Life
Tal story
With the proliferation of modern opening theory and advances in knowledge of the game, I wonder sometimes if the kind…
No. 401
White to play. This is from Karjakin-Nakamura, Fidé Candidates, Moscow 2016. Hikaru -Nakamura has just implemented an ingenious combination to…
Seuss talk
In Competition No. 2940 you were invited to supply Dr Seuss’s take on the US presidential race. Given his taste…
Dear Mary
Q. I was interested in the advice given to the niece who owed £30 (12 March). A more direct option,…
On the trail of a Holy Grail
It was a scene evoking the first movement of the Pastoral Symphony. The evening sunshine was caressing the verdant woods…
High life
On 17 November 1813, Marshal Ney, the bravest of the brave, had been the last to march out of Smolensk…
Long life
Apart from the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I’ve never known what my human rights are…
Long life
Apart from the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I’ve never known what my human rights are…
Low life
I shared a taxi from Cheltenham station to the house party in an outlying village with a stripper. Finding a…
Low life
I shared a taxi from Cheltenham station to the house party in an outlying village with a stripper. Finding a…
Butterbump
‘Still I’m called Buttercup —poor little Buttercup,’ sang my husband in an inappropriate and displeasing baritone. Not wishing to encourage…
Real life
If you are the sort of person who enjoys tinkering with a classic car prone to myriad mechanical problems then…
Why I’d like to be a more dangerous dad
According to figures obtained by BBC Breakfast last week, more than 500 people were arrested in England and Wales in…
Why I’d like to be a more dangerous dad
According to figures obtained by BBC Breakfast last week, more than 500 people were arrested in England and Wales in…
Directions your phone can’t give you
In many ways a satnav is a miraculous device. A network of US military satellites more than 10,000 miles above…
Wild life
Laikipia ‘Awayoo,’ was how our head stockman Apurra said ‘how are you?’ in his texts from Pokot country, where I…
Bridge
Bridge players are a superstitious bunch. And I don’t just mean the steps they take to prepare for matches —…
Nothing beats skiing with Roger Moore’s son — and Barry Humphries on rare form
Gstaad Going up on a chairlift with the town’s doctor, I asked him, ‘How’s business, doc?’ ‘Never better,’ said…
Trev leans over to me: ‘Jägers?’ he says. ‘Pope?’ I say.
I walk into the King Bill at eight o’clock and the usual young Friday-night crowd is in and the spirit…
All I wanted was a washer for my tap and I ended up with a new bathroom
Diamonds are for ever. Plumbers take a lifetime. They never finish. No job is too big or small for them…
Don't be fooled by the cosy veneer. It’s carnage in South Northamptonshire
My time as a duck-keeper seems to have come bloodily to an end. I have had ducks on my pond…
Jump-racing bids farewell to the great John Ferguson
Writing a Turf column before the Cheltenham Festival, as the Spectator schedule requires, which you are reading only after the…
Bridge
The past couple of weeks have been the first since the New Year that we haven’t played a tournament of…
Candidates
The Candidates tournament to determine the challenger later this year to world champion Magnus Carlsen is now well underway in…
Puzzle no. 400
White to play. This position is a variation from Anand-Topalov, Fidé Candidates, Moscow 2016. White can capture the black bishop,…
