The first week of July is heaven for those of us who don’t normally hear the words ‘bridge’ and ‘holiday’ in the same sentence. Off we trot to Biarritz to walk on the beach, eat delicious food and, at around 4.30 p.m. every afternoon, take a stroll in the sun to the old Bellevue casino
New in Chess is one of the world’s leading chess magazines. At one time or another, every contemporary champion and leading grandmaster has contributed to it. Of particular interest are the regular columns by the English grandmasters Nigel Short and Matthew Sadler. The group also publishes many high-quality books. In Chess for Hawks, Cyrus Lakdawala
In Competition No. 3007 you were invited to submit a poem about Larry, the Downing Street cat. Larry came to No. 10 in 2011 from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home during David Cameron’s premiership. He was left behind when the family moved on, though Mr Cameron denied that this was because he hated cats. Although
Unclued lights are words from a famous poem whose title will appear in the completed grid and must be shaded. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 4 Fox then dish regulator (11, hyphened) 11 Foals need bananas like certain bats (9, hyphened) 12 Some ignore a great bore (5) 13 Payments to Pope in old
Redundant words were 12A virgin, 16A crazy, 38A mammal, 18D state, 21D greed, 25D tendon, 34D extremist. These respectively defined 14A vestal, 20D lunatic, 6D marsupial, 23D Indiana, 33A cupidity, 15A paxwax, 41A absolutist. Roman gods (underlined) in these words were turned into their Greek equivalents. First prize Nadya James, Heanor, Derbyshire Runners-up Ben Stephenson, London
White to play. This position is from Quparadze-Uzunoglu, Cesme 2017. Black is hoping for counterplay on the a1-h8 diagonal but White’s next move put paid to this. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 25 July or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first
