Life
Bridge
Bridge is a complex game, and is played by humans. Put those two things together and you have a guarantee…
Puzzle no. 648
Black to play. Livaic-–Oparin, Fide World University Online Championship, March 2021. After 1…Rxc5 2 Rxb4, a draw was soon agreed.…
Unfair play
Twenty players were disqualified from the Fide World University Online Championships, out of almost 900. Does that call for moral…
High life
It takes a very good writer to produce prose that provokes an emotional response in a reader, even when it…
The Battle for Britain
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Real life
After refusing to issue my HRT without a blood pressure test, the GP surgery rang to offer me an appointment.…
A parcel of rogues
There is a more depressing subject than the lockdown. The evening began with a bottle of 18-year-old Glenmorangie. It was…
Low life
In the waiting room I thought about the Duke of Edinburgh. In particular, I pictured him saluting the cenotaph on…
The facts about race and education
Judging from the reaction to last week’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, you’d think it had been written…
Wild life
Laikipia In the past I had a low opinion of sheep. During my first forays into farming I saw them…
Shonky
A reader sent in a television preview from the Daily Star for Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds in which ‘Brad Pitt leads…
Aussie Life
Australia’s by-sea-girtness, as much as its size, means meteorologists will always have their work cut out predicting the kind of…
Aussie Language
The Oxford English Dictionary is currently asking ‘how and why sexist terms are recorded in the dictionary and what this…
A glimpse into cricket’s future
After the thrills and spills and last-gasp excitements of England’s triple-headed series in India, the attention of the cricket fan…
A creature of habits
Along with many other people, I gave up drinking for the month of January and then resumed with gusto on…
Alba
‘What, old monkey-face!’ said my husband with unnecessary lack of gallantry. He was referring to the 18th Duchess of Alba,…
Our Zoom seder
This week my son came home from school and asked me if it was true that the Jews killed Jesus.…
Dear Mary
Q. I have been working (from home) for a TV comedy production company for a year. My job is scouting…
The Battle for Britain
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Fortune favours the brave
If you wish to unsettle your opponents, first attack them and second, play the moves quickly. It’s far from easy…
Puzzle no. 647
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by B.P. Barnes, Skakbladet 1961. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk…
Beastly
In Competition No. 3192 you were invited to submit a short story that features an animal (or animals) taking revenge…
Low life
‘Alas, David can’t be here this afternoon,’ I told the French teacher as she let me into her light and…
Bridge
These days, most tournaments take place either on Bridge Base Online or Realbridge. I far prefer BBO for one reason:…
Real life
Watching a woman driving a dog past my house like a carthorse is just another ‘new normal’ of lockdown. This…
