Belated congratulations to Simon Gillis and his team, who recently won the Gold Cup for the third time. Simon always invites his gang of bridge superstars (and good friends) to big tournaments; they bring a dose of glamour and a distinctly Scandinavian flavour to his team. Admittedly, one, Zia Mahmood, couldn’t look less Nordic if
The World Championship match between Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh is now underway in Singapore. The $2.5 million prize fund will be decided over 14 games of classical chess, and in the event of a 7-7 tie, there will be rapid tiebreaks on 13 December. Pre-match consensus had Ding, the reigning champion from China, as a
Black to play. Gretarsson-Fressinet, European Individual Championship, November 2024. In this position, both players overlooked a decisive tactical idea. Which move should Black play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 2 December. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks
In Comp. 3377 you were invited to write a version of ‘Ozymandias’ for the future. (The original, which obviously is for all time, arose from a contest between Shelley and Horace Smith to write a poem with that title.) The idea was to elicit responses to the US election, and the President-elect does feature heavily,
The unclued lights (including a pair, one word of which has to be read in reverse) are each somehow related to one other. Two grid entries are of two words and one (jocular) entry has four words and includes an apostrophe. Across 10 Where lines meet new lines (4) 12 Payment to landlord as the
The unclued lights are brands of CHOCOLATE. First prize T. Darch, London NW8 Runners-up Nicole O’Keeffe, London W11; Andrew Durham, Cooroy, Queensland, Australia
