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I overlooked the great Chuky! Back in the 1990s I was an active correspondence player and read Informator. Ivanchuk's 21. Qg7!! vs. Shirov is permanently lodged in my brain. Pity about Vasyl's bad nerves. I've watched him play banter blitz a couple of times and it's really a treat to hear him rattle off long variations.
I find rapid/blitz chess much more entertaining to watch than classical. Missed mates in 1, though embarrassing, aren't rare in blitz.
[OK, no more off-topic chess posts from me!]

Definitely on the tough side, but got there in the end. Last time Vlad set the prize was early January (the one with “Nancy’s posh residence” which sparked some debate I recall) and it was the same grid as today.
I did think that in 1d ‘taking a’ would work better than ‘making a’. This word or something similar has come up recently. As has 15d I think.
Cheers all

Not been at this long and nowhere near finished yet. Just posting this as a cautionary tale. In 5d if resort is used in its other crossword meaning there is another perfectly acceptable solution. Which has had me stuck in the NE corner for a while now until I realised.

Hi Jono,

Re 1d, I see what you mean - "taking in" would be a much clearer instruction to include the A.

Just seen the parsing of 18 @6, many thanks Brendan, I hadn’t quite got there on that one!

Now just realising even my wrong answer for 5d doesn't actually work after all. I'm having a mare with this so far.

Odd one for me. The top and sides flew in, but the bottom crawled. I think I am going to have to give up on 25a - even the hints rang no bells.

Google to the rescue! Never heard of him.

I enjoyed that even though I didn;t finish. For me it was one of those that slowly revelas itself, and after a few visits.

I managed all except 15d (didn't know the word) and although I got a word to fit with the crossers in 25a (and with the anagram fodder), I never thought it could be the answer until hints on here and then googling with the right words.

Thanks for the hints

minty

Many thanks for all the hints on here. With their help I've been able to understand a number of clues (eg 21a and 20d) where the wordplay was too contrived for me to reverse engineer from the solution. That leaves me 25a, where I've found an answer and an anagram to fit it but not the "very well hidden" definition!