I went cycling in the Pyrenees with my teenagers last week. Every time we stopped for a break, out came an iPhone, to be met with the usual groan: ‘Put it away, stop staring at your screen.’ Except it wasn’t me nagging – it was them. I couldn’t help myself: the world bridge championships were
Wesley So won the final Fide Grand Prix, which was held in Berlin earlier this month. But it was Hikaru Nakamura, his defeated opponent in the final, who had the most to celebrate. Since he won the opening leg in February, in reaching the semi-final Nakamura secured a coveted spot in the Fide Candidates tournament,
White to play. A variation from Esipenko-Nakamura, Fide Grand Prix Berlin 2022. Which move would allow White to force a win? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 18 April. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize
In Competition No. 3244, you were invited to submit a poem to mark St George’s Day that rivals in awfulness the one Bono recently penned for St Paddy. As Sam Leith wrote, in a terrifically funny and instructive piece, Bono’s offering was ‘technically incompetent to a degree that constituted an insult to the very craft
Unclued lights (including two of two words) suggest nine words (all in Chambers) starting with the same four-letter word that will appear diagonally in the completed grid and must be shaded. Across 1 A grass posing as gulfweed (8) 5 Dip in swirling river (3) 13 Oxford college with pool and some land (7)
The poem is ‘Rondeau’ by Leigh Hunt. Its first three words as quoted in ODQ are ‘JENNY KISSED ME’ (diagonally from 1). The words are JUMPING (1A), SAD (19), SWEETS (35), OLD (38), HEALTH (7D), WEARY (8), THIEF (18), GROWING (30D) and WEALTH (33). HUNT (29) was to be shaded. First prize Terry Lavell, London
