The World Championships are taking place in Marrakesh, and when I log on to Vugraph I feel like a child in a sweet shop, spoilt for choice about who to watch. And yet an old expression which I heard as a child keeps coming back to me: you know you’re getting old when policemen start
A fortnight ago, I wrote about Magnus Carlsen’s narrow escape against the German teenager Vincent Keymer at the Fide World Cup in Baku. That brush with mortality seemed to galvanise the world no. 1, who coasted to the final with convincing victories in his next three matches, against Ivanchuk, Gukesh and Abasov. His next opponent was
White to play. Liu-Adhiban, Abu Dhabi Masters2023. White’s next move secured a decisive advantage. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 4 September. 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.
In Competition No. 3314, you were invited to submit clerihews (two couplets, AABB, metrically clunky, humorous in tone) on well-known philosophers. Eric Idle’s ‘Bruces’ Philosophers Song’ cast a long shadow over a large and jolly postbag. ‘Extraordinarily hard to avoid couplets from the Monty Python song!’ wrote A.H. Harker in a note accompanying his entry.Brian
Paired unclued lights are an author and his eponymous characters. Crossing letters in 7D suggest the name in the title; solvers must correct this, entering the character’s real name by changing the contents of four cells, always making real words. Across 1 A mob alas with disorder of gut (8) 11 I head
The twelve unclued lights are names of COMPOSERS whose names begin with or end N to Z. (Martinu ends in U and Quantz covers the Q and Z.) First prize John Nutkins, Brentford Runners-up Diana King, Leeds; Leigh Hughes, Bootle, Merseyside
