Life
No. 708
White to play. Rezasade-Movsesian, Bundesliga 2022. White was an underdog in this game, but found a subtle winning idea. What…
‘Poundland and Prejudice’: book titles tweaked for straitened times
In Competition No. 3254, you were invited to tweak a well-known book title to reflect the straitened times we live…
Cream of the Candidates
The Candidates tournament is underway in Madrid, where eight of the world’s best players vie for the right to challenge…
Aussie life
When the Minister for Blackouts, Bankruptcy and Bull finally announces that, in order to save the planet, we need to…
Language
The word ‘emergency’ has been part of the English language since around 1630. Its most common political use today is…
2557: Heroes - Solution
The perimetric knights are MO FARAH, JASON KENNY, STEVE REDGRAVE and CHRIS HOY, all OLYMPIC WINNERS. Together they have amassed…
Have they spotted it?
Returning to the board, Mamedyarov looks at Anand’s outstretched hand with bemusement. It can’t be a draw offer – that…
No. 707
White to play. Trent-Carlstedt, Hamburg 2022. Lawrence Trent spotted a way to deliver a quick mate. Which move did he…
Spectator competition winners: What was Edgar Allen Poe created for?
In Competition No. 3253, you were invited to write a poem entitled ‘Song of Myself’ in the style of the…
2560: Obit VI
Clockwise round the grid from 7 run the names (8,5,3,3,8,3,8,7,7) of six members of a winning set, the other three…
Dear Mary: my pool guests are outstaying their welcome
Q. A close friend, who has lost most of her income in recent years, has done something disfiguring to a…
Why country house opera is just the ticket
Last Saturday I went to the opera for only the second time in my life. This was at the invitation…
I demand my right to night
The LED streetlamp outside my house was fitted with a ‘compromise’ shield acceptable to a vegan that looked as if…
Bridge | 18 June 2022
When lockdown struck, high-standard online bridge tournaments sprang up and with them a multitude of cheats, world champions among them,…
The magic of black and white films
He is a rich English lord with a very large house and his wife is a beautiful American with a…
The art of breaststroke
I’m house-sitting for the foreign correspondent while he attends the funeral of his beloved father-in-law Toto, the last of the…
The brilliance of Ben Stokes
Test cricket, bloody hell! For years, it’s been getting the last rites – now it’s the most exciting way anyone…
More spectacle than food: Ave Mario reviewed
Ave Mario looks like Clown Town, a soft-play centre in Finchley with a ball pit so large you could drown…
The Battle for Britain | 18 June 2022
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Have we made a hash of rehash?
My husband put one foot forward atan angle to the other and grasped his left hand with his right. ‘Occiditmiseros…
Aussie life
I have a confession to make. Despite voting for an Australian Republic in 1999, and despite making an ad arguing…
Why you should never buy scotch eggs
One of the perils of being a recipe writer is that people regularly ask me why I bother making things…
2556: Recent origins – solution
The unclued entries give the origins of elements 110-118 now named Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, Copernicium, Nihonium, Flerovium, Moscovium, Livermorium, Tennessine and…
El Ajedrecista
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, ‘El Ajedrecista’, died in prison in the United States on 31 May. The Colombian drug lord, a…
No. 706
White to play and mate in 3. Composed by Sigmund Franz Josef Lehner, 1864. There are several ways to give…
