I’ve just returned from two weeks playing in the European Open Championships in Montecatini in Italy, and I’m so whacked I can hardly get out of bed. Playing pressurised bridge for nearly ten hours a day is exhausting, but try doing it under the relentless heat of the Tuscan sun, in a huge tent with
Can chess and bridge be considered sports? According to a European Court of Justice judgment earlier this month, bridge is a sport and should be granted the same official status as football, rugby and tennis. The Daily Telegraph report says: ‘Advocate General Maciej Szpunar ruled that sport was an activity requiring a certain effort to
In Competition No. 3004 you were invited to submit an extract from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Trumpland. As I was listening to Kellyanne Conway’s alternative-facts interview earlier this year, Humpty Dumpty’s words from Through the Looking-Glass floated into my mind (‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means
Seven clues contain a redundant word, each defining one unclued light. These seven unclued lights all undergo partial 1 across (in Collins) before entry, in a consistent manner. Resulting grid entries are not real words. Unchecked and cross-checking letters in all eight unclued lights could give: NEWS — I’LL HINT THIS: CRUX’S LATIN Across
Extra letters in clues gave SAM GOLDWYN, to whom are attributed I’LL GIVE YOU (5) A DEFINITE (8) MAYBE (1A), INCLUDE (23) ME OUT (7), and IN TWO (33) WORDS (34A) IM-POSSIBLE! (38). Goldfish was his former name. First prize Magdalena Deptula, Eton, Berkshire Runners-up Eddie Looby, Longbridge, Birmingham; Sue Topham, Newark
White to play. This position is from Caruana–Carlsen, Paris 2017. Can you spot White’s winning coup? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 4 July 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
