David Cameron must long ago have stopped signing off texts to friends with ‘LOL’. In internet slang, of course, it means ‘laughing out loud’, not ‘lots of love’ as he’d thought. Yes, we all scoffed when the story emerged — but how many of the scoffers know that in bridge, LOL means something else entirely:
World champion Vishy Anand will defend his title against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in November in a $5 million match in the Hyatt hotel in Chennai. Continuing my series on former World Championship matches, this week’s game is one where Vishy came horribly unstuck after forgetting his preparation in a critical line of the Grünfeld
In Competition 2800 you were invited to reconstitute a well-known work of literature as a tweet, i.e., text of up to 140 characters, including spaces. A few years ago Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin, two students from the University of Chicago, embarked on a mission to make the great works of literature more palatable to
‘15A/35/1D’ is part of a quotation from 20 in ODQ and could refer to the remaining unclued lights (including a pair). Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 1 Discharge of alien not a long time imprisoned (5) 4 Most bell-like silken quavers pervading songbird (9) 10 Have sansei stirring sauces (10) 11 Meeting HM
The ‘circular chain’ (or RING CYCLE) of items was: RING CYCLE (anag of RECYCLING), GLYCERINE, GENERICAL, CAREENING, TANGERINE, ARGENTINA, WAGNERIAN, NORWEGIAN, ANGLE IRON, LOHENGRIN, RHEINGOLD, RE-FOLDING, GLORIFIED, FILIGREED, SIEGFRIED, REGICIDES, ISENERGIC, RECOGNISE, CONCIERGE, CRYOGENIC. WAGNER, whose bicentenary fell on 22 May, replaced the answer WAURST at 46 across. First prize Dr John Stabler, Fakenham,
White to play. This position is from Short-van Wely, Sigeman 2013. Short played 1 Qh2 and won but what would have been quicker? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 11 June or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat,
