I have played the Easter Guardian in one event or another for the past 20 years. It is the perfect Easter tournament and everybody has fun, particularly in the mixed pairs. I wasn’t interested in finding a slightly more exotic alternative; the Royal National Hotel in Russell Square was where I most wanted to be.
As I write, six of 14 games of the world championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren have been played in Astana, Kazakhstan, with the score tied 3-3. By the time you read this, events will have moved on, so any prognosis would be futile. One ought, so to speak, to wait until the
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Sam Loyd, The Musical World, 1859. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 24 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 delivery. Last week’s solution 1
In Competition No. 3295, you were invited to submit a comically appalling final paragraph to the worst of all possible novels. From time to time, I set a challenge that owes a debt to the Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton – who enjoyed a brief burst of popularity in his day, before falling out of favour
The unclued lights are of a kind. Two solutions are initials. Across 1 Officers’ training school – place to write music – cello arrangement with two notes (5,7)10 Fertile Spanish plain, say, in Virginia (4)12 Moorland bird that pesters the female? (3-7)14 Rules regularly presented author’s initials (3)15 Clear control of former NZ live news
The unclued lights are the former and current names of various products: 2/8A, 12/36, 16/32, 17/34, 13/22. First prize David Caldecott, Bowerchalke, Salisbury Runners-up Elizabeth Feinberg, Rancho Mirage, CA, USAPearl Williamson, Dungannon, Northern Ireland
