A few years ago I used to play Rubber Bridge from time to time with an elderly gentleman called Leo Halpern. Leo was unfailingly polite, good-humoured and kind. He was also very, very slow. One day, when he was playing a laydown 3NT he thought for ages and one of the other players finally said:
This week I continue my homage, during the London Classic which finishes this coming week, to great players who have achieved outstanding things in London. In 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Adolf Anderssen in what was, to all intents and purposes, a World Championship clash. Steinitz marked it as the beginning of his World Championship tenure,
In Competition No. 2775 you were invited to submit an elegy on the death of the ash. A bleak topic for a comp, perhaps, but happily there are those who reckon that it is too early to start preparing the obituaries. Clive Anderson, president of the Woodland Trust, believes the species may well rise again.
Clues in italics are definitions only. In each of their answers, it is necessary to 32 10 (a four-word phrase) to create the word to be entered in the grid. Each of these entries (one of which is hyphened) is defined by an unclued light. Across 1 Lies not specified by one entering expenses
The unclued lights (16D/21? 16D/16A/23/38/24/11/14?) form a quotation by SHYLOCK in The Merchant of Venice. A number of references to the play and its opposition between Jews and Christians were included in the clues. First prize Hilda Ball, Belfast Runners-up Philip Hawkins, Matlock, Derbyshire; Michael Debenham, Shrewsbury
White to play. This position is from La Bourdonnais-McDonnell, London 1834. White has various ways to finish off, but what is the cleanest kill? Owing to early printing deadlines, we regret that this week’s is not a prize puzzle. Last week’s solution 1 Qf6+ Last week’s winner Philip White, Wirral, Merseyside
