You’ve won a national championship by the narrowest of margins. You’re too elated to sleep: you’re going over the hands in your head, when suddenly — argh! — you realise you scored one board incorrectly. If you come clean, your score will drop. What do you do? This is exactly what happened to the American
Every year I give many so-called simultaneous displays, usually for charity, where I take on 20 opponents at one and the same time. The only game I have lost this year in such events was a complicated battle during the Phoenix Legacy weekend in Dorset, organised by Rosie Barfoot, to raise awareness of the need
In Competition No. 2764 you were invited to provide an example of a Spectator columnist stepping into a fellow columnist’s shoes. It was a smallish entry by comparison with recent weeks and the standard was somewhat uneven. Deborah Ross proved a popular if elusive target. You struggled valiantly to capture her voice but no one
Each of five unclued lights (one hyphened) must be 28 in a 2 way. Across 1 Naked German cuts elbow (5) 9 Fresh treatment of sick darling hen (10) 11 Chap twisted limb batting (5) 12 City in ravine colonel captured (7) 14 Dance with athletic Zulu round Lithuania (5) 15 Coed developed constant signal
A PENTAD (5) of COMPOSERS (12) lost the letters N, E and T: S[T]OCKHAUS[EN] (1A), S[T]AI[NE]R (18), SM[ET]A[N]A (37), HI[N]D[E]MI[T]H (3) and PAL[E]S[T]RI[N]A (27). First prize Mike Atkin, Butterton, Staffs Runners-up C.W. Hastings, Upper Woolhampton; J. Sanders, Southampton, Hants
White to play. This is from Alekhine-Feldt, Odessa 1916. Some great masters have taken on numerous opponents simultaneously without sight of the board. Here is a blindfold finish by Alexander Alekhine. Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 25 September or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner
