Society

Thursday

4 Apr 2019

Advance planning

One way to improve your results is to develop a specific opening repertoire and learn it thoroughly so as to be prepared for most eventualities. This might seem like common sense but it is a lesson which many amateurs neglect to observe. A new book by the prolific author Cyrus Lakdawala (Opening Repertoire 1 d4 with 2 c4, published by Everyman Chess) seeks to plug this lacuna in the chess aficionado’s arsenal of openings by providing an aggressive repertoire based on the solid 1 d4. Le Quang Liem-Nguyen Van Huy: Ho Chi Minh City 2014; Nimzo-Indian Defence 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 f3 This is

Raymond Keene

no. 548

White to play. This position is a variation from Mamedyarov-Li Reufeng, PRO League 2017. This game also started with White playing f3 against the Nimzo-Indian Defence. Can you spot the immediate kill? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 9 April 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 weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Qxh7+ Last week’s winner John Sparrow, Padbury, Bucks

The Spectator

Barometer | 4 April 2019

German customs The original customs union, or Zollverein, was established by Prussia along with 17 other states which make up modern Germany in 1834. Prior to that, traders crossing what is now Germany, were obliged to make multiple declarations and pay taxes as they moved across state borders. — It had taken 15 years to establish, but achieved a big step towards realisation in 1828 when Prussia formed a union with neighbouring state Hesse-Darmstadt, Bavaria formed its own union with Wurttemberg, and Saxony with Thuringian. — Not everyone was convinced. Hamburg and Bremen, which conducted much external trade by sea and made a lot of money from import duties, were not

Tanya Gold

Garlic and easy listening

I grew up in south-west London in the 1970s when Italian restaurants had exposed brick walls and paper tablecloths in red and white squares and giant pepper pots and were owned by people called Franco who slapped your father on the back. The lasagne came in individual dishes, oozing deep red tomato sauce so hot it stuck to the edges of the dish and burnt your tongue. You cried the first time, but not again, because you loved Spaghetti Junction more than your own home. The perfect Italian restaurant was fixed for me then, in 1979, and that was it, because restaurants are about joy, not food. And so I

Dot Wordsworth

Shame on you

In 1663, just before Samuel Pepys visited the stables of the elegant Thomas Povey, where he found the walls were covered with Dutch tiles, like his own fireplaces, he was worrying about Navy pay. People who were owed money by the Navy had to apply for it at a goldsmith’s shop, where they would have to forgo 15 or 20 per cent to secure it. Pepys called this ‘a most horrid shame’. Pepys also used the phrase horrid shame about a case of mistreatment of a watchman by the Lord Chief Justice, and of the King climbing over the garden wall of Somerset House to visit the Duchess of Richmond. It was what

Taki

High life | 4 April 2019

New York It was 51 years ago, in the Hôtel du Cap d’Antibes, that I first met the man whose opioid product has, along with other prescription opioids, killed more than 200,000 Americans. Mortimer Sackler looked old even back then. He had a Noo Yawk accent and, even though we’d never been introduced, approached me after a tennis match I had just lost with some unsolicited advice: ‘You need to calm down. Take a tranquilizer’ — or words to that effect. (I had been feuding throughout the match over atrocious line calls with a French ref who was being intimidated by the pro-French crowd.) Although I do not gladly

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 4 April 2019

We have a gardener, Philippe, who comes once a week. He lives in a ruin a little way down the cliff, which he is carefully and sensitively restoring using traditional materials and techniques. Philippe is in his late twenties, single, tall, slender, beautiful, hard-working, ambitious, educated, courtly, gentle, speaks good English and has a ponytail and a plaid leather bracelet on his tawny wrist. Catriona thinks he’s an oracle, as well as beautiful, and goes to him for advice on practical matters of every sort, as if she thinks that if we were all dominos I’d be a double blank and Philippe an ivory-backed double six. He stepped in for

Melissa Kite

Real life | 4 April 2019

After all that waiting and arguing, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed leaving the EU. The builder boyfriend and I celebrated by popping the cork on a bottle of Denbies bubbly and flying his old yacht’s backstay union flag in the dining room window, which saves me buying curtains. The builder b drank the Dorking bubbly. I’m teetotal so I stick to fizzy water. I don’t anticipate any problems getting Perrier or San Pellegrino in the coming months but there’s always Highland Spring. Of course, if Scotland gets antsy and imposes a blockade, I will have to invest in a carbonation machine. It’s a small price to pay for freedom.

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 4 April 2019

Each March, a roll call of bridge superstars come to compete in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, one of America’s most prestigious tournaments. When the American player and sponsor Jeff Wolfson recently asked Zia Mahmood if he could recommend a pair to join his team, Zia suggested his pal from England, Peter Crouch. Crouch then asked a fellow pro, Alex Hydes. They’d never partnered each other before. They’re both delightful men. On the surface they don’t have much in common. Crouch (57) is a family man and renowned bridge coach with a measured, methodical approach. Yorkshireman Hydes (38) is a scruffy free spirit who travels the world with his clothes

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 4 April 2019

Home Brexit exerted ever stranger effects on politics. After an eight-hour cabinet meeting, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said she would ‘sit down’ with Jeremy Corbyn ‘to try to agree a plan’, though it ‘would have to agree the current withdrawal agreement’. The United Kingdom had been required to present a plan to a European Council summit on 10 April in order to be granted a long extension of the Article 50 process, or else leave the European Union on 12 April with no withdrawal agreement. But now Mrs May wanted a short extension, to pass a withdrawal bill before 22 May and avoid EU elections due the next day.

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 4 April 2019

Q. A woman I’ve known for years is getting divorced and rings me every day to talk about it. I have closer friends with ongoing problems and, though I do care, I don’t have the emotional energy or time to deal with her problem as well. I work and she never has, so she can’t really understand how tired I am. Your advice? — Name and address withheld A. Confide that you are finding it difficult, both at work and at home, to talk on the telephone without being overheard. Explain that this is inhibiting your ability to empathise and strategise with her. Suggest that instead she begins to communicate

La Jerezana

2402: Test pilots

Eight unclued entries are of a kind. A 9-letter word for their position must be highlighted in the grid. Across 1 Am being harassed by society celebs (8, two words) 5 Idiots half-heartedly following British and Russian decrees (6) 9 Surer 4, strangely unsure (10) 14 Fitting carpet, ignoring odd bits (3) 16 Nobody initially criticises young female on piano (6) 17 Philosopher stopped ball, removing clothes (5) 18 Game companion set to include this (5) 20 Top-class loot in province and city of Africa (7) 22 Extract from Telegraph on iatrogenic voice loss (7) 26 Head of History Department advancing in profundity (5) 28 Push forward, destroying redoubt

Stephen Daisley

Corbyn might win office, but he’ll struggle to win power

The vote of no confidence in Dominic Grieve shows the Tories are, like Labour, vulnerable to bolshiness in their own local associations. In fact, the Conservatives might turn out to be more effective at purging MPs because, for all of the noise, the Corbynites have not done much. And if Jeremy Corbyn ends up in No10 after a snap general election, he may soon wish that he had done more. Two polls in the past 24 hours have been pretty good for Labour. Opinium has them level-pegging with the Tories on 35 per cent while Delta gives them a five-point lead (though this falls to three points when respondents are

Chris Daw KC

Blurred lines | 4 April 2019

It is late, on a wet Tuesday evening in November, and I am driving home, listening to endless talk of Brexit on the radio. The phone rings in the car and cuts off the news. It’s an unknown mobile number; I press the answer button on the steering wheel. A moment’s hesitation and a woman’s voice comes over the speakers; middle-aged, well-spoken. She’s almost in tears and struggles to get her words out. ‘You don’t know me, and I’m so sorry to ring you this late. I got your number from my lawyer friend Stuart, and he told me you are the person I need to call. It’s about my

The Spectator

to 2399: Lines of Work

The unclued lights form the folk rhyme ‘Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief’. A.A. Milne (MILNE had to be highlighted) used this as the basis for Cherry-Stones, (9d) though the beggar-man became a ploughboy. Milne’s next five jobs are also mentioned in various clues. First prize Lydia Miller, Vale, Guernsey Runners-up Rafe Magrath, London SW13; Dr John Stabler, North Creake, Norfolk

Kate Andrews

The problem with the gender pay gap obsession

Would we condone teaching a child that 1+1 = 3, for the sake of increasing her interest in maths? No. Would we praise flat earth theorists for getting people talking about the health of the planet? No. So why are we giving credence to meaningless and often deceptive gender pay gap statistics, which have us focusing on women’s issues in a way that is damaging to women? With Brexit-mania dominating our national debate, you may have missed that today is the deadline for large organisations to report their gender pay gap data. Now into the second year of reporting, it has become increasingly clear that the influx of data from the gender pay

Katy Balls

Revealed: the Cabinet bust-up over May’s soft Brexit plan

When Theresa May stood in 10 Downing Street earlier this evening and announced that she would try and break the Brexit logjam by liaising with Jeremy Corbyn, she gave the impression of speaking with cabinet backing. However, the full story is now emerging. In a stormy seven-hour meeting, minister after minister protested at her proposal to use Labour votes for a softer Brexit (potentially a customs union) in order to pass a deal. As many as 14 ministers said they’d rather keep no deal on the table. Around ten ministers actively supported May’s final plan. I understand the point where the tide turned in May’s favour came after eight ministers

Brendan O’Neill

What Jon Snow meant when he talked about ‘white people’

Jon Snow has had a lot of flak for his ‘white people’ comment at the tail end of his report from the Leave Means Leave march on Friday. But in my view he hasn’t had enough. Because it seems pretty clear to me that he wasn’t simply disparaging whiteness and openly commenting on the racial make-up of a protest, which would have been bad enough — since when was it the job of newsreaders to point out people’s skin colour? No, he was also being classist, a bit of a snob. Because make no mistake: when members of the liberal elite say ‘white people’, they aren’t talking about white people

Roger Alton

Was the Checkatrade the best football of the year?

Sometimes you fear for Neil Warnock. The embattled Cardiff manager is 70 and operates at level 11 all the time; quite how long before the old boy explodes is a worry-ing question. But he was quite right to combust over some appalling refereeing decisions during his Cardiff side’s completely undeserved defeat by Chelsea at the weekend, with a blatantly offside goal being just one of his many justifiable grievances. Has there ever been a season when so many bizarre decisions by referees have affected the results of so many crucial matches? That Cardiff result could have a profound effect on their relegation battle, which could then impact on jobs, money

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 4 April 2019

East Africa The late Michael Meacher represented almost everything I loathe in a politician. Before his death in 2015, this veteran Labour MP was Jeremy Corbyn’s ardent fan. He had served under Wilson and Callaghan and he was so left-wing he earned the nickname Tony Benn’s ‘vicar on earth’. Yet when I compare Michael to most MPs in the Commons today — disgusting cowardly weathercocks — I remember with admiration that effete, parchment-white Englishman I saw standing about at Mogadishu’s wrecked airfield 27 years ago. Somalia had collapsed into anarchy. Dried blood and bone fragments were smeared across the airport terminal and militia battlewagons were zooming around the runway.