Constructor: Jack Reuter
Relative difficulty: Medium (perhaps harder if you're not familiar with chess or chess notation)
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THEME: CHESS — The middle of the grid represents a chessboard with "pieces" set up such that "white" can achieve checkmate on its next move.
INSTRUCTIONS: The center of this puzzle represents a 70-Down/55-Down, in which you can achieve a 122-Across by moving the 25-Across.
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: COWBIRD (98A: Brown-headed nest appropriator) —
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• • •Greetings, Crossworld, and Happy Independence Day Weekend! This is Don McBrien, who is very happy to return as your guest blogger, this time for an extra-large (22 x 22) Sunday puzzle. The unusual size of the grid is to accommodate the 8 x 8 "chessboard" section in the middle, which certainly jumps out at you upon first looking at the puzzle. I have to admit that upon seeing that jumble in the middle of the grid, I was not optimistic about enjoying this puzzle. It just seemed a little too un-crosswordy. Upon reading the instruction, I had a pretty good idea what would be going on, but I was still not looking forward to getting to all those circles and triangles.
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I was tearing through the upper third of the grid, until I came to KNIGHT TO B...where I got hung up for a while. I was looking for KNIGHT TO BISHOP [number], but that would not fit. Once I got SEEN IT (great clue!), the rest of the top fell. I am a bit surprised at this theme answer. I suspect that many NYT Crossword solvers know how to play chess, or are at least familiar with the basics, but are casual players familiar with chess notation? For example, you have to know that N stands for Knight (since K is reserved for King). That strikes me as something that only more serious players might understand well enough to appreciate in a puzzle. And this answer is critical to the theme as it sets up the revealer CHECKMATE IN ONE. That is another awkward entry - I had guessed that "achieve a 122-Across" would mean CHECKMATE, so I was a bit flummoxed when I had five spaces left over.
I found the middle of the grid difficult just because with the shaded squares, black squares, circles, triangles, and bold lines, that whole section is too busy, making it harder to tell (on my computer screen at least) how long the entries were. Luckily I knew what was going on and was able to force my way through it, but forcing my way through a puzzle is not the most enjoyable way to experience it. And once that section is complete, all of the non-chess-piece letters and solid black squares clog things up so that it takes a bit of mental effort to follow the "game" and actually see the checkmate. The theme is ambitious, and I guess it "works," but as a solver and casual chess player (at best), the solving experience was not awesome.
I enjoyed some of the longer fill answers. FREE TO GO, TIKI BAR and AUNTIE EM particularly. But there is a good amount of glue here too. ECO, EXO, CTO, AKU, MEH and its cousin BAH. ENOTE and EZINE (perhaps 88A could be clued as "Rest areas on the information superhighway" and 88D as "Cry for IT assistance"). And ANASS...Spent a good minute trying to recall a Biblical character named Anass.
Finally, and I feel like I'm piling on a bit here, the puzzle had a number of unpleasant clues and answers. Specifically, SEPPUKU (grim), ABSCESS (gross) and WINOS (insensitive), however, it was 130A AMPUTEE that really turned me off. It's tricky to work this answer tastefully into a puzzle at all, but to clue it with respect to two specific individuals, using their positions as Senators as misdirection, was just off-putting to me. As though they are defined by their loss of limbs - an answer in a crossword puzzle does not define someone, but it does seem to say "this is what is notable about these two people."
So not my favorite NYT Sunday puzzle ever, but perhaps your experience was different. Please share in the comments section. Thanks again to Rex for letting me drive while he is on vacation. Enjoy the rest of your Independence Day weekend!
[Check out my website forum devoted to "meta"-style crosswords at metaXword.com]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (perhaps harder if you're not familiar with chess or chess notation)
INSTRUCTIONS: The center of this puzzle represents a 70-Down/55-Down, in which you can achieve a 122-Across by moving the 25-Across.
Theme answers:
- KNIGHT TO B EIGHT (25A: See instructions)
- BLACK (31A: Side represented by triangles)
- CHESSBOARD (55D, 70D: See instructions)
- WHITE (116A: Side represented by circles)
- CHECKMATE IN ONE (122A: See instructions)
Word of the Day: COWBIRD (98A: Brown-headed nest appropriator) —
I found the middle of the grid difficult just because with the shaded squares, black squares, circles, triangles, and bold lines, that whole section is too busy, making it harder to tell (on my computer screen at least) how long the entries were. Luckily I knew what was going on and was able to force my way through it, but forcing my way through a puzzle is not the most enjoyable way to experience it. And once that section is complete, all of the non-chess-piece letters and solid black squares clog things up so that it takes a bit of mental effort to follow the "game" and actually see the checkmate. The theme is ambitious, and I guess it "works," but as a solver and casual chess player (at best), the solving experience was not awesome.
I enjoyed some of the longer fill answers. FREE TO GO, TIKI BAR and AUNTIE EM particularly. But there is a good amount of glue here too. ECO, EXO, CTO, AKU, MEH and its cousin BAH. ENOTE and EZINE (perhaps 88A could be clued as "Rest areas on the information superhighway" and 88D as "Cry for IT assistance"). And ANASS...Spent a good minute trying to recall a Biblical character named Anass.
Finally, and I feel like I'm piling on a bit here, the puzzle had a number of unpleasant clues and answers. Specifically, SEPPUKU (grim), ABSCESS (gross) and WINOS (insensitive), however, it was 130A AMPUTEE that really turned me off. It's tricky to work this answer tastefully into a puzzle at all, but to clue it with respect to two specific individuals, using their positions as Senators as misdirection, was just off-putting to me. As though they are defined by their loss of limbs - an answer in a crossword puzzle does not define someone, but it does seem to say "this is what is notable about these two people."
So not my favorite NYT Sunday puzzle ever, but perhaps your experience was different. Please share in the comments section. Thanks again to Rex for letting me drive while he is on vacation. Enjoy the rest of your Independence Day weekend!
[Check out my website forum devoted to "meta"-style crosswords at metaXword.com]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]