Puzzles & games

Bridge

Bridge | 19 April 2025

Just like having a natural aptitude for drawing or music, some lucky people seem to be born with a gift for bridge. My friend Oliver Burgess is one of them. He plays with effortless elegance, visualising end-plays or spotting chances to false-card while most of us are still struggling to marshal our thoughts. Ollie’s gifts

Chess

Chess Masters

Good, but why now? Did they only just notice? Those were my thoughts when Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. I’m similarly pleased and bemused by the new BBC series Chess Masters: The Endgame. I recall evenings after school more than 30 years ago, watching the Kasparov-Short world championship match in

Chess puzzle

No. 846

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Sam Loyd, Detroit Free Press, 1877. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 22 April. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal addressand allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Rb3!

Competition

Spectator Competition: Comrades

Comp. 3395 yielded many fine entries in which Animal Farm became a satire on office politics. Deserving of a mention: David Silverman for his White House version featuring a ‘prize wild boar, one E. Long-Tusk’ and ‘two American XL Bullies, Don and Shady’; and Sue Pickard’s scenario in which two workers, Pinko and Porky, ‘inspired

Crossword

2699: Summer Dresses II

Unclued lights, singly or correctly paired, are of a kind.  One light does double duty. Across 1    Son becomes aware of cutter (6) 5    One who digests fish first (6) 10    Ancient Briton’s edged axe (4) 11    I don’t approve of expert? It’s possible (10) 15    Deck sport when turning round river (5) 17    County

Crossword solution