One of the things that makes bridge so endlessly fascinating is that it is forever changing and growing. At high levels, bidding theory evolves all the time. Slam bidding has become much more accurate, conventions such as Gazzilli are used by many and transfers after a 1♣ opening are almost standard. Most good players know
I can’t tell you why the Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian was found guilty of cheating last month, because I don’t know. The event was the 2020 PRO Chess League, an online team event organised by Chess.com. Petrosian (not to be confused with his namesake, who was World Champion in the 1960s) was playing for the
Black to play. Khodashneli — Willow, European Online Youth Championship U18, September 2020. White has just advanced 40 g3-g4, and England’s Jonah Willow spotted his opportunity. What did he play?Answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 12 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal
In Competition No. 3169 you were invited to submit a poem about autumn in which the last letter of each line becomes the first of the following line. Many of you wrote in praise of what the novelist Charlotte Mendelson has described as ‘the loveliness of rotting nature’; a time when nature feels at its
Clockwise round the grid from 3 run three song titles (totalling 13 words) with 3D/16 (five words in all) giving a fourth. The lyrics of the first two songs were written by someone sharing a surname with the lyricist of the other two. This name (6) will appear in the completed grid and must be
The poem was The Brook by Alfred Tennyson. The words were HERN (8A), LINGER (20), BRIMMING (32A), FLOW (40), TROUT (44), SLIP (2), SPARKLE (6), SWALLOWS (21), BICKER (32D) and STARS (37). ALFRED TENNYSON (diagonally from 1) was to be shaded. First prize R.A. Percy, Southport, North CarolinaRunners-up Hugh Alpin, London SW19 Rosie Bailey, Swindon
