Life
How Shakespeare became ‘problematic’
‘This crossword is problematic!’ exclaimed my husband, tossing aside the folded newspaper marked with a ring where his whisky glass…
Best-laid plans
A popular conceit among chess authors, particularly dead ones, is to describe a fine game as the execution of a…
Spectator competition winners: the Mona Lisa has her say
In Competition No. 3214, you were invited to choose a well-known painted portrait and let the subject speak for itself,…
2519: Not so up-to-date - solution
The unclued lights can all be preceded by OLD which is the clued solution at 49 Across. ‘Crocks’ at 5…
Puzzle no. 669
White to play. Swiercz–Xiong, Sinquefield Cup 2021. 1 Kxb2 allows a perpetual check. But forcing an exchange of queens would…
2522: A trifle
The unclued lights (one hyphened) have nothing in common. Across 4Author Henry’s daughter perhaps (not a son) making a…
Aussie Life
We now know that Boris Johnson’s initial reluctance to impose Covid containment regulations was prompted by a confidential January 2020…
Aussie Language
TV host Paul Murray spoke on Sky News Australia about the role the word ‘misinformation’ is currently playing in the…
No. 668
Black to play. Geller–Sveshnikov, USSR Ch 1978. Geller’s last move, 34 Rb1-e1 looked clever, since Black cannot safely capture the…
The Battle for Britain | 28 August 2021
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Spectator competition winners: Villanelles after Elizabeth Bishop
In Competition No. 3213 you were invited to submit a villanelle whose first line is: ‘The art of [insert gerund…
2521: Leading question
Unclued lights can be arranged so that, preceded by ‘What is’, they form a question whose answer solvers must shade.…
My eye-opening mini-break in Hull
Given how difficult it is to arrange an overseas holiday, I thought I’d take Charlie and Freddie, my two youngest,…
Remembering Evgeny Sveshnikov
There be dragons! What we now call the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian defence was, in the 1970s, largely uncharted…
Dear Mary: how can I matchmake two dinner guests?
Q. What is the best seating plan when you have a supper party where you are hoping to matchmake two…
In turbulent times, there’s sherry
I sometimes wander through Trafalgar Square in the small hours when the traffic has abated and children are no longer…
The language of the victimhood war
Language is used in a weird way in the victimhood war, where those who see themselves without agency bravely speak…
The Swiss are united by a common cause — making money
Gstaad When Gerald Murphy and Cole Porter discovered the French Riviera as a summer resort during the early 1920s, the…
Why no one wants their holiday to last forever
I have been on holiday for two weeks. Well, not quite. You see, a bloke I once met told me…
With tourists absent, the teeming marine life has returned to the sea off Malindi
Malindi, Kenya Beneath the Indian Ocean’s surface, I wondered if the pandemic had turned out to be a good thing…
How I love England — despite the hellhole that is Gatwick airport
At Gatwick airport, after an hour and 15 minutes in a snaking queue system apparently purposely designed to infect as…
The end of an era: after 20 years we must move our horses off the farm
The letter arrived in a hand-addressed envelope, inside of which was a handwritten note. After everything we have been through,…
Bridge | 28 August 2021
So, face-to-face bridge is slowly returning, with EBU’s Summer Meeting in Eastbourne being one of the first to take place.…
2518: Make a run for it? - solution
As suggested by 11A, other unclued lights were all anagrams of ducks: 12A drake; 16A teal; 28A redhead; 31A smew; …
Aussie Life
One recent golden morning, as I struggled to corral my customarily disordered senses into working order, I was suddenly hit…
