Puzzles & games

Bridge

Bridge | 27 July 2017

This is a great time to be a bridge professional — not just for the world’s top players, who have their pick of super-rich sponsors, but also for those a good few notches below them. In London, there seems to be an ever-growing list of clients willing to spend £100 or more for a game

Chess

British championship

This year’s British Championship starts on Saturday and is endowed with an outstanding prize fund supplied by Capital Developments Waterloo Ltd. The first prize alone is £10,000 and this has attracted a field which includes many of the UK’s leading grandmasters. This week, a game and a puzzle by two of the leading contenders. Gawain

Competition

New beginnings

In Competition No. 3008 you were invited to take the last line of a well-known novel and make it the first line of a short story written in the style of the author in question.   There’s room only for me to lament the lack of space for more winners; the judging process was especially

Crossword

2320: Crossings out

The unclued Across lights become thematic when a suffix is appended. The individual unclued Down lights (one a proper noun) also become thematic when a different suffix is appended; 1 Down consists of three further words which individually become thematic in the same way as the unclued Down ones do. The unchecked letters of all

Crossword solution

to 2317:370

The answer to the subtraction sum in the title is 1947. So all the unclued lights are celebrities who celebrate their 70th birthday this year. The first letter of each clue, read in order, announce Doc’s 70th birthday.   First prize Emma Wood, Loscoe, Heanor, Derbyshire Runners-up Tom Richards, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire; George D. Logan, Columbia, Maryland,

Puzzles

no. 467

White to play. This position is from McShane-Istratescu, London 2013. How did White conclude his kingside attack with a fine flourish? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 1 August 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