Out of the book
Last week we saw the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen taking a leaf from Alekhine’s book to destroy eccentric opening…
No. 407
White to play. This is from Pacher-Radnai, Budapest 2016. How did White exploit a tactical opportunity to make a decisive…
Post mortem
In Competition No. 2946 you were invited to supply a verse obituary of a well-known person who has died in…
Your problems solved
Q. I know it’s a gaffe to ask a doctor for medical advice at a party, but what is the…
White mischief
I promised a return to Burgundy and the 2014 vintage, which becomes no less impressive when recollected in tranquillity. We…
The imposter
Following Tuesday night’s Indiana primaries, the race for the Republican nomination is effectively over. Talk of Donald Trump being overhauled…
High life
New York I went downtown to Katz’s the other day and had a pastrami sandwich that made me want…
Low life
The tourist information office of the small French country town looked closed. Peering between the posters on the window glass,…
Low life
The tourist information office of the small French country town looked closed. Peering between the posters on the window glass,…
Shakespeare’s pronunciation
Sir John Harington told a story in 1596 about a lady at court asking her gentlewoman to inquire which Mr…
Real life
Buffy Sainte-Marie said it best. ‘The lights of town are at my back, my heart is full of stars./ And…
Middle-class warriors
Tuesday’s protest against Key Stage 1 Sats was moronic on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to…
Middle-class warriors
Tuesday’s protest against Key Stage 1 Sats was moronic on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to…
Tea and honesty
We recently moved -offices from Canary Wharf to Blackfriars bridge. When you move after a long time in one place,…
Pliny on the joy of elephants
In order to deter poachers, hundreds of tons of elephants’ tusks are being incinerated in Kenya. But even for Romans,…
Barometer
London’s other mayor How many people could name the capital’s other mayor, the Lord Mayor of London? The office, officially…
Diary
I am no admirer of Donald Trump — not because he is a doomsayer and professional patriot but because he…
What to do in Ireland
From ‘Reconstruction’, The Spectator, 5 May 1916: What Ireland wants just now is firm and judicious military government. The rebellion of last…
Letters
The EU gravy train Sir: Despite his splendid forename, your deputy editor Freddy Gray has a very tenuous grasp of human…
Australian letters
Mad and bad Sir: I suspect that Gary Johns is correct in his assertion that Anders Breivik was having a…
Portrait of the week
Home Naz Shah MP was suspended from the Labour Party after the blogger Guido Fawkes revealed that in 2014, nine…
Deluded divas
When the Fat Lady Sings, everyone is primed to chortle, even if she is Montserrat Caballé and doing it wonderfully…
Striking the wrong note
Before we turn our attention to Florence Foster Jenkins — but if you can’t wait, it’s so-so — I feel…
Fade to grey
Every ballet company wants a box-office earner. But why Scottish Ballet’s leader Christopher Hampson kept on at David Dawson until…
Wings of desire
Maria Sibylla Merian was a game old bird of entrepreneurial bent, with an overwhelming obsession with insects. Born in Frankfurt…
