The end to the European Championships Qualifier — from an English perspective — was one of the most dramatic ever witnessed. England had been struggling and was out of the top-eight qualifying places — in ninth, eight VPs behind Hungary in eighth place. With only one ten-board match to go, against Germany, things looked bleak,
At the beginning of August, seeing his outstanding performance at the Fide World Cup in Sochi, I wrote that Ravi Haria ‘must now sense that the grandmaster title is well within reach’. But who could expect that he would achieve two more grandmaster ‘norms’ before the month was out? Haria, 22, now has all three
White to play. Harvey–Roberson, Northumbria Masters 2021. Black’s last move, 37…Kf7-e7 looked plausible, but walked into a clever tactic. What was White’s next move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 13 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and
In Competition No. 3215, you were -invited to supply a poem about Geronimo the alpaca. The camelid’s fate was finally settled just the day before the closing date for this challenge, and your entries have an added poignancy now that we know which way the dice rolled for poor old Geronimo. I admired Gareth Fitzpatrick’s
The unclued Across lights are of a kind when preceded by one word, as are the unclued Down lights (one pair) when preceded by another. Brewer confirms them all. Across 1 Pointless dissertations are more than this (5) 4 Breathing disorder altered my shape – and me! (9) 9 Companion dressed in fragrant black
The unclued lights are the names of the six principal presenters of COUNTDOWN (hence 5 4 3 2 1 as the title). The pairs are 16/33, 22/1A, 24/13, 37/34. First prize Marian Small, Harrow, Middlesex Runners-up Bill Ellison, Caversham, Reading; Jeffrey Frankland, Storth, Milnthorpe, Cumbria
