I’ve been friends with the England player Mike Bell for many years; as top bridge professionals go, I’d say he has fewer eccentricities than most. But there’s one thing I can never get used to: in the depths of winter, he refuses to wear anything but a T-shirt. He doesn’t even own a jumper, let
World championship match play has a stony logic, where there are no prizes for glorious endeavour. It calls to mind the old joke about two hunters who encounter a bear. One puts on his running shoes. ‘You can’t outrun a bear,’ objects his friend. ‘I don’t have to outrun the bear, I only have to
White to play. Dardha–Shuvalova, Tata Steel Challengers 2022. The 16-year-old grandmaster from Belgium found a crisp way to finish the game. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 7 February. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address
In Competition No. 3234, you were invited to submit either a poem or a short story entitled ‘Covid’s metamorphoses’. Thanks are due to Frank Upton, who suggested this tremendous and timely challenge. It attracted a pleasingly large and diverse entry (overwhelmingly made up of verse rather than prose), in which the limerick was well represented.
The unclued lights are to be resolved into four (unrelated, non-thematic) phrases which share a common format. Across 12 Pope, maybe, as thespian turning in late in France (9, two words) 13 Pound fine imposed on Bill Stevenson (5) 15 Reserve WC in polar areas (9) 20 Cosseted artist in recording was dominant (7)
The unclued lights are towns on Gozo (go + zo are defined in the puzzle’s title). Apologies that this crossword was misnumbered when it was set. Entries for both ‘2535’ and ‘2538’ — and combinations thereof — were included when the winners were picked. First prize Alan Connor, Kew Runners-up Jeannie Chamberlain, Rushden, Northants; Neil
