Life
Want greater diversity? Try being less fair
In its hasty dismissal of James Damore, Google showed a worrying disregard for one of the most important freedoms within…
Bridge
The ‘Lightner double’ is perfectly named: a bolt out of the blue which strikes fear into your heart. There you…
Bowing and scraping
In Competition No. 3011 you were invited to submit a disgustingly flattering poem in heroic couplets in praise of a…
Dear Mary
Q. Mary, I am what you would probably call a Sloane Ranger. I have great numbers of close friends and…
Mechanistic insight
No, hang on, don’t turn to Dear Mary yet. This is not as dull as it sounds. It’s just that…
The turf
‘Racing isn’t a team sport,’ the diehards used to tell us about the Shergar Cup, Ascot’s annual contest for three-rider…
to 2320: Crossings Out
When BRIDGE is added to the unclued Across lights and FORD to the unclued Down lights (including each of the…
Tapas but no phantom
I am always surprised to remember that Andrew Lloyd Webber has taste; it must be remembrance of Cats. I was…
High life
As Jacob Rees-Mogg said in a different context, a happy birthday at my age is a terminological inexactitude. I needed…
Real life
Easier by far to load up my horses and move them to the next village than try to fight the…
What has the Premier League ever done for us?
Football’s back, I’m afraid, and, in the imperishable words of David Mitchell, every kick in every game matters to someone,…
Bridge
The first weekend of August saw two big pairs tournaments, one in Oslo and one in Eastbourne, with remarkable similarities:…
Magnum opus
A new book on the ingenious Hungarian master Gyula Breyer ranks, in my opinion, at the very top of chess…
No. 470
White to play. This is from Breyer-Esser, Budapest 1917. White has a multiplicity of tempting options but the best move…
The Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Low life
On Sunday morning we went, Oscar and I, to a vide grenier in the ancient, picturesque Provençal village. Vide grenier…
Hunt-the-iPhone was the highlight of my hols
For years, Caroline and I have been squabbling over where to spend our summer holidays. Her ideal is a family-friendly…
2323: Alphabetical jigsaw
Clues are presented in alphabetical order of their solutions. The solutions have then to be fitted into the grid, jigsaw-fashion.…
Monster mash-up
In Competition No. 3010, a nod to the late, great George Romero, you were invited to provide an extract from…
Dear Mary
Q. I was brought up to stick rigidly to any invitation accepted and never to ‘chuck’ when a better one…
Wuthering
Haworth is in a constant simmer of Brontë anniversary fever. It is looking forward to Emily Brontë’s 200th birthday next…
The romantic king of clubs
We were discussing romanticism, with me arguing that it should be confined to the boudoir, the bedroom, the library or…
Bridge
The Andrew Robson Bridge Club in Parsons Green deserves its huge success. The standard may not be as high as…
Test of time
Last week I pointed to the fact that games played at accelerated time limits are acquiring an official imprimatur that…
no. 469
White to play. This is from Anand–Caruana, St Louis 2017. Can you spot White’s incredible winning move? Answers to me…
