Bridge experts are a lovely lot. They give their time freely and generously to encourage and teach students and bring bridge to a wider, young audience. Prof Sam(antha) Punch organised a terrific pro/am event last week for 76 pairs and raised more than £50k for her Keep Bridge Alive charity. The Young Chelsea BC
The science-fiction writer Douglas Adams ridiculed our primitive species for considering digital watches to be ‘a pretty neat idea’. Digital chess clocks really are pretty neat, because they enable modern competitive games to be played with an ‘increment’. For each move played, you earn extra seconds to make the next one, a simple innovation which
White to play, a variation from McShane–-Kamsky. In the game above, I was hoping to see 31…Qa5, as I had spotted an opportunity to turn the tables completely. What is White’s next move? Answers should be sent to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by Tuesday 3 March or via email to victoria@spectator.-co.uk. There is a prize
In Competition No. 3137, to mark the 70th anniversary of George Orwell’s death, you were invited to submit a short story with an Orwellian flavour. This challenge was inspired by an entertaining thread on Twitter started by @-rcolvile, who asked for ideas for sequels or spin-offs when Orwell’s work goes out of copyright next January.
Each clue defines the full solution to which the letter-count refers. However, the cryptic wordplay leads to the grid entry, after one letter has been omitted each time it appears in the full solution. The omitted letters in clue order reveal a relevant timely phrase which solvers should include with their entry. Across 1 Helped
Each unclued light is a genus name of a TREE (i.e. ‘middle of the road’ = (s)TREE(t)). Cornus was also allowed at 2 Down.First prize John Honey, SurbitonRunners-up Ben Stephenson, London SW12; D. Page, Orpington
