TGR’s rubber bridge club is a bit like the set of your favourite soap. You have the regulars, of varying abilities and temperaments. You have the stars. You have the guest appearances, characters who come and go and shake up the cocktail. And then you have the total strangers, who walk in from nowhere and
Mikhail Tal, the Wizard from Riga, was one of the most devastating tacticians in the history of chess. His rise to become world champion was meteoric and included an equally devastating first prize in the 1959 Candidates tournament as well as demolition of the incumbent champion Mikhail Botvinnik in their 1960 title contest. Tal’s
In Competition No. 2967 you were invited to submit an article written by the author of your choice under the headline ‘If I were Prime Minister’. In a fascinating 1959 essay written for The Spectator under that headline, Ian Fleming proposed, among much else, a combination of ‘benevolent Stakhanovism’ in the workplace and the conversion
The unclued lights are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Ignore one apostrophe. Across 1 Top for one dining in Cornwall? (7) 11 Rainy weather trapped everyone, in case (6) 12 Chosen the same, leaderless (7) 14 Old sweetheart at short race track (5) 16 Hang around. Look
The theme word is KING and the pairs are 4/41, 14/1A, 19/27, 34/16 and 38/24. First prize C.V. Clark, London WC1 Runners-up C.S.G. Elengorn, Enfield, Middlesex; Jacqui Sohn, Gorleston, Norfolk
Black to play. This position is a variation from Gelfand-Mamedyarov, Tal Memorial Blitz 2016. Black has various strong moves but only one forces checkmate. Can you see it? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 4 October or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out
