Life
Candidates
The Candidates tournament to determine the challenger later this year to world champion Magnus Carlsen is now well underway in…
Puzzle no. 400
White to play. This position is a variation from Anand-Topalov, Fidé Candidates, Moscow 2016. White can capture the black bishop,…
Preposterous pet
In Competition No. 2939 you were invited to submit a poem about a famous person and an unlikely pet. There’s…
Dear Mary
Q. I have a deep crush on an army officer I’ve met through work. He is decisive, practical and doesn’t…
Marco Pierre, why?
Wheeler’s is such a dreadful restaurant that I wonder if Marco Pierre White even knows his name is on it.…
High life
Gstaad Going up on a chairlift with the town’s doctor, I asked him, ‘How’s business, doc?’ ‘Never better,’ said…
Long life
My time as a duck-keeper seems to have come bloodily to an end. I have had ducks on my pond…
Long life
My time as a duck-keeper seems to have come bloodily to an end. I have had ducks on my pond…
Low life
I walk into the King Bill at eight o’clock and the usual young Friday-night crowd is in and the spirit…
Low life
I walk into the King Bill at eight o’clock and the usual young Friday-night crowd is in and the spirit…
Cock
On the Radio 4 news at 11 o’clock last Saturday morning there was a joky report about roosters in Brisbane. The…
Real life
Diamonds are for ever. Plumbers take a lifetime. They never finish. No job is too big or small for them…
Jones the dragon-slayer
The return heavyweight bout between England and Wales lived up to its billing as the most thumping rugby match of…
The miracle of Michaela
It was like being on the set of an inspirational Hollywood film about a visionary teacher who transforms the lives…
The miracle of Michaela
It was like being on the set of an inspirational Hollywood film about a visionary teacher who transforms the lives…
Farewell to Fergie
Writing a Turf column before the Cheltenham Festival, as the Spectator schedule requires, which you are reading only after the…
Farewell to Fergie
Writing a Turf column before the Cheltenham Festival, as the Spectator schedule requires, which you are reading only after the…
Bridge
The past couple of weeks have been the first since the New Year that we haven’t played a tournament of…
High life
Athens I am walking around downtown Athens watching as thousands of migrants field pitches from smugglers offering alternative routes…
Low life
Nice airport was more or less deserted. Two-and-a-half hours early for the easyJet flight to Gatwick, I had a leisurely…
Real life
‘Racing is 99.9 per cent disappointment,’ said the trainer philosophically, as I sat in the yard sipping coffee, waiting for…
Long life
I used to enjoy the ghost stories of M.R. James, but I’ve never actually seen a ghost or even believed…
Bridge
Unless you’re an expert, it often pays to keep quiet at the bridge table — something I really ought to…
Bunratty
The tournament at Bunratty is Ireland’s premier chess competition and has been for several years. This year’s event, to which…
No. 399
Black to play. This position is from Skulte-Pein, Bunratty 2016. Black’s queen is attacked. His next move didn’t force immediate…
