Puzzles & games

Bridge

Bridge | 26 April 2018

England had a narrow lead going into the second weekend of the Camrose, with the Irish National team and the Irish Bridge Union team (the host country gets to field two) in hot pursuit. The highly effective partnership of Espen Erichsen and Glyn Liggins (England) defended today’s hand against Wales while the two Irish teams

Chess

Viennese Waltz

The Vienna variation of the Queen’s Gambit is notable for a line in which the pieces conduct an elaborate dance around respective captures on opposite sides of the board. The variation has come into prominence as a result of a game from the recently concluded Berlin Candidates tournament. On the whole, in spite of the

Competition

Mind your language | 26 April 2018

In Competition No. 3045 you were invited to provide a poem about euphemisms.   You avoided politics and sex (mostly), preferring instead to focus on the language of dying and the words and expressions that enable us to sidestep the D-word (according to David Crystal, there are more than 1,000 words for death categorised in

Crossword

2356: Beetle

The unclued lights (one individually and five pairs) are of a kind.   Across 1    German leader put stuff back into soup (8) 5    More lascivious-sounding marketeer (6) 9    Powerless to operate, having drunk UK brown ale (10) 14    Ceilidh lacks odd members of antiquity (3) 16    Tries half the fish at 42 with starchy

Crossword solution

to 2353: Too many

The unclued lights are (too many) TV COOKS, individually at 18, 21 and 28, and paired at 25/13, 27/1A, 30D/10 and 42/7A.   First prize Margaret Lusk, Fulwood, Preston Runners-up Alison Latham, Pinkneys Green, Berks; Matthew Hudson, Stoneleigh, Surrey

Puzzles

no. 503

Black to play. This position is from Bluebaum-Vitiugov, Grenke 2018. Can you spot Black’s amazing winning move? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 1 May or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six