The Sunday Times February 13, 2022 29
NEWS REVIEW
CODEWORD
KENKEN
TETONOR
10x1510+986+22x2610+152x641x4610x710 x 9 7 + 10 2 x 86 26 + 21 + 46 64 + 2 33 + 4 4 x 3388 5225 128 46 70150 19172 2847 66 37 13290 17SUDOKU 1469
SUDOKU WARM-UP
KILLER SUDOKU
LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS
fractions give rise to decimals
with a recurring pattern eg
4/11 = 0.3636.... Each pupil in
his class has been given four
numbers. The largest (two-
figure) number is to be used
as the denominator and the
others as numerators, to
create three fractions that are
to be expressed as decimals.Liam found that each decimal
was of the form 0.abcabc...,
with the same digits but in
different orders.
Liam’s largest number
contained the digit 7 and if I
told you how many of his four
numbers were divisible by
ten you should be able to
work out the numbers.Andrew SkidmoreRecurring ThemeLiam is learning about
fractions and decimals. He
has been shown that someTEASER 3099
Sally BrockThe European Bridge League
had a problem because of
Covid: there was a face-to-face
world championship
scheduled for spring 2022,
and they needed to choose
which countries to send.
Usually a European
Championship would sort
that out, but the world was
not yet ready for face-to-face
bridge, and the trouble with
the online game was all the
cheating allegations.
Accordingly, the EBL decided
to have a reduced online
championship, but instead
of playing in their own
homes, everyone had to go
to a pre-ordained centre in
each country. And just so
we could be sure of no
cheating, each country was
supervised by people from a
different country.
So, English open, women’s,
mixed and senior teams
congregated somewhere in
the Southbank University
for the competition: each
having a round robin of ten-
board matches.
In the event, our open team
scraped in by the skin of its
teeth, and the women’s team
finished seventh (with eight to
qualify), so were only
marginally more comfortable.
Today’s deal comes from
the women’s event and was
one of the few things I did
right in the whole competition!
The deal occurred in our
10th-round match against
Switzerland, and gained us a
10-IMP swing (cover up the
East-West cards before
reading on).CHESS
“Sometimes I analyse endgame
positions. This activity helps
me to keep my mind sharp.”
Yuri Averbakh, the world’s
oldest living grandmaster, has
turned 100 years old. Averbakh
was born on February 8, 1922 in
Kaluga — a city southwest of
Moscow. Dedicating himself to
chess after the war, Averbakh
became an important figure in
the Soviet Chess School.
Although he took a step back
from the board in the 1960s, he
has continued to be involved in
chess as a coach, arbiter and
author. Averbakh defeated
several world champions in his
playing career, but in 2021 he
conquered his most fearsome
opponent: Covid-19.
To celebrate Averbakh’s
100th birthday, let us
appreciate a stylish win from
his victorious campaign at the
1954 USSR Championship.
White: Efim Geller
Black: Yuri Averbakh
USSR Championship,
Kiev 1954Black has broken through on
the queenside, establishing a
powerful passed pawn on b2.
White, meanwhile, hasgambled everything on a direct
attack against the black king.
Averbakh now calmly
eliminates all danger. 41...
Rxe5! A typical Averbakh
move. The equally strong 41...
Qf5 would lead to unnecessary
complications after 42 Rxg5.
Averbakh finds the cleanest
option, swapping pieces and
simplifying his task in the
process. 42 dxe5 Qxe5 43
Qxe5 Bxe5 44 Rxg5+ Kh7 45
Rgxe5 bxc3 Black has
sacrificed an entire rook. His
cluster of pawns more than
compensates for this deficit. 46
Rb5 46 R5e2 runs into 46...
Rd2. The pawns’ advance is
inevitable. 46...Rd1! White
resigns. Black’s beautiful final
move gives away a second rook
in order to ensure his pawns
will promote: 47 Rxd1 c2 is
hopeless for White.
Spot the Move 1310:
White to Play.Averbakh-Ragozin, Kiev 1954.
Renowned for his encyclopaedic
knowledge of endgames,
Averbakh’s play was masterful
once queens had left the board.
Here White has two extra
pawns but the black pieces are
extremely active. Can you find
Averbakh’s star move that
ended all resistance?Send your solution (first move only), to Sunday Times Spot the Move 1310,
The Sunday Times, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email to
[email protected]. The first correct answer drawn after next
Saturday wins a £20 Waterstones voucher. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.David Howell BRIDGE
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DCB:;A<EWhat, in increasing order,
are the four numbers?Send your solution to: The Sunday
Times Teaser 3099, PO Box 29,
Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ or email
[email protected].
The first two correct solutions opened
after next Saturday each win a £20
Waterstones voucher. Open to 18+ UK &
ROI residents only.NS vulnerable, Dealer SouthThis was our bidding:With one trick in each outside
suit to lose for certain, the
contract superficially looked
to depend on West holding
the ace of diamonds.
West led the two of hearts
ducked to East’s king, and
East continued with the four
of hearts to the queen and
ace. At this stage I was pretty
sure that the ace of diamonds
was with East for surely West,
with Q62 of hearts and an ace,
would have raised to two
hearts. So I ruffed a heart,
drew trumps and played the
jack of diamonds, running it
when West played low. Four
spades bid and made.This week’s problemNorth leads the spade queen.
Plan the play.♠ A Q 10 5
♥ A 7 5
♦ K 7 5 3
♣ 5 2
N
W E
S♠ 9 7
♥ Q 6 2
♦ Q 8 6 4 2
♣ 10 7 4♠ 6 3
♥ K J 9 4 3
♦ A 10
♣ K Q 9 3
♠ K J 8 4 2
♥ 10 8
♦ J 9
♣ A J 8 6able, acerb, bail, bailee, bailer, bale,
baler, bare, bear, beaver, beer, beira,
belie, believe, believer, bereave, bevel,
bice, bier, bile, birl, blare, blear, brace,
brae, brail, brave, breve, caber, cable,
caliber, calibre, carb, ceiba, celeb, crab,
crib, libra, rebec, rebel, receivable,
verb, verbal, viable, vibeMEPHISTO 3206
Across: 1 Ric-rac, 5 Osmose, 10 Achitophel, 13 Epigons, 14 Tenail, 15 Rabi, 16 Anona, 17 Netizen,
18 Psyches, 24 Tsaddiq, 25 Robeson, 27 State, 29 Agon, 30 Lummox, 32 Nautili, 34 Life-renter,
35 Saunts, 36 Shyest Down: 1 Rasta, 2 Chanoyu, 3 Rita, 4 Coe, 5 Oppress, 6 Shirt, 7 Megrim,
8 Sanbenitos, 9 Elsins, 11 Taiaha, 12 Gens togata, 19 Étoiles, 20 Nasute, 21 Adamite, 22 Trants,
23 Went in, 26 Swift, 28 Exert, 31 Many, 33 IRSWEATHER
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 304
Across: 1 Scheherazade, 7 Stencil, 12 Kama Sutra, 13 Ariel Sharon, 14 Idée fixe, 16 Anne Boleyn,
18 Rag-and-bone men, 20 Tic Tac, 22 Mars, 23 Blood sugar, 24 Edina, 26 Vorsprung durch Technik,
29 Radar, 30 Base metals, 32 Bath, 35 Newark, 36 Linda Ronstadt, 38 Last hurrah, 39 Idlewild,
42 Isochronous, 43 Obbligato, 45 Shtetls, 46 Herstmonceux
Down: 1 Sika, 2 Humdinger, 3 Has-beens, 4 Ret, 5 Zhao Xintong, 6 Dhal, 7 Sylvester Stallone,
8 Ethnoscience, 9 Correlation, 10 Lining, 11 Tir-na-nog, 15 Fabulous Baker Boys, 17 Primavera,
19 Mussulman, 21 Jack White, 25 Approach shot, 27 Ridley Scott, 28 Cats and dogs, 31 Salvador,
33 Award wage, 34 Ascidian, 37 Allies, 40 Esse, 41 Roux, 44 BPMPOLYGON
Winners Crossword 4991 J Bennett, Havant, Hampshire, W Amor, Oxford, M Fitzgerald, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, A Ridley, Maidenhead, Berkshire Mephisto 3204 A Bird,
Mayfield, East Sussex, H Brown, Leeds, West Yorkshire, MJ Ducker, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, M Lawlor, Middleton, Greater Manchester, J Peart, Heybridge, Essex Teaser
3096 J Kelly, Walsall, West Midlands, S Murray, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire Chess 1307 AB Serfaty, London NW4 Sudoku 1467 J Morgan, Peopleton, WorcestershireAmsterdam 9C f
Athens 11 sh
Auckland 22 sh
Bangkok 34 th
Barcelona 14 sh
Beijing -1 sl
Belgrade 8 f
Berlin 7 s
Bogota 16 sh
Boston -1 sn
Brussels 11 s
Budapest 6 f
Buenos Aires 26 s
Cairo 22 s
Calgary 6 f
Cape Town 27 f
Caracas 26 th
Casablanca 20 s
Chicago -7 sl
Dubai 21 sh
Dublin 9 r
Geneva 11 s
Gibraltar 18 s
Guatemala 26 f
Helsinki 2 sl
Hong Kong 19 r
Istanbul 8 r
Jersey 9 sh
Johannesburg 31 f
La Paz 9 sh
Lagos 28 f
Lima 25 s
Lisbon 15 shLondon 9C r
Los Angeles 29 s
Madrid 14 sh
Mexico City 15 f
Miami 25 sh
Moscow -1 f
Nairobi 29 sh
New Delhi 24 s
New Orleans 13 s
New York 2 sh
Oslo 6 f
Panama 33 th
Paris 12 f
Prague 10 s
Rio de Janeiro 27 th
Rome 15 sh
San Francisco 19 f
Santiago 33 s
Seoul 8 f
Seychelles 28 th
Singapore 29 th
Stockholm 4 f
Sydney 24 sh
Tel Aviv 17 s
Tenerife 17 s
Tokyo 9 sh
Toronto -12 f
Trinidad 29 sh
Tunis 16 f
Venice 8 s
Vienna 7 s
Warsaw 6 f
Washington DC 2 snAROUND THE WORLD
Key c=cloud, dr=drizzle, ds=dust storm, f=fair, fg=fog, g=gales, h=hail,
m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, th=thunder, w=windy¬ Sunshine and showers
across Portugal, Spain and
the Balearics, with longer
spells of rain spreading into
northwestern areas later
¬ Variable cloud, sunny
spells and showers over
Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily,
mainland Italy, the Balkans,
Greece and Bulgaria
¬ Becoming cloudy across
northern France with rainlater, the odd shower in the
south, but generally brighter
¬ A frosty start for Germany,
the Low Countries and the
rest of central Europe, then
largely dry and sunny
¬ Mostly dry with a frost at
first across eastern Europe,
although snow flurries are
possible in Estonia
¬ Spells of rain, sleet and
snow over ScandinaviaEUROPE
THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday
Bright intervals
and showers or
longer spells of
rain. Max 10CTuesday
Rain will spread
eastwards, turning
brighter in the
west. Max 11CWednesday
Mild with rain
in the north, but
brighter in the
south. Max 14CThursday
Bright and breezy
with scattered
blustery showers.
Max 12CFriday
Rain clearing in
the south. Showers
elsewhere.
Max 10CSaturday
Rain, followed by
bright spells and
wintry showers.
Max 9CSUN, STREET LIGHTS & MOON
NIGHT SKY
Aberdeen 07:41 17:03 07:39 12:42 07:38(Mon)
Belfast 07:49 17:26 07:47 13:22 07:32(Mon)
Birmingham 07:27 17:16 07:25 13:21 07:01(Mon)
Bristol 07:27 17:21 07:25 13:31 06:58(Mon)
Cardiff 07:30 17:23 07:28 13:33 07:00(Mon)
Cork 07:52 17:43 07:50 13:53 07:25(Mon)
Dublin 07:47 17:31 07:45 13:33 07:25(Mon)
Glasgow 07:46 17:16 07:43 13:04 07:35(Mon)
London 07:17 17:11 07:16 13:20 06:48(Mon)
Manchester 07:31 17:14 07:29 13:15 07:09(Mon)
Newcastle 07:32 17:08 07:30 13:01 07:17(Mon)
Norwich 07:15 17:02 07:13 13:07 06:49(Mon)
Plymouth 07:31 17:30 07:29 13:44 06:58(Mon)Sun
risesSun sets/
lights onLights
offMoon
risesMoon
sets1511 1112591795721912510986819161010911294413131214324011959153496452240964530TODAY’S WEATHER
UK and Ireland forecast
Rain will spread northeastwards, bringing a wet day to most
places, although it will be drier across northern Scotland
and southeastern England at first. Rain will be heaviest and
most persistent over the high ground of Wales and western
England. Rather blustery with moderate to strong south to
southwesterly winds across England and Wales, while winds
stay light and variable in direction over Scotland and IrelandREGIONAL FORECASTS
London, SE England
A cloudy start with rain arriving later. Moderate to strong
southerly winds. Max 10C. Tonight, turning dry later. Min 4C
Midlands, E England
Rather cloudy with spells of rain, especially later. Moderate to
fresh southerly winds. Max 9C. Tonight, a few showers. Min 3C
Channel Is, SW and Cent S England, S Wales
Spells of rain, heavy at times. Moderate to strong south to
southwesterly winds. Max 11C. Tonight, showers. Min 2C
N Wales, NW England, Isle of Man
Cloudy and wet with outbreaks of rain. Moderate to strong
southerly winds. Max 10C. Tonight, rain at times. Min 1C
Cent N and NE England
Cloud and rain persisting for much of the day. Moderate to
fresh southerly winds. Max 8C. Tonight, further rain. Min 1C
Scotland
Bright with showers in the north, rain elsewhere. Light winds,
variable in direction. Max 7C. Tonight, rain persisting. Min -2C
N Ireland, Republic of Ireland
Cloudy and wet, brighter in the west later. Light to fresh winds,
variable in direction. Max 10C. Tonight, showers. Min 0C1191056777183725
roughroughroughroughTODAY’S SOLUTIONS
CONCISE CROSSWORD 1768
Across: 4 Pivots, 7 Annexure, 8 Trek, 9 Jolly Roger,
10 Iron, 11 Waterproof, 14 Nutcracker, 16 Ciao,
17 Transitory, 20 Wish, 21 Corporal, 22 Degree
Down: 1 Undo, 2 Tell me another, 3 Burr, 4 Peignoir,
5 Vitrification, 6 The booze, 9 Jaw, 12 Aquiline,
13 Pittance, 15 Ray, 18 Sure, 19 RoamSPOT THE MOVE 1309
1 Qxa7+! wins: 1...Qxa7 2 Nc7 mateTEASER 3098
1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5CROSSWORD 4993
Across: 1 Wine, 4 Gold-digger, 9 Figure skating, 10 Errata, 11 In the end, 12 Guide dog, 14 Ginger,
15 Edgier, 17 Linguist, 19 Prophets, 21 Old hat, 23 Electronic tag, 24 Prospector, 25 Does
Down: 2 In for, 3 England, 4 Germander, 5 Lasting, 6 Draft, 7 Guinean, 8 Engineers, 13 Underwear,
14 Gondolier, 16 Impress, 17 Lash out, 18 Updated, 20 Ettle, 22 AngleSUKO CELL BLOCKS
West North East South
Pass
Pass 1 ♦ 1 ♥ 1 ♠
Pass 2 ♠ Pass 3 ♣
Pass 4 ♠ All PassN
W E
S♠ A 5 3
♥ A J 6
♦ A K
♣ A 9 8 7 5♠ K 7 6
♥ K Q 5
♦ Q 7
♣ K J 10 4 2West North East South
2NT Pass 6NT All PassThe largest planet, Jupiter, is low in the WSW at
nightfall and sets 90 minutes after the Sun. At
8pm tonight: the Moon in the SE is 3° below-
right of the star Pollux in Gemini; Capella in
Auriga shines brightly overhead; Orion is in the
S and above-right of Sirius; the Plough is in the
NE. Venus is brilliant in the SE before dawn and
6° above the much fainter Mars. Alan PickupCancelling
Jimmy Carr
would be the
sickest joke
Jeremy
Clarkson
Jimmy Carr. But that line ebbs and flows.
It’s like a tide, and anyone who thinks it
can be controlled is an idiot. We didn’t
stop making jokes about black people
because of legislation. We stopped
because if you got on stage now and did
them, people would walk out.
The thing about comedians is: they’re
clever. It’s not possible to be funny if
you’re thick. Al Murray pretends to be
thick, but watch his “Britain has
defeated every country in the world”
routine and you’ll discover he has a
breadth of knowledge that would put
a history don to shame and an
unnaturally quick mind. And I’d rather
have someone like him choosing what
comedy I can hear than some bitter-
faced Ofcom wallah in a twinset and
pearls.
And now, since we’ve a bit of space
left, I’ll leave you with my favourite
Jimmy Carr moment. We were taking a
break from a game of tennis at a hotel in
Barbados when we were approached by
the manageress. There was a lot of Uriah
Heep genuflecting as she asked Jimmy,
who had court 1 booked every night of
his holiday, if he wouldn’t mind playing
on court 2 on Monday evening, as they
were hosting a tournament for the
children that day and court 1 had a little
grandstand where the parents could sit.
“Oh,” said Jimmy in his best charity
game show contestant voice. “So it’s for
the children?”
The manageress smiled and said yes.
“No. F*** ’em,” responded Jimmy.
And then, as the manageress flapped like
a wounded goldfish, he delivered the
explanation for his refusal to move
court. “My girlfriend and I can’t have
kids... Not the way we have sex.”
He came up with that on the spur of
the moment. And you want to cancel a
mind that can do that? Do me a favour.
(And of course he let the kids have the
tennis court.)Jokes have been made about
Madeleine McCann and Terry Waite and
the baby Jesus and Rose West, and every
single one of them would have been
upsetting to some people. But, again,
they were jokes. Not hand grenades.
Even so, there’s talk in the wake of
Gypsygate that Ofcom should get
involved and that we need “joke police”
to trawl through a comedian’s script in
the same way as the Stasi used to go
through every East German’s love
letters.
Really? Are we now so stupid that we
can’t see a difference between someone
with a swastika tattooed on their
forehead, in the basement of an East End
pub, barking far-right propaganda at half
a dozen skinheads, and someone on
stage in Southend-on-Sea trying to make
people laugh?
It’s all just common sense. If you’re
whipping up a bunch of lefties to go and
throw Jews in the river, you’re not trying
to be funny, so you have to go to jail. If
you are appearing in a comedy club and
you’re billed as a comedian and the
audience is laughing, then you should be
allowed to say whatever you want.
In a theatre Jimmy Carr knows his
audience. He knows what he can and
cannot say, and as a result he gets a lot of
laughs. But if you read the words he said
in a newspaper the next day, without
context or atmosphere, it’ll come across
as wicked and disgusting. And that’s
when the joke police will pounce.
Rob Brydon might survive the cull,
and maybe Michael McIntyre, but I’m
afraid the famously nice Michael Palin
would be toast because he once
described the Syrians as totally
unprincipled left-wing troublemakers,
born skivers, dirty, smelly and
untrustworthy and “friends of the awful
Gyppos”.
The fact is that everyone has their
own line that can’t be crossed. EvenS
ix years ago Jimmy Carr
agreed to ride a jet ski
through the harbour at
Whitby as part of a television
show I was making. To make
the day as painless as
possible, we said we’d fly
him to and from Yorkshire in
a helicopter. And, as Jimmy’s
a kindly soul, he phoned the
night before the shoot, suggesting that
he brought AA Gill along. Adrian was
grey-faced with cancer at that stage, but
Jimmy knew that he loved Whitby’s fish
and chips and thought that sitting on the
sea wall, eating them out of newspaper,
would cheer him up.
And so the next day I opened my
motorhome’s door, and there were
Jimmy and Adrian. “Hello,” said Jimmy
brightly. “It’s the Variety Sunshine
Coach party.” This made Adrian laugh.
Later, on the sea wall, we started to
talk about television, and Adrian said
he’d just started watching Vikings on
Amazon Prime. “Vikings?” asked Jimmy.
“Bit ambitious. It’s a ten-parter, isn’t it?”
That’s probably the meanest thing you
could say to someone with cancer, and
yet Adrian didn’t just laugh. He guffawed
so hard, some fish came out of his nose.
Adrian died a few weeks later, and
when we arrived in the church he was
lying in the chancel in a wicker coffin. It
was desperately sad and everyone was
heartbroken. But again the mood was
improved by Jimmy, who walked in and
said: “That’s perfect for a food critic.
He’s in a hamper.”
Jimmy, then, doesn’t just machinegun
off-colour jokes into the heads of live
audiences. He’s happy in private to use a
sniper rifle, targeting individuals. It’s
what he does. It’s what he was born to
do. He makes people laugh, and that, in
my book, is the single kindest thing one
human being can do to another.
Of course, if you are a Gypsy you mayJimmy Carr filming in Whitby, and the town’s fish and chipsAA Gill was in a
wicker coffin.
‘The food critic’s
in a hamper,’
Jimmy said
not find the much-talked-about Netflix
joke about Gypsies funny. But so what? It
was a joke, not a call to arms. Frankie
Boyle once made a joke about the brain
injury that Richard Hammond suffered
after one of his car accidents, and I know
Richard didn’t find it funny at all.
Neither did I. But that doesn’t mean he
shouldn’t have said it. Because “poor
taste” is a long way from “let’s invade
Poland”.*