Life
Viking trail
The Australian grandmaster David Smerdon has written a truly exciting book about some of the byways in the Centre Counter…
No. 375
Black to play. This position is from Kosmo-Smerdon, Goa 2002. Can you spot Black’s beautiful winning move? Answers to me…
Triple thrill
In Competition No. 2911 you were invited to submit a thriller in three text messages. This one seemed straightforward enough…
Your problems solved
Q. How can you tactfully tell someone that the large skin tag or blob they have grown in the centre…
Jamie in chains
Jamie’s Italian is squeezed into the Devonshire Arms on Denman Street, Soho, borne on the duplicitous winds of TV shows…
High life
These are the languid, sensuous days of summer, and I’ve had another birthday, which is the bad news. But it’s…
Long life
I was saying the other week that my new hearing aids had come with a warning not to swallow their…
Long life
I was saying the other week that my new hearing aids had come with a warning not to swallow their…
Low life
‘How many people have you slept with in your life, roughly?’ she asked. We were lying in bed in the…
Low life
‘How many people have you slept with in your life, roughly?’ she asked. We were lying in bed in the…
Asexual
There was a time when my husband, who often addresses the television, would habitually react to Edward Heath’s appearance on…
Real life
If anyone wants to know why the Labour party is about to elect Jeremy Corbyn as its leader then they…
Captain Cook proves good guys can triumph
The roar of the Premier League is beginning to drown out everything else in sport (there’s even Friday night football…
Our holiday in a French Butlins
I’m currently at a French campsite in the Languedoc, having been persuaded by my wife that it would be a…
Our holiday in a French Butlins
I’m currently at a French campsite in the Languedoc, having been persuaded by my wife that it would be a…
In the know
Master golfer Gary Player had the perfect retort when a 19th-hole pundit on his fourth G&T declared, ‘It’s all down…
Bridge
I have great respect for top French bridge players but I think it’s fair to say they don’t go in…
Mykonos has turned into hell (I still blame Jackie Kennedy)
The wind is maddening and constant, and gets stronger as the sun falls below the horizon. The streets are lined…
Have I killed my friend’s Jack Russell? Time to check Google
Toby goes to bed at 10 o’clock sharp every night otherwise he gets irritable. Toby sleeps on the bed always.…
My local hospital is ‘listening to its staff’ – but not, apparently, the patients
Surely it can be no coincidence that the road by which one enters St George’s Hospital, Tooting, is called Effort…
Jeremy Corbyn’s debt to Silvio Berlusconi
I’m going off Jeremy Corbyn. He seems more and more pleased with himself by the minute. But I understand why…
Bridge
I hadn’t realised quite what a thriving bridge scene Manchester has until spending a weekend there recently. I went with…
Buried treasure
Jonathan Hawkins has emerged as the winner of this year’s British Championship, which finished last week at the University of…
No. 374
Black to play. This is a variation from Osborne-Hawkins, British Championship, Coventry 2015. Black is a piece down. What is…
Pet hate
In Competition No. 2910 you were invited to submit a poem by a pet who is cheesed off with its…
