You can always tell a beginner, or a poor player, at the bridge table — they’re the ones who start cashing their tricks as soon as dummy comes down. Any reasonable player knows the importance of stopping to think: of counting winners and losers, and working out a strategy. But it’s the mark of a
The new book by Thomas Engqvist, Réti: Move by Move (Everyman Chess), about the hypermodern leader Richard Réti, is so significant that it deserves further examination. Perhaps Réti’s most celebrated victory came against Capablanca, who had come through his 1921 world title contest and the subsequent great tournament of London 1922 without losing a single game.
In Competition No. 2982 you were invited to recast John Masefield’s ‘Sea Fever’ in light of the news that the poet suffered from acute seasickness. In his book Sea Fever, Sam Jefferson relates how as an apprentice seaman aboard the Gilcruix, the unfortunate Masefield was struck down by a brutal bout of mal de
Six words (one with American spelling) read clockwise in sequence round the perimeter. Each of seventeen clues comprises a definition part and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter; the extras spell a two-word definition of the perimeter words. Letters in corner squares and those adjacent to them could make STEPS
Bill Shankly said: ‘Some people think football is a matter of life and death … ( I can assure them it is much more serious than that)’. The unclued letters in the grid spell LIFE AND if read downwards row by row, and ANFIELD if read across column by column. First prize Sandra Peterkin,
White to play. This is from Réti-Spielmann, Opatija 1912. How did Réti conclude his kingside attack? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 31 January or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks
