One of my favourite Bridge proverbs is ‘Play the card you’re known to hold’. It doesn’t mean we should blithely give away cheap tricks, but when our cards are equal, we should follow with the one that everyone knows we have anyway. Applied correctly, this technique will make you much harder to play against, and
Since tennis matches are decided in sets, they are sometimes won by the player who has won fewer games. For example, with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 scoreline, 12 wins can beat 14. This statistical quirk goes by the name of Simpson’s paradox, and from a sporting point of view it is quite attractive. Even an
White to play. Mamedyarov–Artemiev, MeltwaterChampions Final 2021. Black’s last move, was Ra8-a4, attacking the pawn on g4. But it allowed Mamedyarov a decisive tactical opportunity. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 11 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please
In Competition No. 3219, you were invited to supply clerihews on well-known scientists, past and present. The subject of the first ever clerihew — a pseudo-biographical quatrain, AABB, playful in tone, metrically clunky — which was written, for fun, in about 1890 by schoolboy E.C. Bentley (and illustrated by his chum G.K. Chesterton) was a
Three unclued lights together form an eight-word question from a well-known song. The song’s protagonist suggests the other five unclued lights (including one hyphened), which are anagrams of words of a kind (including one of two words), all confirmed by Chambers. Across 1 Spectre behind paper awning (8) 8 Fellow enters Washington Democratic Party
The quotation is ‘I DO WISH THOU WERT A [dog] THAT I MIGHT LOVE THEE SOMETHING’. The honest servant is FLAMINIUS. Unclued lights are dogs: TOSA (25), DINGO (28), CORGI (17) and HYENA (38). The source is TIMON OF ATHENS (in the fourth column) which was to be shaded. First prize Don Thompson, Bolton Runners-up
