportunities. In game 9 Karjakin, already a point ahead in the match, built up a formidable attacking position, only to miss the coup juste at the critical moment. Karjakin-Carlsen, New York (Game 9) 2016 (see diagram 1)
In Competition No. 2979 you were invited to supply your contribution to a series of parodies of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories that have just been published which re–imagine the five as adults — or to give another children’s classic the same treatment. Everyone loves a spoof, it seems, to judge by the phenomenal success
In ten clues, the wordplay omits one of the letters of the solution. These letters in the grid, read row by row, complete the missing two words of an 11-word quotation (in the ODQ) given by five unclued entries. The other unclued entries give the name of the speaker. If these same letters in the
The unclued lights are expressions meaning NEVER (3A, 4D+43A, 21D+14D, 37A+1D and 37A+15D). First prize Hilary James, London W5 Runners-up David Henderson, Almonte, Ontario; A.H. Harker, Oxford
White to play. This is from Carlsen–Karjakin, New York play-off (Game 4) 2016. What was Carlsen’s stunning move to retain the world title? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 10 January or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
