Life
Puzzle No. 655
White to play, Kharlov–Ernst, Haninge 1992. Black’s last move, g6-g5 was a decisive mistake. Which move did White play to…
Canterbury revisited
In Competition No. 3200, you were invited to retell one of Chaucer’s tales in the style of another author. The…
2508: Grovels
The unclued lights, (one pair, one hyphened and one of two words) are of a kind. One clue leads to…
The turf
Humans are herd animals too. Jockeys, trainers, owners and those enjoying the few prized media attendance slots for racing behind…
High life
New York The Big Bagel is getting so bad that even the baddies are demanding the fuzz do something. As…
Bridge
One of the pleasures of kibitzing online tournaments is that when an intriguing hand comes up, you can flick back…
Real life
‘We’re closed for lunch,’ said the farmer, sitting behind the counter of his farm shop with a scowl on his…
Athletics is running on empty
Whatever became of athletics? It’s fallen nearly as far as show jumping and that is a long way. But the…
to 2505: Endgame
The unclued lights are the final headwords for B, D, E, F, S, T, U, W, as listed in Chambers.…
Low life
Walking up through the Stink Street medieval arch with a bag of shopping, I spotted Michael between the oleander branches…
Paling into insignificance
The Roof Garden is a pale, Nordic-style restaurant at the top of the glorious Pantechnicon in Belgravia — formerly a…
Dear Mary
Q. Once restrictions are lifted, our annual walking group has planned a week’s walk with after-walk gatherings in a different…
Great
‘Why didn’t they call it Very British Railways?’ asked my husband. Unwittingly (as in most of his remarks), he had…
Aussie Life
Unlike most of the panellists on The Gruen Transfer, I still make ads for a living, and try to exercise…
Aussie Language
The Australian Breastfeeding Association has declared the word ‘mother’ to be ‘non-inclusive’. Does this make linguistic sense? Not for a…
Routine procedures
Among the horrors, some aspects of lockdown were bizarrely less gruelling than expected; indeed for some people, the experience was…
Puzzle No. 654
White to play. Cochrane–Bonnerjee, 1852. Out of eight discovered checks with the knight on e6, Cochrane found the only one…
I spy
In Competition No. 3199, you were invited to supply a poem in which an inanimate object comments on its owner’s…
Solution to 2504: Collectors’ Items
Unclued lights are nuts, as suggested in the perimetrical rhyme. First prize Adrian George, Barton under Needwood, Staffs Runners-up Willie…
2508: Knightly?
The unclued lights (one of four words) are legendary. Across 9 Broadcast live in Torbay possibly to no avail (10)…
The Battle for Britain
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Indian variant
Modern chess includes a panoply of ‘Indian’ openings, which share a common root in the starting moves 1 d4 Nf6…
Real life
More threatening letters from the NHS demanding I let them jab me up with two Covid vaccinations. Or as the…
Bridge
We all know the importance of making a viable plan before we play. If a contract is poor and seems…
High life
New York Already on your idiot box via Netflix is a mini-series about a man who also used one name,…
