The Hedgehog is a respected chess formation, usually adopted as Black, where the defender crouches behind a wall of pawns on the third rank, spines abristle, fending off any hostile aggression until the time comes to unfurl and deploy the fretful porpentine’s armoury in earnest. Since the Hedgehog is essentially a defensive ploy, it is
In Competition No. 2812 you were invited to provide a poem celebrating bookshops. Space is tight, which leaves room only for a congratulatory slap on the back all-round but especially to unlucky losers Max Ross, who submitted a clever acrostic, Gerard Benson, James Leslie-Melville, Lydia Shaxberd, Alison Zucker and Annette Field. The prizewinners below earn
This puzzle marks a 42/27 by 11 in 17/19. Five other unclued lights (one twice hyphened) together suggest another form of 42/47: solvers must shade the pair. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 12 Description of diseases in German, prosy Noah revised (10) 14 Necklace from coastal region shortened by earl (7) 15 Not
The part quotation was ‘BUT WESTWARD, LOOK, THE LAND’ (1/5/28) from Say not the struggle naught availeth by Arthur Hugh Clough. Remaining unclued lights, read from right to left (‘westward’), each contain a ‘land’: Libya (4), Oman (23), Iran (30), Cuba (35) and Italy (41). CLOUGH (in the fourth column) was to be shaded. First
Black to play. This is from Caruana-Adams, Dortmund 2013. Despite play being in an endgame Adams sacrificed a piece. His adventurous play was rewarded when he reached the following position and won quickly with a tactic. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 3 September or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk
