It’s surprising how many bridge players seem to think they’ll never be able to execute a squeeze. They talk as though squeezes are the preserve of experts – a view no doubt reinforced by all those technical terms like ‘rectifying the count’ and ‘isolating the menace’. But there are plenty of books to guide people
The Jonathan Penrose Memorial Chess Challenge, held at Colchester Town Hall on 7 October, was a felicitous tribute to the ten-time British champion, who died in 2021, and would have turned 90 on that very day. Before it was razed by Boudicca, Colchester was one of the earliest Roman settlements on these isles. More recently, it
Black to play. Bertholdt-J. Penrose, Olympiad Final, Munich 1958. White has just played Bh3-c8, so that the Rc8 is imprisoned in case of the obvious capture on c3. Penrose found a much stronger response. What was it? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 30 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct
In Competition No. 3322 you were invited to submit a poem reflecting on the fate of the Sycamore Gap tree, planted in the late 19th century by Newcastle lawyer John Clayton. Antony Gormley, who has a studio in Hexham near the site of the felled tree, has described it as ‘a marker in the lie
The unclued lights (one hyphened and plural, and another in the past tense) are of a kind, all verifiable as such in Chambers, most of them on a specific page. Across 1 One son half-naked, at first, during old broadcast (12) 10 Bird losing head and part of foot (4) 12 Series of files
The unclued lights and the four lacking their definitions (7, 20, 35 and 36) are MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. First prize Wendy Meredith, Exeter, Devon Runners-up C.S.G Elengorn, Enfield, Middlesex; Rhidian Llewellyn, London SW14
