Few things in life compare to the joy of playing bridge, but if I rack my brain I can think of one: watching other people playing bridge. Tuning in to BBO’s Vugraph is not just fun, but a great way of improving our own game. And it can be quite an ego-boost. It’s easy, looking
The Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi cancelled. It was obvious that the Chess Olympiad, to take place in Moscow in July and August, could not continue as planned. Last week, this was confirmed by Fide, the international federation, and it is reported
White to play and win. A gem discovered by the Ukrainian composer Vladislav Tarasiuk with Israeli composer Amatzia Avni. How does White avoid stalemate and secure the win? Answers should be sent to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by 7 March or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct
In Competition No. 3238, you were invited to submit a poem about a literary feud. Wallace Stevens’s 1936 fisticuffs with Ernest Hemingway cropped up several times in what was a modestly sized but entertaining entry. The insurance executive-poet broke his hand, in two places, in the course of an unedifying punch-up in Key West (‘Stevens
41 (four words) suggests the other unclued lights – which are individual examples (not group names) of a kind – and how they must be entered in the grid. All answers are in Chambers. Across 8 American twice rejected West African (4) 11 Like some plants you’d set in cold ground without oxygen (14)
The unclued lights and COMPOSERS (35A) are RIBBONS/Gibbons (1A), MAILER/Mahler (7), RAMEAN/Rameau (25), WANTON/Walton (26A), DELICES/Delibes (46), RAVENER/Tavener (1D), BELLING/Bellini (4), RAMPION/Campion (12), WRITTEN/Britten (26D). Title: cf. Charles-Marie WIDOR. First prize Peter Moody, Portchester, Hampshire Runners-up Alexander Caldin, Salford, Oxfordshire; Toby West-Taylor, Bristol
