Autumn 2013 has been the single worst season of my bridge career. Actually, do I have a bridge career? Doesn’t a career suggest some kind of financial gain and status, rather than a substanstial loss and rapid downward spiral? My Autumnus horribilis kicked off with the first of three Premier League weekends, from which we
This year’s London Classic tournament is still in progress and features Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, reigning British champion Gawain Jones, Nigel Short and Michael Adams. As a continuing tribute to classic positions, played in London events, I give this week a number of spectacular conclusions to games played in the capital. After many years of
In Competition 2827 you were invited to submit a Christmas list, in verse, in the style of the poet of your choice. This challenge called on you not only to pull off a convincing pastiche of a particular poet but also to come up with a plausible Christmas wish list for them. There
Five Christmas carols (5, 6, 5, 3 and 4 words respectively) have been re-arranged, and re-titled at 23/38 (4 words), 59/54/62D/5 (4 words), 87/12/74 (4 words), 20 (5 words) and 72/46A (3 words). A sixth carol (19 letters, 4 words) has been concealed in the grid under a new title (4 words), which must be
The hero is Father Brown, appearing in column 3. ‘The Innocence (22) / Wisdom (15) / Secret (6D) / Scandal (27) of Father Brown’ are four collections containing, respectively, the stories ‘The Blue Cross’ (7), ‘The Purple Wig’ (25), ‘The Red Moon of Meru’ (18) and ‘The Green Man’ (26). First prize Steve Reszetniak, Enfield,
White to play. This position is from King-Howell, Staunton Memorial, London 2003. Can you spot White’s fine finish to the attack? Because of the Christmas printing schedule, we regret that this is not a prize puzzle. Last week’s solution 1 … Qh1+
