The 2012 European championships are upon us. No, not football, I’m talking about the ones we actually stand a chance of winning: bridge. England has fielded three excellent teams in the Open, Womens and Seniors events, held in Dublin. I’ll be following the Seniors with particular interest because my friend Simon Cocheme is making his
White to play. This is a variation from Spassky-Bronstein, Leningrad 1960, which was used as the basis of the chess position in From Russia with Love. Can you spot White’s fine finish? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 19 June or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The
The latest Sherlock Holmes film, A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey jr and Jude Law, pays distinct homage to Conan Doyle’s one direct reference to chess in the Sherlock Holmes canon. Although in The Dying Detective Holmes and Watson repair for ‘something nutritious’ at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, then the traditional hub of London chess, the only
In Competition No. 2750 you were invited to submit a poem in praise of one of the deadly sins. The challenge was prompted by the following surprising admission by Taki in a High Life column earlier this year: ‘Lust, gluttony, pride, wrath and sloth I am rather proud to be guilty of, especially the first
The twenty words revealed in the perimeter squares and the four 10-letter words can all be paired with both BLACK AND WHITE (hence the title). First prize Patricia Gibbs, Mountsorrel, Leics Runners-up Gemma Le Marquer, Twickenham, Middlesex; Hilda Ball, Belfast
One unclued Across light can be paired with the remaining unclued ones: similarly with the unclued Down lights. Across 12 Holes in supertanker, wrecked off North Cambodia (9) 15 Turning mad — silent strip (9) 16 Sickly marine after backing old Spanish province (6) 20 Approach shot goes round deserted vehicle (7) 21 But that
