Life
Puzzle no. 719
White to play. Cornette-Feller, French Champion-ship, August 2022. Black has just played 13…h7-h6. How did White capitalise on this mistake?…
Gimme gimme gimme
In Competition No. 3265, you were invited to submit a letter to a friend asking for a loan as it…
2572: Blown up
Around the perimeter, beginning at square 1, is a line of poetry (seven words, in ODQ) followed by the title…
Solution to 2569: Anadad
The quotation was ‘I WAS BORN TO SPEAK ALL MIRTH AND NO MATTER’ from Much Ado About Nothing (II.i.321) by…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have had an email inviting me to an old girls’ reunion, class of 1976. The organiser suggested we…
Against Nature
Here’s a paradox. Over the past two-and-a-half years, a cadre of senior politicians and their ‘expert’ advisers across the world…
London’s number is up
Some years ago, an Australian neurologist was in the habit of walking barefoot across his lawn. This being Australia, the…
Match of the half-century
They called it the Match of the Century. A full 50 years has passed since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky…
The Battle for Britain: Michael Heath
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A toast to the field marshals
August may not be the cruellest month but it is often the most dangerous one. Now that it is over,…
Mental health
It is easy to laugh at young people asking for sympathy because ‘I’ve got mental health’. I think I heard…
Solution To 2568: Next Door…
The unclued lights were characters in Neighbours, paired at 12/19, 14/20, 16/19 and 32/20. First prize Peter Taylor-Mansfield, Worcester Runners-up…
The turf
Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season…
Surreptitious sonnet
In Competition No. 3264, you were invited to submit a poem in response to the following journal entry by Wallace…
Puzzle no. 718
White to play and win. Composed by Alexey Troitsky, Novoye Vremya, 1895. Trapping Black’s queen looks unimaginable on such an…
Apple strudel
It’s possible that, like me, your first encounter with the Grande Dame of the Austrian pastry world, the apfelstrudel, was…
2571: 10”
The unclued lights (one of two words) are of a kind. Across 1 Bringing down plane that was used…
Real life
My favourite vet came to see Darcy and immediately put his finger on the problem. Dusk was falling when he…
High life
Nostalgia barged in like gangbusters. What brought it on was a brief article about the most charming and enchanting of…
Bridge
The beautiful city of Wroclaw in Poland is currently teeming with bridge players, all of them there for the 16th…
Aussie life
Anthony Albanese’s republican sympathies were a matter of public record when a Voice to Parliament wasn’t even a whisper in…
Woke language
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) once said: ‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’ And if the woke…
Bridge
Do we need complicated bidding systems to reach the best contracts? The Portland Club (men only) operates a no conventions…
Puzzle no. 717
White to play. Gormally–Claridge-Hansen, British Championships 2022 Black’s last move, Ra8-a7,was a fatal mistake. Which move won the game for…
High life
Gstaad As the great Yogi Berra explained: ‘It’s déjà vu all over again.’ The great one also contributed the following…
