English Chess Forum

Compound is a mixture, Top chess player is master so a mixture/anagram of master....stream?

'Top' could be a ref to a circus top, circuses have animals that are tamed by (another anagram of master) Tamers.

Colin - the Spectator can be very obscure so you may have it.

Geoff - ingenious, and maybe better than the real answer!

Harry Duff wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 3:13 pm

Colin - the Spectator can be very obscure so you may have it.

Geoff - ingenious, and maybe better than the real answer!

I think Geoff is exaggerating the twisted minds of cryptic clue setters.

Mind you, I can't solve it but am amused by the thought of (Diez del) Corral. Remember him?

My thoughts are ace=top and Tal=chess player, so acetal. I'd want some letters verified before putting it in the grid, though.

Yes, acetal. Took me a while to get it, even after getting the a, e and l from other clues.

I'd never get acetal - admittedly I know a lot of chemicals... For our younger readers, it's now called polyoxymethylene.

Great clue though, although I wonder how many people would remember Tal.

I know these cryptic clues are like chess problems where it is considered very bad form
if you have a piece or pawn on the board that plays no part at all in the solution.

In a cryptic clue every word has to play it's part. The knack is knowing all the trick link terms.
I know a few (a very few) Top can = ace never even gelled and every chess player knows of Tal
but it's asking a bit too much for the general public to know.

I wrote to the Metro years ago when they first did crosswords that they used too many anagrams
and clues relating to list D celebs. Think I'll fire off a letter (I still write letters!) to the Spectator.

Just gave Mrs C. a non-player a, quick name some chess players test. ' Kasparov, Carlsen, Karpov and...Tal!'

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:49 pm

Compound is a mixture

In crossword-land, maybe, just maybe. Not so to a chemical physics graduate!

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:03 pm

I'd never get acetal - admittedly I know a lot of chemicals... For our younger readers, it's now called polyoxymethylene.

It can also mean a type of constituent part of certain organic compounds (I know that's not scientifically accurate, but I didn't want to confuse matters by using terms like "moiety", "substituent", etc.)

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:08 pm

Sunday Times Cryptic 20th June 2021

IM isn't seen sat playing with a GM (7, 7)

The solution has nothing to do with chess but the clue is very chessy.

The definition is IM and 'playing' indicates an anagram of 'isnt seen sat a gm'. I was stuck on this for ages because I thought IM not GM was part of the anagram. Therefore I thought GM was the definition and was looking either for the name of a GM (that would have been amazing) or something to do with crops.

The first word begins with I and the second with M.

That ambiguity might be frowned upon by some crossword purists. I think this particular example is just about legit (although the second word of the answer, as far as I can tell, usually takes the form ending with -ing). The ones that get my goat are where the solution is a sequence of letters that make a word when read either way round, and it's impossible to deduce from the rest of the clue which of them is correct.

A rather easier one from today's Telegraph:

Perhaps corner rook or knight? (3,5)

I hasten to add that I am a Guardian reader who gets the Telegraph crossword online - I love the Matt cartoon as well but otherwise I am not a fan of the newspaper and its political views!

Gordon Morse wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:25 am

I hasten to add that I am a Guardian reader

So you are one of those "people who think they ought to run the country" (Hacker) and feel it necessary to make us aware of the fact?

Latest CHESS - August 2021 (page 23)...



...has a cryptic chess crossword.

But be careful, the solutions are printed out in full on the crossword on page 57.
( as opposed to just having the across and down solutions in a text.)
I did not expect to see it and unwittingly I picked up a few answers before hastily closing the mag.
13 Across: Learns about problems (7) is one I would have got quite quickly got but I saw the answer.
The book adverts on pages 56 + 57 will stay unread till after I've done the crossword.

PDF selection of the August 2021 CHESS. It does not include the crossword or the solutions.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0478/ ... 1627914281

It does have a couple of pages on Andrew Smith ('a therms wind' - made anagram of Andrew's name to stay on topic.)

First one for a while in today's Times; "Head off man on board, getting better drink (8)"

Had me for a while until other clues showed that the last letter was P.

One of the better (!) ones.

Simon Brown wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 03, 2021 5:54 pm

First one for a while in today's Times; "Head off man on board, getting better drink (8)"

Had me for a while until other clues showed that the last letter was P.

Got this one because I do that crossword most days, but I have given up on Gordon Morse's Telegraph one in his July 16 post:

Perhaps corner rook or knight? (3,5)

Answer, please?