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Many thanks to Picaroon for an outstanding Prize offering this week.
I really enjoyed this one: challenging (solidly above median Prize difficulty) but reasonably accessible, with a plethora of outstanding clues, several extremely funny.

First pass went slowly. FOI 23 and I gradually established a toe-hold in the SE quadrant.
LOI 24, a funny word I learned from crosswords some years ago.

COD a difficult choice due to embarrassment of riches. Co-winners 20 and 14, with 24 and 7 (not difficult but a nice misdirect) completing the podium. Clues 16d, 16a, 17, 15, 19, 22, 26, 11, 18 and 5 also excellent (yes, I enjoyed this one).

I suspect a theme of sorts, perhaps UK-oriented, but uncertain. Maybe a subsidiary theme as well.

Found the puzzle tricky, so difficult to suggest hints, can only refer to the SE quadrant comment above.

Hi geeker,
It certainly was a bit tricky in places. I fell for the trap in 14d, so it was my last in.
There seems to be a music theme with names, types and the odd other, almost Pauline, answers.
Great fun though.

Hi Geeker,

What a great puzzle from Picaroon - a true A-list setter on fine form, as usual.

I didn't find it overly difficult but there were a few clues where the parsing took a fair bit of unpacking.

If you do get stuck there are at least two long anagrams in the acrosses.

As I say, some very devious cluing like in 7d and 18d where close attention to detail is a must.

I had to check to make sure 24a is in Chambers and also that the required meaning of "barker" in 4d is there but, of course, they are:-)

As expected with Picaroon there are several COD contenders:-

12a and 6d for their wonderfully evocative wordplay and 14d and 23d for the way their definitions are wonderfully weaved into the clue, 9a, 15a and 22a also deserve a special mention.

Thanks to Picaroon for a lovely way to kick off the weekend.

Stay safe:-)

PS Geeker - What to you think of MC giving up his title?

Brendan, I'm not surprised by MC giving up his title. He announced before the Candidates T that he'd only defend the title if Firouzja emerged as challenger.

I understand the decision. IMO the chess WC match has become somewhat weird and unattractive; I find various rapid events much more fun to watch. The WC match has become all about training camps of several months duration in which incredible volumes of neural network recommended opening lines are memorized, incredibly tedious and pressure-packed. The play itself seems to be a matter of finding holes in the opponent's preparation. The most recent trend of gamesmanship is to play lines which are not the "computer's first line", but are tricky and difficult to refute; presumably the opponent is less likely to remember them.

Perhaps the computer really has "killed chess" at the highest level...but I can't imagine a switch to "shuffle chess" (e.g. Chess960 or "Fischerandom"), let alone other variants (e.g. "no-castle chess").

I believe high-level "professional chess" is going to move to ever-faster time controls.

Some great clues as mentioned, though quicker than usual for me. I had to look up 24 - clearly led a sheltered life.

Geeker, blast from the past - do you remember a US runner called Dave Wottle, who always wore a cap?

That was fun.

Hi Liz,

Definitely - Picaroon's puzzles are invariably top-notch, containing clever wordplay and wit, a winning combination in anyone's book:-)

I can’t parse 15a, any help welcome!

Hi Ian,

15a - You parse "America" as 3,2 then remove "European" from the first word.