Puzzle no. 712
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Philip Hamilton Williams, British Chess Magazine, 1895. Answers should be emailed…
Wetware
Modern chess computers, like the program ‘Stockfish’, are treated as oracles. Plug in a position, start the engine, and within…
Storybook holiday
In Competition No. 3258, you were invited to submit a postcard sent while on holiday in a well-known fictional destination…
2565: 3 x 2
The unclued lights (two single words, one a proper noun, four pairs and one trio) share a certain feature. …
Solution to 2562: Clear view…
The title resolves into CL RVW which suggests the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The unclued…
Reckless caution
Trains were running even more slowly than usual. Schools were closed again. Offices were empty. No one would deny that…
The state and the Union
A ‘global’ history of Scotland must, by its very nature, be one of Britain and Empire too, says Alex Massie
The ruthless inefficiency of the Tory party
It is hard to love the Conservative party. But one reason it has at least always commanded a certain amount…
Hero or Villain? The plot to cancel Captain Cook
Attempts are being made to cancel Samuel Griffith from his prominent role in Australian history, inevitably pushed by the university…
Novak Djokovic versus the Rule of Law
Earlier this week, our magazine weekly columnist, Ramesh Thakur, made an impassioned defence of tennis champion and unvaccinated Serb, Novak…
Priti and Truss back MPs over Beijing’s threats
Most Tories are focusing on the leadership race but for some there are other concerns. Take the five MPs who…
Ukraine and Russia sign grain deal – what next?
This afternoon Kyiv and Moscow signed a UN-backed agreement to free up at least 20 million tons of grain from…
Don’t blame Brexit for the Dover chaos
Queues stretching back for several hours. Children going crazy in the back seat. Cars breaking down in the heat, and…
A rather funny story about Ivana Trump
The death of Ivana Trump last week reminded me of a story I had always meant to check. I rang…
How much have the 6 January hearings damaged Trump?
The congressional inquiry into 6 January’s storming of the Capitol is having a break. In its last prime-time hearing of…
There’s one court where Prince Harry can’t win
When Prince Harry and Meghan ‘stepped back’ as working royals, you’d be forgiven for thinking we would see and hear from…
Why inflation will soon be over
Here’s a quick test: do you feel, in your bones, that we’ve entered into a new inflationary era or is…
Thatcher’s way with words (1982)
This piece is taken from The Spectator’s archive 40 years ago this week. At the time, Charles Moore was the magazine’s…
Are masks bad for you?
Could masks be making us sick? That’s the suggestion in a Japanese study, published this week in Nature’s Scientific Report’s…
What Nigel Farage can learn from Marine Le Pen
It’s been five weeks since Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won 89 seats in the French parliamentary elections and thus…
How Germany’s energy crisis could hurt Britain
For now, Berlin can breathe a sigh of relief: after a ten-day shutdown for maintenance, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline…
Climate scientists have lost their minds
Forget about rescuing the medical profession. Australia has a generation of chief health officers and doctors who can’t bring themselves…
The unique feminism of Ivana Trump
For a woman whose life was all about ascent, there is a cruel irony to the fact that Ivana Trump…
Burning biomass fuels climate stupidity
Some of us have always known that climate hysteria causes malfunctions in the brain. (The precise medical term is ‘Subject…
Rugby Australia needs to chill out
Rugby Australia has threatened to ban a football fan for yelling abuse at England coach Eddie Jones on Sunday night.…
