If you don’t play bridge, you really should avoid gatherings of bridge players — you’ll find us excruciatingly dull. I’ve never forgotten the time, a few years back, when Sally Brock and I went for dinner with our teammates after a tournament. We got a booth in a restaurant, and began discussing the hands we’d
The annual London Classic, inspired and organised by the indefatigable Malcolm Pein, is now underway at London’s Olympia. The website is www.londonchessclassic.com and in the stellar line-up are Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Grischuk, Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri, Lev Aronian, Michael Adams and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. This is the highest-rated tournament ever
In Competition No. 2926 you were invited to submit a poem about HS2. The idea for this challenge came to me as I was listening on YouTube to W.H. Auden’s poem ‘Night Mail’, which he wrote to accompany a section of the terrific 1936 documentary about the London to Glasgow Postal Special directed by Basil
In each of eight clues, one letter has been cut from the definition part; the cut letters spell a word that defines each of four unclued lights. In each of five clues, one letter has been added to the definition part; the added letters spell a word that defines each of four unclued lights. The
The publication is 11A. Other unclued lights are all anagrams (‘new’ versions) of scientists: 14A SEABORG; 22A EINSTEIN; 23A PASTEUR; 34A TESLA; 37A OERSTED; 38A CURIE; 1D DARWIN; 28D CELSIUS. First prize Juliet Burgess, Narberth, Pembrokeshire Runners-up Jan Hill, Brighton, East Sussex; Mike Carter, Flawith, Yorkshire
White to play. This position is from Edward Lasker-Thomas, London 1912. This is one of the most famous combinations ever seen in London. What is White’s key move? We regret that because of the Christmas printing schedule, this is not a prize puzzle. Last week’s solution 1 … Rxf2 Last week’s winner Jeff Aronson, Oxford
