I am frankly repulsed by the latest cheats, exposed after the online invitational Alt and OCBL tournaments. When F2F bridge became impossible, a few innovative bridge organisers came up with a sensational alternative that enabled world-class players to compete against each other online and the rest of the (bridge) world to watch and learn from
Does Bear Grylls play chess? If he does, I’m sure he would favour the King’s Gambit. As chess openings go, it is primitive and hazardous. Playing it well demands a kind of reckless, wholehearted optimism that few can muster. Ostensibly, you sacrifice just a pawn (1 e4 e5 2 f4), but really, you’re already in
Black to play. Efimov–Bronstein, Kiev 1941. Normally White seeks glory in the King’s Gambit, but here Bronstein scored a lightning victory for the Black side. Which move did he choose? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 17 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
In Competition No. 3161 you were invited to supply a sonnet with certain rhyme words to be used in a given order. Bout-rimés contests were a favourite parlour game of Dante Rossetti and his brother William, but the given end rhymes for this assignment come from a sonnet written in the winter of 1816 by
The unclued lights from 1 Down to 44 are of a kind with 4 overrunning a barline into 22. Ignore their four accents. The highlighted squares, read in order row by row reveal the theme and are a translation of the puzzle’s title. Across 1 Most splendid former capital with bombed site (8)5 Upmarket magazine
The unclued lights, 3/34, 12/31, 26/1A/33, 35/9, 39 and 18 PEAKE (an anagram of the red highlighted letters), are six of the actresses who appeared in the recent BBC production of Talking Heads. First prize Chris Edwards, Pudsey, LeedsRunners-up Elizabeth Duff, London NW3; Jenny Atkinson, Amersham, Bucks
