Grandmasters do not, as a rule, overlook one-move threats. But when they do, there is a good chance that a retreating knight is the culprit. Take the 1956 Candidates tournament, where Tigran Petrosian (a future world champion), attained an overwhelming strategic advantage as his opponent David Bronstein shuffled his knight back and forth, waiting for
White to play and mate in three moves (that is, W-B-W-B-W checkmate). Composed by Sam Loyd, Holyoke Transcript, 1876. Please note that because of the Christmas printing schedule, this is not a prize puzzle. Last week’s solution 1 Qf6+! Nxf6 2 Bf8+ Nh7 3 Rxh7+ Kxh7 4 Rh3 mate Last week’s winner James McMeehan Roberts,
Comp. 3428 was inspired by Rose Ruane’s Larkin/Shelley mash-up (many thanks to Bill Greenwell for flagging this up): They Oz you up, your Mandyias. They may not mean to, but they do. They give you vast and trunkless legs A sunken shattered visage too. But they were Ozzed up in their turn By Mandyias upon
A quote (ODQ, 8th edition) runs around the grid’s perimeter, beginning at 3. It is preceded by the first name of its author, whose surname is an unclued entry. Four further unclued entries consist of two leaders, a receptacle, and its contents; letters of the five unclued entries unchecked by clue answers may be rearranged
The unclued lights are first names of authors known by their initials: W.H. Auden (31), A.S. Byatt (40,2), T.S. Eliot (7,10), C.S. Lewis (35,6A) and P.G. Wodehouse (34,4). First prize Marcus Clissold-Lesser, Ramsgate, Kent Runners-up Jenny Mitchell, Croscombe, Somerset; Alison Gillam, Knotty Green, Buckinghamshire
