Bridge Andrew Robson

This was a big-swing board from Dealer: East, Vulnerability: Both the 39th annual Lords-Commons A KQ 10 9 Teams match, held at the Palace of 10 4 Westminster and sponsored jointly (Aggregate) 7 5 by Stephen Perry of London A 10 8 4 Export and Lord Kalms, won by J 7 6 4 8 5 3 N the Commons. AQ 9 K J 8 7 2 W E At Table One West led a heart v Q 10 3 S K J 6 5, his partner having supported Q 9 7 5 2 2 his transfer bid. East won the ace, 6 5 3 cashed the queen, then very A K J 9 8 6 4 2 brightly led a third heart (little 3 point in leading a black suit and Table One as you will see every point in leading a third heart). S W N E Declarer ruffed in dummy and, 1NT hoping for the three missing Pass(1) 2(2) 2 3 trumps to split 2-1, led to his ace. 5 end West discarding was a fatal blow (1) Reasonable shot. Perhaps the opponents and he could only cash the king will remain in notrumps and South can unleash and concede a diamond to Easts eight running diamonds (should Q drop). queen. 5 down one. (2) Transfer to hearts. Things were rather different at Table Two where the pugnacious Contract: 5, Opening Lead: 7 North-South had bid to 6. With Table Two a blind lead, West reasonably selected a club. S W N E Declarer won dummys ace and 1NT led a diamond to the ace. West dis5(1) Pass 6(2) end carding was but a minor inconvenNo softly-softly tactics for Table Twos ience (unlike at Table One) (1) South. Arguably 4 is the right pre-empbecause dummy still had a trump tive level given that South is vulnerable and with which to take the second- his suit has a hole in it. But theres no doubt round marked finesse against 5 could bring home the bacon. Easts queen. (2) Hoping either partner has hearts covDeclarer crossed to the ace- ered, or for a non-heart lead. king-queen of spades, discarding two hearts, then led a second Contract: 6, Opening Lead: 5 trump to the (ten and) jack. The Table One? Probably. It is just posking felled Easts queen and just sible East has 12-14 points (for his one heart was lost at the end. 12 1NT opener) with West holding tricks and 6 made. The slam suc- the queen of diamonds (singleton ceeded whilst the game failed. as East has to have at least two). Should declarer have taken a Unlikely though. andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk first round diamond finesse at

Word Watching Philip Howard

SLAWNCHWISE a. To do with sailing b. Obliquely c. Slaughterous IMPI a. An elf b. Godless b. An army SOURSOB a. Envious b. An acid drop sweet c. A flower Answers below

Su Doku

No 6242

MILD

5 3

6 2

Times Quick Crossword T2 CROSSWORD No 6291

1 2 3 4 5 6

No 6291
7

10

11

12

13 16 17 18

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15

6 4 2 9 4 6 8 3 6 3 7 8 8 5 4 1 6 4 1 9 3 5
Killer
8 15 5

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9 Solutions tomorrow, yesterdays solutions below
19

No 3513 Time: 8 mins

16 19 8 30 19 6

MODERATE

20

21

22

20

23

24

Across

Chess Raymond Keene

Kings Indian Attack The modern trend in openings is for top players to press the opposition by choosing opening variations which rely more on comprehension than learning by rote. In particular systems which avoid early exchanges of pieces are becoming highly fashionable. In this respect, the subtle Kings Indian Attack is an ideal resource. Todays game is an example of the Kings Indian Attack employed by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik against three-time British champion Jonathan Rowson. White: Vladimir Kramnik Black: Jonathan Rowson London Classic 2013 Kings Indian Attack 1 Nf3 d5 2 g3 Bg4 3 Bg2 Nd7 4 0-0 Ngf6 5 d3 c6 6 h3 Bh5 7 Qe1 The position is level but there is plenty of scope for dynamic imbalance. In addition, the fact that there have been virtually no exchanges means that there is considerable scope for either side to go wrong in future complications. 13 a4 b6 14 Bd2 a6 15 Kh1 Bf8 16 b3 b5 17 Ne3 Nc5 18 Nef5 bxa4 19 bxa4 Rab8 20 Ba5 Qc8 21 g4 Bg6 22 Bc3 Nfd7 23 Qd2 Nb6 24 f4 Ncxa4 Black should prefer 24 ... exf4 25 Qxf4 Qe6. The text allows White to build up a preponderance in the centre. 25 Bxe5 Nc4 26 Qd4 Nxe5 27 Qxa4 Nd7 28 e5

24

7 13

16

Solution to Crossword 6290

U R L ONG I T A L G T RY I NG G N E NECK DE E UNED I T E A E N E WM A N V O U OU TOF T H S T O N E D UD I NA L D R N I CE AGE S E MERARA E D K I E V A I A MANAGE P D L E B L UE N E

________ rD 1kg 4] 0pDn0p0p] DpD h D] D DpD Db] D D D D] D DPDN)P] P)PDP)BD] $NG !RI ]

________ 4qDrgkD] D DnDp0p] pDpD DbD] D D )ND ] QD D )PH] D D D DP] DPD DBD] $ D DRDK]

13 15 16 18 19 22

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. The digits within the cells joined by dotted lines addup to the printed top left-hand figure. Within each dotted-line shape, a digit CANNOT be repeated.

Codeword No 1975

Numbers are substituted for letters in the crossword grid. Below the grid is the key. Some letters are solved. When you have completed your first word or phrase you will have the clues to more letters. Enter them in the key grid and the main grid and check the letters on the alphabet list as you complete them.
26 5 20 11 19 4 7 10 10 24 21 26 26 19 11 19 17 19 22 25 5 10 7 13 19 14 18 20 5 11 2 11 7 8 21 22 5 10 22 24 17 21 17 16 24 15 20 8 20 16 5 5 9 16 20 7 21 8 8 20 5 19 25 20 5 11 18 19 9 3 20 11 8 10 18 24 20 16 10 10 1 5 26 19 26 6 21 19 10 7 18 24 18 23 5 24 24 10 15 4 10 21 17 1 8 4 10 7 23

Check todays answers by ringing 09067 577188. Calls cost 77p per minute.

2 15

3 16

4 17

Word Watching answers

SLAWNCHWISE (b) Also slaunchwise, and slaunchways. Slanting( ly), oblique(ly); out of true. An alteration of slantways. IMPI (c) A body of Caffre warriors; a force, detachment, army. Zulu for a body or company of people, especially of armed men. 1888: The men looking round caught sight of Wabes impi coming rapidly along. SOURSOB (c) A bulbous plant, Oxalis cernua, of the family Oxalidaceae, native to South Africa, and widely naturalised as a weed elsewhere, bearing divided leaves and clusters of bright yellow bell-shaped flowers; also called the Bermuda buttercup. Alteration of sour-sop, perhaps in reference to the acid sap. Winning Move solution
1 . . . Bxh7+! Kxh7 2 Ng5+ Bxg5 (Black actually tried 2 ... Kg6 but 3 Qd3+ f5 4 Ne6! was overwhelming) 3 Qxh5+ regains the piece with a winning position after 3 ... Bh6 4 Nxd5.

14

18

6 19

7 20

8 21

22

10 23

11 24

12 25

13 26

________ rD 1 4kD] Winning Move 0p0 gp0p] DnD D D] White to play. This position is from Hastings 1955. D DnD Db] Olafsson-Persitz, A well known chess acronym is LPDO D ) D D] (loose pieces drop off). Which black pieces D HBDNDP] are loose here and why did they now drop P) D )PD] off? $ GQ$ I ] For up-to-the-minute information follow my tweets on twitter.com/times_chess.
Solution right

Su Doku and Codeword solutions

3 5 4 8 2 9 7 1 6 1 7 2 5 4 6 8 9 3 6 8 9 1 3 7 4 2 5 9 6 3 4 1 5 2 8 7 5 4 8 6 7 2 9 3 1 2 1 7 9 8 3 6 5 4 7 9 5 2 6 1 3 4 8 4 2 6 3 5 8 1 7 9 8 3 1 7 9 4 5 6 2 3 9 4 2 7 1 6 8 5 7 5 2 4 6 8 1 9 3 1 8 6 9 5 3 7 2 4 4 6 7 3 8 5 9 1 2 9 3 5 6 1 2 8 4 7 2 1 8 7 4 9 5 3 6 5 4 3 1 9 7 2 6 8

8 2 9 5 3 6 4 7 1

6 7 1 8 2 4 3 5 9

A N T I Q U E H A B I T

F F AB L R O HORN Z F U E R I E R L E V E N X I P PO U W ONAN Z G E H E I R

Y S I R E N I T A U E J E C T E D L A I E D MONK S S G K I S S E D S D I TW I NGE S R O A O A T HUMB T I G E ARCH E R Y

No 6239

No 3511

No 1974

PUZZLER MEDIA

A useful device. 7 Qe1 supports the advance e2-e4, breaks the potential pin against Whites kings knight and minimises the possibility of the exchange of queens, should the d-file ever open up. 7 ... e5 8 e4 dxe4 9 dxe4 Be7 10 Nbd2 0-0 11 Nc4 Qc7 12 Nh4 Rfe8

White is now clearly better since Blacks position is riddled with pawn weaknesses. 28 ... Rb6 29 Rad1 Nc5 30 Qc4 Bxf5 31 Nxf5 Qe6 32 Qd4 Reb8 33 Nd6 Bxd6 34 exd6 Whites passed pawn and control of the central files gives him a winning advantage. 34 ... Nd7 35 Rfe1 Qf6 36 Qe3 Qd8 37 g5 g6 38 Qe7 Nf8 39 c4 Ne6 40 Rxe6 fxe6 41 Qxe6+ Kf8 42 Qe5 Kg8 43 Bxc6 Rxc6 44 Qd5+ Kf8 45 Qxc6 Qc8 46 Qxc8+ Rxc8 47 c5 Black resigns

Polygon From these letters, make words of three or more letters, always including the central letter. Answers must be in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding capitalised words, plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives and superlatives.

26 26 4 14

O K S

24

12 20 8 25

Yesterdays answers emir, empire, epimer, ere, err, ire, mere, mire, peer, per, pre, peri, perm, pier, premier, prim, prime, primer, rem, rep, rim, rime, rip, ripe

20 11 16

20 24

How you rate

12 words, average; 17, good; 22, very good; 27, excellent

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

PUZZLER MEDIA

1 5 8 9 10 12 13 14 17

County town (7) Basil and pine nut sauce (5) Use cigarettes (5) Make bigger (7) Profanation (9) Hair preparation (3) Source of 4 dn or 16 dn (6) Occupy (some time) (4,2) Alcoholic drink (3)

18 Book of synonyms (9) 20 One on an excursion (7) 21 Drive forward (5) 23 Very liquid (5) 24 Of considerable duration (7)
Down

17 9 8 8

10 14 10 6 21 14

7 15 16 22

9 3 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11

Underlying support (5) Couple (3) Hole; beginning (7) Fuel (6) Rhythmic throbbing (5) One trailing behind (9) Partly coincide in time (7) Dull red stone; lone cairn (anagram) (9) Hard worker (7) Eg, from Rome (7) Fuel (6) Slightly drunk (5) Saline (5) Drug; container (3)

PUZZLER MEDIA