When I was first married, there were no satnavs to hold our hands; we relied on maps (if there was one handy) or trial and error. Whenever my husband wasn’t sure whether to go left or right he would ask me. ‘Left,’ I might say. He immediately turned right — and he was never wrong.
Perhaps the outstanding clash of the recently concluded British championship in Hull, supported by Capital Developments Waterloo Ltd, was the last round battle between grandmaster Luke McShane and David Howell. The former has twice thwarted the latter at the finishing post in the past year. At stake was a final shootout for the title with
In Competition No. 3061 you were invited to imagine a well-known author who doesn’t normally write in the genre having a go at science fiction and submit an extract from the resulting work. In a 2015 interview, Ursula K. Le Guin, always a staunch and eloquent defender of the genre, took a pop at writers
One unclued light (three words) is a phrase referring to an item whose scientific name is formed by two unclued lights. The first word of this name can be divided into three words, each of which has two synonyms among the other unclued lights. Across 1 Strip back stagecoach seat, not wide (5) 9
WUNDERKIND — given by corrections of misprints in clues — can be read as W UNDER KIND, indicating the unclued lights in each of four columns. First prize Cathy Staveley, London SW15 Runners-up Frank Anstis, Truro, Cornwall; S.J.J. Tiffin, Cockermouth, Cumbria
White to play. This position is from Fernandez-Pritchett, Hull 2018. White found an extraordinary, problem-like move to finish the game. Can you see it? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 21 August or via email to victoria@-spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please
