Zia Mahmood is as famous today as when I first met him 20 years ago. Not only is he still one of the world’s top players (a rarity for someone in their early seventies), but he brings as much dazzle and flair to the game as he always did. Quite simply, he’s one of a
Game Changer, the long-awaited book by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, has now appeared. This represents the most thorough inside story about the sensation that is AlphaZero. It includes material by the DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis and by Garry Kasparov, who must be gratified by the authors’ conclusion that DeepMind’s brainchild plays in the style of the 13th
In Competition No. 3082 you were invited to write a poem taking as your first line ‘Happy the man, and happy he alone’, which begins the much-loved eighth stanza of poet–translator Dryden’s rendition of Horace’s Ode 29 from Book III. At a time of year when we traditionally take stock and have a futile
The unclued lights, two of two words and the remainder when paired, are of a kind. Across 1 No fellow for mixing! (8, two words) 8 Over the channel I have left the Bastille, say (4) 12 Garbage has been the empties (5) 14 Seals cases (7) 16 Care costing less than a shilling (4)
The paired unclued lights are anagrams of one another, most being symmetrically arranged; 2/21, 5/23, 12/41, 15/25, 19D/20. First prize Alan Peevers, Manchester Runners-up Martin Dey, Hoylandswaine, S. Yorks; Jason James, Cambridge
White to play. This is from Carlsen-Rapport, Wijk aan Zee 2019. The influence of AlphaZero is being felt at elite level. Here Carlsen stormed through with an AlphaZero-style kingside attack. How did he finish off? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 29 January or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of
