It was Kasparov's worst result for ages, and Nigel Short's best for a long time. Here is his last-round demolition of Gulko's Caro-Kann. At the end, 31...Rg6 is met by 32.Rb6+ and 33.Qxh7+. Short-Gulko: 1 e4 c6 2 Ne2!? d5 3 e5 c5 4 d4 Nc6 5 c3 Bf5 6 ...

Sir: Your coverage (6 November) of the tragedy of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination contrasts with your coverage of other such tragedies in that there is no mention of religious terrorism. By contrast, you wrote without a shred of proof regarding the Okl...

Sir: Robert Fisk is quite right; there always has been a terrorist streak in Israeli society ("Arabs who want peace say Israel must face its own fundamentalists", 6 November). In 1944, while Britain was still engaged in a bloody war against Nazi Germ...

Sir: Edward Lister ("Choice begins in the nursery", 3 November) proves that the language of Wandsworth council is indeed unique. His vision of lots of happy parents shopping around with their nursery vouchers until they have found exactly the right n...

Sir: Stephen Ward's interesting "Judges vs the Government" (News Analysis, 3 November) cites judges against politicians on seven criteria: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. His conclusion is that ...

Sir: Tony Blair should tread warily over the railway sell-off. Privatisation schemes have a hidden purpose. They widen the ownership of shares and, at the following general election, confront the shareholders with a new prospect: if the Conservatives...

Sir: Your correspondent has missed half the point of meals on wheels. Until recently, following a stroke, my mother received the excellent meals- on-wheels service of the London borough of Haringey. For me the huge advantage of this was that every da...

The age of political heroism is not over, and as British and Irish leaders return from paying tribute to an assassinated peacemaker in Israel, it is worth dwelling on the lessons of these three attempts at reconciliation. They share striking similari...

What should a newsreader do when he or she is reading out an item about himself or herself? For instance, if Trevor McDonald is appointed to head a unit dedicated to improving the standard of English, or Julia Somerville is questioned about the photo...

But what cannot be right is that having reported a suspicion, the matter is splashed all over the papers the next day. Who couldn't resist letting the tabloids know: the police? Someone at Boots? Whoever it was, the upshot is that Ms Somerville and h...

"Dammit," I cried. "Am I not a woman? And do I not know in chronological order the names of all Elizabeth Taylor's husbands?" But then I realised that Miss Taylor might find that litany useful should she write her autobiography, so it didn't qualify....

Sir: Perhaps it is time for a minister, who has had some experience in 40 years of dealing with requests for marriage, including the second marriage of divorced persons, to say something about the present campaign to save the institution from the all...

Sir: One can only condemn the brutal assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. A veteran of many wars, he was also a man of vision who could see the prospects for peace and was prepared to pay a high price for it, if necessary. But this price was too high. A t...

North 4A J 9 4 !J 10 6 #8 6 2 2A J 4 West East 46 5 4K Q 7 3 !A 8 7 5 3 !9 2 #7 5 #Q J 10 9 3 2K 10 9 2 28 3 South 410 8 2 !K Q 4 #A K 4 2Q 7 6 5 In this hand South opened One No-trump (12-14 points) and North tried a Stayman Two Clubs. South bid Two...

Sir: The plight of Julia Somerville [arrested over allegedly indecent photographs of her seven-year-old daughter] is unfortunately not unique. As the author of a research paper presented to the Home Office, The Law Society, and Scotland Yard on the "...

At the immediate policy level, Labour has consulted much more widely than in the past before formulating policy. The information superhighway document produced by Chris Smith, for example, followed a "policy forum" in which Labour frontbenchers took ...

Sir: When Jewish blood is shed, every Jew mourns. What brought us into existence, in 1948, as a people with a homeland was a unity and passion for the religion. We made ourselves a people and a nation, Israel became our crown and power. By the power ...

The Government and most Conservative MPs want to keep the financial affairs of backbenchers under wraps. They argue that, as long as MPs are not indulging in "paid advocacy" - furthering the interests of the companies that pay them by influencing leg...

The peace rally at which he died was a perfect illustration of the strategy. Tens of thousands of Israeli supporters of the peace process stood in Tel Aviv's main square, singing and chanting for peace. In a side street stood stood a huddle of right-...

Labour, purified by 16 years in opposition, simply cannot lose. The public wants to hear what Mr Blair and his sidekicks will spend all day saying: the Tories have something to hide. Yes folks: the Conservative Party is riddled with corruption. Every...

Sir: I find Sir Paul Condon's letter (30 October) both flattering and distressing. Flattering because the Commissioner must obviously feel the addition of one full-time female representative would help to solve all the problems of harassment and disc...

Genetically engineered tortoises may, according to Fiona and John Earle, operate civil engineering sites and save money on hard hats. They also mention an ancient Roman idea to harness the destructive potential of the angry tortoise as a precursor to...