Many top bridge players are also keen poker fans, and when a poker star infiltrates their backyard there is a definite ripple of excitement. So it was at the hugely prestigious Euro Cavendish, held last week in Monaco, when Poker Champion Gus (the Great Dane) Hansen turned up to play. No one was more excited
The importance of pawn structure cannot be overestimated when planning chess strategy. Although Philidor (18th century) understood the importance of pawns in chess, in the 19th century the health and safety of one’s pawns was often thrown to the wind in the interests of tactical advantages. However, as chess thinking became more sophisticated and was
In Competition No. 2865 you were invited to compose a poet’s elegy for him or herself. This challenge took you down a path trod by poor Chidiock Tichborne, who wrote his own elegy, ‘Tichborne’s Elegy’, in 1586, on the night before his execution, aged 28, for his part in a conspiracy against Elizabeth I. You
Each of nine clues contains a superfluous word. Initial letters of these words spell a word which can be read as an indicator of the unclued lights in each of four columns in the grid. Across 1 Position since gossip (5) 4 Quickest spy, holding power, passes time (9) 10
Songs by KATE BUSH include WUTHERING HEIGHTS, HAMMER HORROR, HOUNDS OF LOVE and CLOUDBUSTING in the perimeter, and (defined by the puzzle’s title) WOW. First prize Chris James, Ruislip Manor, Middlesex Runners-up Alexander Caldin, Salford, Oxfordshire; Roderick Rhodes, Goldsborough, N. Yorks
White to play. This position is from Nimzowitsch-Rubinstein, Berlin 1928. White’s passed pawn and active pieces guarantee a winning advantage. Can you spot Nimzowitsch’s fine coup to conclude? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 23 September or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat,
