The Night of the Stars charity bridge event, held in West London a couple of weeks ago, was every bit as fun as I’d hoped: 53 stars of the game mingled with — well, let us be known as the eclipses — for an evening’s duplicate. My partner wasn’t one of the official stars, but
It is a little known fact that Emanuel Lasker, the German world chess champion, who reigned from 1894 to 1921, was keen for Germany to enter the first world war. This seems at odds with his internationalism (he spent a long time in Britain, and represented England, rather than Germany, in the great Hastings tournament
In Competition 2838 you were invited to submit a short story entitled Fifty Shades of whatever you chose. It was a bit of a mixed bag this week but I liked Gerard Benson’s twist on Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity, Josh Ekroy’s 50 Shades of Ukip and Carolyn Thomas-Coxhead’s clever, grisly tale of a woman
Each of thirteen clues contains one misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell a phrase involving a pair of items. Unclued Across lights are examples of one of these items, and unclued Down lights are examples of the other. Ignore an apostrophe in a clued light. Across 1 Crease in
‘To fill the hour — that is happiness’ (given by initial letters of superfluous words in clues, and 3 4A) is a quotation by EMERSON (19). Thematically created entries at 12, 22, 31 and 33 are defined by 28, 34, 36 and 15D. First prize Leslie Purkiss, Southend on Sea, Essex Runners-up David Jenkinson, Matlock,
White to play. This position is from Teichmann-NN, Simultaneous Display, Berlin 1914. Can you spot White’s fine finish? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 18 March or via email to -victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat, and each week
