We all know the importance of making a viable plan before we play. If a contract is poor and seems to have little chance, we must mentally place the cards where we need them to be and plan the play on that assumption. But if a contract seems solid we should imagine the worst possible
Modern chess includes a panoply of ‘Indian’ openings, which share a common root in the starting moves 1 d4 Nf6 and include the King’s Indian, Nimzo-Indian, Queen’s Indian, Bogo-Indian, and Old Indian. But before 1900, the prevailing wisdom held that it was advisable for Black to contest the centre with a pawn advance. So the
White to play. Cochrane–Bonnerjee, 1852. Out of eight discovered checks with the knight on e6, Cochrane found the only one which wins the game. Which move did he choose? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 24 May. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please
In Competition No. 3199, you were invited to supply a poem in which an inanimate object comments on its owner’s behaviour. Shoshana Zuboff’s recent book about the growth of surveillance capitalism gave me the idea for this competition. In it she warns of a future in which, to satisfy big tech’s insatiable appetite for data,
The unclued lights (one of four words) are legendary. Across 9 Broadcast live in Torbay possibly to no avail (10) 14 Mark said to be a jerk (3) 16 Marvin Gaye’s ‘Healing’ depends on chromosomes (6) 17 Person I’m addressing, with most of the next generation (5) 18 Man died on beach, once (5) 22
Unclued lights are nuts, as suggested in the perimetrical rhyme. First prize Adrian George, Barton under Needwood, Staffs Runners-up Willie Hamilton, Exeter; Svava Davies, Farndon, Newark
