In general, I don’t like to play bridge just for fun: I prefer the cut-throat atmosphere of a tournament, or the adrenaline rush of high-stake rubber. But a couple of times a year I meet up with old friends at the card table: there’s lots of banter, too much wine, and the bridge gets sillier
If there was one ingredient which separated the two finalists of the Opera Euro Rapid, it was confidence. The third event of the Meltwater Champions’ Chess Tour, which concluded last weekend, saw Wesley So take on Magnus Carlsen in the final. That was the same match-up we saw in the final of the Skilling Open
White to play. Carlsen–Vachier-Lagrave, Opera Euro Rapid 2020. Carlsen played 31 Bd4+ Rxd4 32 cxd4 Bxd4 which should be drawn, though he won in the end. Can you find the much s-tronger move which he missed? Answers to be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 22 February. There is a prize of £20 for the first
In Competition No. 3186 you were invited to supply an acrostic poem praising or dispraising a public figure, in which the word/s spelled out by the first letter of each line directly contradicts what the poem is saying. In an era of fake news, rampant conspiracy theories and ever-spiralling paranoia, acrostics are having a moment:
The unclued lights have something in common. None is a real word. Across 1 Promoted male only editor eclipsed (8) 8 Four blood groups maybe, or one group (4) 11 In brief affair, my girl headed off cutting turf (12) 12 Force president to accept Liberal myth (5) 14 Cheerless and tense inside drink
The ten unclued lights comprise the seven primary Wombles, best known for their recycling of objects found on Wimbledon Common. First prize James Bristol, Cheltenham, GloucestershireRunners-up Susan Hay, Perton, Staffordshire; Malcolm Taylor, Eskbank, Midlothian
