Bridge is such an unforgiving game; you can’t afford to take your eye off the ball for a single moment. Take, for example, the penalty for revoking. There you are, concentrating fiercely, counting the cards — and suddenly you realise you’ve done something as idiotic as fail to follow suit. You try to correct your
It is often asked how chess became so popular in the USSR. My answer is that most areas of creative thought were closely supervised by the state; literature, art and even music, as Shostokovich and Prokofiev found, were subject to government control. Shostokovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was severely criticised by the Communist
In Competition No. 2944 you were invited to imagine what characters from Shakespeare’s plays would have made of this year’s fulsome celebrations of the 400th anniversary of his death and supply a verdict on behalf of one of them. How would the Bard himself have reacted to all the fuss, I wonder. In the expert
An excerpt from a poem (-eleven words, one hyphened, in ODQ) reads clockwise in the perimeter from the top left corner. Each of four clues contains a superfluous word; these words combine to give the poet’s name. The poem’s title, which is concealed in the grid and must be highlighted, indicates the action required to
To create entries at 5, 9, 20, 29D and 41, answers to clues in italics become TREE-HUGGERS (15), embracing sallow, fig, argan, oak and dita. Definitions of the entries are 16, 12, 8A, 3 and 35. First prize Gerry Fairweather, Layer Marney, Essex Runners-up Lewis Corner, South Fremantle, Western Australia; C. & A. Snelson, Middlesmoor,
White to play. This position is from Vallejo-Wynn, Bangkok 2016. White has sacrificed a rook and a bishop. He now has only one accurate move — a quiet move which generates an overwhelming attack. Can you see it? Answers by Tuesday 26 April via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the
