At a dinner party recently, I was asked whether men and women are equally good at bridge. Not at the very highest level, I replied. If you were to name the top 300 players in the world, only one or two — at most — would be women. When I was asked why, I replied
This Christmas and New Year I am publishing a series of tributes to players in great London games. This week, examples of play by Capablanca, who won the great tournament at London in 1922, and Lasker, who stormed to victory in London 1899. The Capablanca game in particular is a mighty struggle which still causes
In Competition No. 2776 you were invited to supply a poem reflecting on the Nativity written from the point of view of the donkey or the ox who (according to artists’ portrayals of the event, at least) bore witness to it. From the mid-1970s, the poet U.A. Fanthorpe wrote poems as Christmas greetings to her
2A, 118, 1 and 19 (three of five words and one of three, ignore two apostrophes) are of a kind. The first word of a further example sounds like what is defined by both 53 and 8/92; 39, 72 and 110 may each precede its second word; its third is associated with 75, 95/54D and
HAL DAVID (15) and ANDY WILLIAMS (12/19) died on the 1st and 25th September 2012. The former produced the LYRICS (29) of the OSCAR (4)-winning song ‘RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON MY HEAD’ (1A/18/39), while the latter made a successful ALBUM (33) of the same name. First prize Christopher Bull, Fleet, Hampshire Runners-up Jason James, Cambridge;
Black to play. This position is a variation from Lee-Lasker, London 1899. The white king has been driven into a dangerous situation in the centre of the board. How can Black conclude? Owing to early printing deadlines, we regret that this week’s is not a prize puzzle. Last week’s solution 1 f7+
Weird world 1 Mark Rothko’s 2 George Washington 3 Nadine Dorries 4 The Duchess of Cornwall 5 Sakhalin 6 The 158th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race 7 Harry Redknapp, when manager of Tottenham Hotspur 8 Hungary 9 David Cameron 10 Hitler Tip of the tongue 1 Nadine Dorries 2 Boris Johnson 3 David Cameron
