Every time I read Andrew Robson’s bridge column and he mentions that ‘a reader from wherever’ sent him an interesting hand, I feel the putrid green god of envy enter my body and make its way slowly into my heart. Why? Why him? I ask myself. Why doesn’t some reader from ANYWHERE send me a
With the election dominating the news, this week I focus on the strongest chess player to have entered Parliament. Marmaduke Wyvill was MP for Richmond Yorkshire, and he won the silver medal in the very first international tournament, which was organised by Howard Staunton to coincide with the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. Stylistically,
In Competition No. 3001 you were invited to take inspiration from the recently published Walt Whitman’s Guide to Manly Health and Training and supply an extract from a similar guide penned by another well-known writer. While Whitman extols the benefits of stale bread and fresh air and cautions against eating between meals, Fiona Pitt-Kethley’s John
In ten clues the wordplay leads to the answer plus one extra letter. These letters in clue order give a name (two words) to which are questionably attributed the unclued lights (in Brewer), which make three phrases: one of six words, one of three, one of four (thematically five?). Across 4 See me in
Procne (37D), Tereus (23D), Scylla (19D) and Arachne (30D) were all given as anagrams, as was Ovid (42D). Daphne (1D) changed to laurel, and Niobe (7A) to stone, as in the Metamorphoses (45A). First prize Stephen Saunders, Midford, Bath Runners-up R. Wightman, Ilkley, W. Yorks; Rafe Magrath, London SW13
White to play. This is from Wyvill-Williams, London 1851. Can you spot White’s fine winning coup which exploited various tactical weaknesses in the black position? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 13 June or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat.
