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42 Articles

SWALLOWED BY THE SERPENT! This word-eating snake has struck again! The only clues in this puzzle are the letters in the bulges. Each answer consists of three words that share the letters you’ll enter in the empty squares. In the example below, the letters T and N fill the empty squares to make AUTUMN, PYTHON, and OPTION. In addition, the last letter of each word is the same as the first letter of the next word. These ending/beginning letters are indicated by the squares with curved sides. SWALLOWED BY THE SERPENT!…

R. Wayne Schmittberger, who served as editor in chief of Games from 1993 to 2014, passed away on February 19, 2024 at the age of 74. Wayne’s passing was a tremendous loss not only to those who knew and loved him—including his two daughters, Teresa Kim Harrold and Bonnie Lee Marlow, and three grandchildren—but to the world of games and puzzles at large. I first met Wayne in 1998, on the day after Thanksgiving, when I came to the Games offices in suburban Philadelphia to interview for a job as a crossword editor. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a handful of dead-end jobs, I had plenty of interest but no relevant experience…and no idea what to expect from the interview. As soon as Wayne introduced himself, I felt…

Each answer in this crossword variation has two clues leading to it, using different meanings of the word. The clues are separated into Across and Down, but are otherwise ordered randomly. When you find two Across or two Down clues that seem to have the same answer, add up their clue numbers to determine the place in the grid at which the answer should be entered. For example, if the clue for 1-Across were “Metallic element” and the clue for 17-Across read “Starring role,” the answer would be LEAD, which would go in 18-Across (1 + 17). Tags such as “Hyph.” and “2 wds.” have been omitted. ACROSS 1 Lottery event 2 Word of possibility 3 Wile E. Coyote’s preferred supplier 4 Three miles, roughly 5 Strength 6 Purveyor of Footlong sandwiches 7 Chewing gum brand 8 Achieve recognition 9 Rod’s…

There is one place for each letter of the alphabet in the 26 empty squares of each blank column in the diagram below. Fill in each letter so that a word of at least five letters is formed reading across only. Not all of the letters to the left and right of the empty box are used; it’s up to you to determine which ones are needed to complete familiar words. Some letters may fit in more than one of the empty squares to complete words, but we only came up with one arrangement that would complete a word in each row. Proper names are not allowed. 52-SKIDDOO…

TRAVELING SHOWMEN

ACROSS 1 Map book 6 Lucky Jim author Kingsley 10 It guarantees bank funds: Abbr. 14 Earthenware vessel 15 Fodder tower 16 Plumb ___ (crazy) 17 Time-traveling Back to the Future guy: 2 wds. 19 Got 100% on a test 20 “Ich bin ___ Berliner” 21 St. Bernard’s comment 22 No Exit author Jean-Paul 24 The Daily Show host Jon 26 Fossil-science prefix 27 Before, poetically 28 Witch’s huge cooking pot 31 Packing a pistol 34 Posh, as a restaurant 35 Bitterly ironic, as humor 36 21-Across, in other words 37 Squander 38 Roller coaster rider’s cry 39 Backtalk 40 Components 41 Give a leg up to 42 Classy refinement 44 Above, in poems 45 Conservative skirt type: Hyph. 46 Study of nouns and verbs 50 Poolside bathhouse 52 Undisputed truth 53 “Four score and seven years ___…” 54 Love, in La Mancha 55 Time-traveling movie adventurers: 3 wds. 58 Margin 59 Lake seen from Toledo 60 “Granny” Ryan from The Beverly Hillbillies 61 Ebonies and ivories 62…

TRAVELING SHOWMEN

TWO-WAY REBUSES

The goal of these puzzles is to make words containing letter sequences represented by a picture. For example, a picture of an bus would represent the letters B-U-S. When the image is reversed, so are the letters—meaning that if the image of the bus were facing the other direction, it would then represent S-U-B. The colored squares represent the other letters in the word; they are coded as shown in the key accompanying each puzzle. PUZZLE ONE SAME COLOR, SAME LETTER PUZZLE TWO UNIQUE LETTERS SAME COLOR, SAME LETTER PUZZLE THREE UNIQUE LETTER SAME COLOR, SAME LETTER TWO-WAY REBUSES PUZZLE 1: Scat, cattle, locate, catch, ducat, educate, contact, attack, attach, tentacle, tactics, tackle, intact. PUZZLE 2: Spot, potato, teapot, stop, topless, laptop. PUZZLE 3: Sunset, sundae, tsunami, minus, menus, unused, sinus.…

TWO-WAY REBUSES

To solve Quote Boxes, drop the letters from each vertical column—not necessarily in the order in which they appear—into the empty squares below them to spell a quotation reading from left to right, line by line. Words may continue from one line to the next; black squares indicate ends of words. The author of each quote is given above its grid. 1. SLOANE CROSLEY 2. IAN BOGOST 3. ELAINE SCARRY QUOTE BOXES 1. Naturally, one would like everything to be high art but that desire can leave you with no art. —Sloane Crosley 2. Play cultivates humility, for it requires us to treat things as they are rather than as we wish them to be. —Ian Bogost 3. When we come upon beautiful things they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through…

BATTLE OF THE SIXES

This puzzle will test your "six" sense! Fill the 71 six-letter words and phrases listed below into the grid so that they intersect in standard crossword fashion. When the puzzle is solved correctly, each word will be used exactly once. STARTING HINT, PAGE 77 ADIEUX AMAZED AMAZON AVA MAX AZALEA BE TRUE BIG HIT BORZOI CHAVEZ CHINTZ COMPAQ CONVEX DAZZLE DIM SUM DREXEL DR. PHIL DR. RUTH EDICTS EFFLUX ELF GOD EL GIZA EX-CZAR EXOTIC FIZGIG FOZZIE GRAZER HUMERI IODIZE ISTHMI IZZARD JAZZED LA-Z-BOY LIBRAL MARGIN MENDEZ MY DEAR NO IDEA OGLE AT OLD SOD OUGHTA PFIZER PIZAZZ POP CDS PRETAX PUZZLE QUARTZ QUININ REBECS ROBOTO SHERIE SLEAZY SNEEZE TERRIF ULTIMA UNZIPS UP LEFT XZIBIT ZAFTIG ZAGREB ZEPHYR ZIGZAG ZINCKY ZINNIA ZIPLOC ZIRCON ZITHER ZOMBIE ZOOIDS ZOOM IN ZOUNDS ZURICH BATTLE OF THE SIXES STARTING HINT: BATTLE OF THE SIXES The first word across is COMPAQ.…

BATTLE OF THE SIXES

“The ants go marching one by one…” All of the words and phrases listed below contain the consecutive letters A-N-T. Find them in the grid, circling each one as you go; they are hidden horizontally, vertically, and diagonally (always in a straight line). When you come to the sequence A-N-T, replace those letters in the grid with an ant icon. Can you find all the ants before they go marching into your house? ASKANT BANTAM CANTABILE CANTINA CHANTY CLAIRVOYANT CONSTANTIA CONTESTANT COSECANT COURANTE DEPRESSANTS DURANTE FANTASY MOVIE I CAN’T REMEMBER I CAN’T WIN I SHAN’T I WANT YOU BACK MAN THE GUNS MUTANTS NEW SLANT NIANTIC OCCUPANT PICANTE PULSANT REGRANTING SANTO DOMINGO SANTORA SCANTILY SURVEILLANT TANTAMOUNT TENANTABLE U.S. GRANT VACANT LOT VANTAGE ANT PILE…

The object of this solitaire challenge is to guess a word before making six incorrect guesses, as in a familiar childhood game. To begin, choose any letter of the alphabet that you think might appear in word I below. Suppose you pick E. Go to the Letter Chart on the facing page and find the number listed in row E of column I (because you are working on word I). The number is 30; you now look at box number 30 in the Position Chart (to the right of the Letter Chart) and find the number 8. This means that the letter E occurs in the eighth position (and nowhere else) in word I. If a letter occurs more than once in a word, the Position Chart will show all its…

This puzzle turns in two directions. The spiral’s Inward clues yield a sequence of words to be entered counterclockwise in the spaces from 1 to 100. The Outward clues yield a different set of words to be entered clockwise from 100 to 1. Keep track of which way you’re going, and have many happy returns. INWARD 1-6 Courtroom figures, for short 7-12 Way past ripe 13-17 First Greek letter 18-22 Andean pack animal 23-27 Trauma pro: 2 wds. 28-33 Like overly old olive oil 34-38 Mideast bigwig: Var. 39-44 Dive with a back somersault 45-49 Official religion of Saudi Arabia 50-54 Masterless samurai 55-61 Musical style of Scott Joplin 62-65 Commuting option 66-72 Flow out from a source 73-77 Dracula, at times 78-83 Word with coaster or derby 84-90 The Barber of Seville composer 91-95 Disney’s Lady and the ___ 96-100 Repelled a mugger with spray OUTWARD 100-95 Pack up the…

Below are seven messages—pithy sayings, fascinating facts, and a cartoon gag—that have been translated into simple cipher alphabets. Letter substitutions remain constant throughout any one cipher, but change from one cipher to the next; the level of difficulty increases as you progress. An asterisk (*) indicates a proper noun or title. 1. CRYPTOON 2. GOOD QUEEN FUN 3. EXIT THE KING 4. ONE FOR THE RODENT 5. FIN-ISH LINE 6. TATERED AND TORN 7. CATS AMORE TIPS AND CLUES Cipher 1: F stands for either A or I; try the latter. Cipher 2: The letters-VYP appear at the end of four words and like lyre present-ING. Cipher 3: Cipher text EA. represents a common title used for men. Cipher 4: The last two letters of contraction BFJP’UJ are likely RE or VE; try the former. Cipher 5: The word VXI after the comma…

AT SIXES AND SEVENS

Every answer in this puzzle has 6 or 7 letters and fits into the white boxes that surround the clue number. Each answer is filled in either clockwise (+) or counterclockwise (–). Where two answers share a common border, the letters on opposite sides of the border always match. When a rectangle borders a pair of squares, exactly one of the letters from the two squares is the same as the letter in the rectangle. Answer 1 and parts of answers 2 and 5 are shown as an example. 1. Prosper (–) 2. Astronomer’s measurement (+) 3. Powerful ocean current (–) 4. String instrument played by plucking (–) 5. November 11 honoree (+) 6. Rough partner? (+) 7. Country where many Flemish folk live (–) 8. Character from Winnie-the-Pooh (–) 9. A word to ___: 2 wds. (+) 10. FedEx…

AT SIXES AND SEVENS

This puzzle gives you two grids for the price of one. And two sets of clues to go with them, so you can work both crosswords at the same time. What’s the catch? Each clue number is followed by two different clues to two different answers. The puzzle is to figure out which answer goes with which grid. 1-Across has been filled in for you. ACROSS 1 Native of Tehran, before 1935… …and after 1935 8 Beast star Elba Post-seminar sesh: 3 wds. 13 Parched: Hyph. Ingredient in nail polish removers 14 Totally suppress Voting factions 15 Distinguished “Let’s be reasonable…”: 2 wds. 16 Drawn-out dramas Former veep Agnew 17 Marriott rival Fled to wed 18 Underwrite Mop brand: Hyph. 19 Scoundrel One-million linkup: 2 wds. 20 Muppet with his own “world” Region 22 Decimal base Vietnamese New Year 23 Dane’s neighbor Lion…

WWW.CONCEPTISPUZZLES.COM The six puzzles on this page are solitaire versions of the classic paper-and-pencil game of Battleships. Each grid represents a section of ocean in which a fleet is hiding. This fleet consists of one battleship (four grid cells in length), two cruisers (three cells each), three destroyers (two cells each), and four submarines (one cell each). The ships may be oriented either horizontally or vertically, and no two ships can occupy adjacent grid cells, not even diagonally. The digits along the grid’s perimeter indicate the number of cells in the corresponding rows and columns that are occupied by vessels. You’ll notice that some “shots” have been taken to start you off. These may show water (indicated by wavy lines), a complete sub (a circle), the bow or stern of a ship…

CHESS CHESS MAZE You are the white King trying to get from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, via the most direct path. Navigate through the stationary black pieces, who face downwards, one square at a time in any direction. You can never move into check, but you may capture unguarded pieces to clear your path. Are you equal to the Royal Challenge? —KEN “AJ” FEUCHT WORDPLAY 3D PUZZLE What do all these words have in common? —DAVID BASKIND TEASERS “HAMLET” MADE EASY Aside from being one of the most famous quotes in literature, the Bard’s words, “To be, or not to be” each share something in common. Pray, what could it be? —SCOTT ERDMAN FOR THE RECORD UNRELATED In each instance, you are given three first names of famous, real* people. Inasmuch as possible, they are…

It’s 2 am, and everyone in town is asleep. Time for a bank heist! Enter the bank through the vent (lower left) and find a safe path to the vault (upper right) without tripping any of the lasers. Lasers always originate from one of the four walls, and every row or column contains one or two laser beams. The numbered pairs outside the grid indicate the length of laser beam segments in the corresponding row or column, but not necessarily the correct order. For example, a row with clue (2,3) means there is a laser two squares long on the left side and three squares long on the right side, or vice versa. You are agile enough to duck through squares with a single laser beam, but you will trigger the alarm…

This word search is a bit different than ones you’ve done before, in that it’s missing, well… words. All of the letters have been removed from the grid. Your first job is to determine which words belong in the circled spaces. They all fit a common theme, but there is one glaring omission. (Hint: you may want to count them). The omitted word is the solution to the contest. Happy searching! FIRST PRIZE $100 5 RUNNER-UP PRIZES: A ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES To enter, send the contest solution, along with your name and address, to: Word…Search? Contest, GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES, P.O. Box 184, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Entries may be sent in an envelope or written on the back of a postcard or envelope. You may send as many…

FROM OCTOBER This contest was a mashup of cryptograms and Mixed Doubles. You had to start by decoding the clues, which were translated into a simple cipher alphabet (the same cipher was used throughout the clues). The decoded clues are shown below, along with their answers. After decoding the clues, the next step was to find pairs of Across clues or pairs of Down clues that seemed to have the same answer. You then had to add up their clue numbers to determine the place in the grid at which the answer should be entered. When the grid was completed correctly as shown below, the final step was to apply the cipher alphabet used in the clues to the shaded spaces at 33-Across (COMEDY ACT) to spell a relevant word, which turned…

ONE, TWO, THREE

Solve this puzzle as you would a regular crossword, except that each space may hold one, two, or three letters. The number of letters in a space is for you to determine, using logic and the crossing of words. The answer to 1-Across, S-CR-IMP, has been filled in as an example. ACROSS 1 Pinch pennies 4 Dark films, informally 8 Easter Sunday actress Tia 12 Sheriff’s group 13 Illuminated like a solarium 14 Lined up, militarily: 2 wds. 15 Crusty end of a loaf of bread 16 Birthday cake topper 17 After, in Amiens 18 1964 holiday TV special with a title animal: 4 wds. 21 Totally tearing down 22 Natural response 23 Create toothed edges in 24 Dwell on excessively, as a point 27 Piercing with a horn, e.g. 28 Filmmaking technique used for 18- and 42-Across: 2 wds. 31 Struck with horns, e.g. 34 Cowboy flick 35 Somewhat:…

ONE, TWO, THREE

IF you've been following this column since its start, you've probably become fairly confident with your logic skills. After all, the strategy of determining absolutes, eliminating the impossible, and reducing candidates to determine an answer has served us well for all puzzle formats to this point, and repetition is the key to mastery, right? Well, let me introduce you to Pipe Link, made popular by the Japanese puzzle publication, Nikoli. Our solving strategy still applies, but this loop puzzle will force you to think in a new direction, since the rules allow the loop to cross itself, which was not allowed in our previous loop puzzles (Yajilin, Slitherlink, Snake, Mid Loop and Nekkuresu). READ the rules and study the example before attempting the puzzles. If you need some solving hints, I’ve…

A Fresh Look At Crosswordese

David Bukszpan’s recent book, Crosswordese: A Guide to the Weird and Wonderful Language of Crossword Puzzles, may change your mind about those 3- and 4-letter words solvers love to hate, like ORT and ESNE. Bukszpan not only has a unique take on them, he also provides numerous examples spread across 10 categories, including Anatomy and Sports, all illustrated with clues taken from published puzzles. In the Q&A below, conducted via email, he shares his thoughts about answers usually dismissed as mere fill. Raymond Simon: Your new book is a veritable defense of crosswordese. I think it’s safe to say that, within the “cruciverse,” you hold a contrarian viewpoint. How did that come to be? David Bukszpan: Maybe I’m just contrarian by nature, because I think even my defense of crosswordese is essentially a…

A Fresh Look At Crosswordese

ACROSS 1 Fundamentals 5 Up in the air, briefly 8 Sings 13 Dinghy-type thingy 14 Yesteryear 16 Be an omen of 17 Cornell of Cornell 18 A year like this one 19 Drug cops 20 “Whether a reader QUITE SLOBBERS at these original recipes… 23 Former Caucasian 24 Moo ___ pork 25 Vitals checker 28 Windy City setting 31 “…or wants to REWORD CONCH or some other ingredient… 35 Words with “crossroads” or “dead end” 36 She’s briefly seen with a snake in “The Lego Movie,” briefly 37 Visiting, as a team 38 Priest’s frequent companion in jokes 40 “Weekend Edition” airer, initially 42 They’re done while bearing it 43 “The Motorcycle Song” singer Guthrie 44 Man, in Italy 46 Holiday in Hanoi 47 “…and since there’s NO CHEF IN, NOR a line cook… 51What some hands on faces show, for short 52 Tee preceder 53 Monopoly quartet: Abbr. 54 Light wts. 56 “…DO CHECK ONLINE (or in these clues)…

A Scrabble Champion’s DREAMS AND LIVESTREAMS

Josh Sokol is on top of the North American Scrabble scene right now. The 30-year-old Montrealer is the reigning National Champion, having won NASPA’s biggest honor, the Scrabble Players Championship (SPC) in July 2023. Including that feat, Josh has won seven of the last 11 multi-day events he’s entered, where each and every one featured a field of many top players. Not surprisingly, Josh also currently has the highest NASPA rating in North America. And he’s a full-time Scrabble streamer. So, how did Josh reach this apex? Thankfully, he was willing to walk us through his journey. What got you into Scrabble? As a child I lived in Brooklyn, New York, and attended a chess club there. I suspect I’d have gotten more into chess if I had stayed in NY. Games…

A Scrabble Champion’s DREAMS AND LIVESTREAMS

PLAY ALONG WITH JOSH! Each of these words was played by Josh in a tournament game. Can you find the highest-scoring play that uses all seven of your tiles? PUZZLE 1 PUZZLE 2 PUZZLE 3 PUZZLE 4 Some of Josh’s Favorite Content https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5XJ12rNMB0 my latest production about crazy Scrabble History https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0MbU0CM6xms is a fun stream moment https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lkW6VDRqLh4 is the sort of bite-sized concepts I was talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzNsTPK3iiM is a more in-depth type of video—my streams will often feature long discussions about one position. Josh also puts every play from every tournament game he plays, with commentary, on www.cross-tables.com/annolistself.php SCRABBLE Puzzle 1: ONWARDS, 14H, 86 points Puzzle 2: YEARLONG 4F, 76 points Puzzle 3: COWRITTEN 2G, 82 points Puzzle 4: INTERVIEWER L3 90 points…

The Meeple Neighborhood

Game Kastle WHO: | Ken Ingram, Manager WHERE: College Park. Maryland |https://gamekastle.com/pages/college-park-md One afternoon back in 2001, after watching The Fellowship of the Ring, Ken Ingram entered his first game store, Games Workshop, located in a local mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland. It was there that Ken discovered his love of tabletop gaming. He also learned about Baltimore Battle Bunker, a game store with dozens of tables dedicated to gaming and the hobby world. On weekends, he spent countless hours playing one of his favorite games, Warhammer, with family and newfound friends. “That was my first gaming experience that meant something,” Ken, now manager of Game Kastle: College Park, tells me. “Every weekend, I would meet someone new and play them, and we had immediate access to something in common.” Not every game store filled…

The Meeple Neighborhood

ELECTRONIC GAME REVIEWS

ROLL-AND-WRITE BRAVO! DIGITAL EDITION OUTLINE DEVELOPMENT IOS/ANDROID: $4 ($24 TABLETOP) AGE RANGE: 4+ PLAY TIME: 10 MIN. PLAYERS: 1–2 A few years ago, veteran German designers Inka and Markus Brand took another pass at their roll- and write game Encore!, adding new ideas and deepening the play to create a tighter, more interesting experience. The result, Bravo!, was a success, and it follows Encore! to electronic platforms with Bravo! Digital Edition, from Outline Development. What it does, it does well, but like its predecessor, this port would benefit from a more robust feature set. In Bravo!, players check off differently colored boxes on a 15×7 grid, attempting to complete color blocks, columns, and rows as quickly as possible for maximum points. Each round, someone rolls a set of seven dice. Three of the dice feature colors and three…

ELECTRONIC GAME REVIEWS

TABLETOP GAME REVIEWS

CARD SCRAM! BEZIER GAMES, $10 ($2 ON IOS/ANDROID) AGE RANGE: 12+ PLAY TIME: 30 MIN. PLAYERS: 3, 4, OR 6 Forest critters have taken over your campsite, and it’s a rush against other campers to see who can drive them out the fastest. That’s a pretty thin premise, but it provides an opportunity for plenty of woodland creatures and a reason to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Scram! is reminiscent of other card shedding games from Ted Alspach and Bezier games, such as Cabo and Silver. In this one, players work in blind teams, much like they do in Contract Bridge. The game is primarily made for four people on two teams, but can expand to play with six people on three teams. (A special set of rules offers a three-player variant—two against one—but…

TABLETOP GAME REVIEWS

THE GAME OF PONY EXPRESS If we are anything alike, when you send an email you expect it to arrive instantaneously (and expect it to be answered in the blink of an eye). An email can travel halfway around the world in less than 0.2 seconds—literally faster than the blink of an eye. So we cannot conceive the excitement that this advertisement caused in 1860: 1,966 miles in 10 days That is what the Pony Express Service promised for delivery of mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Run by the freighting company Russell, Majors and Waddell, this extraordinary undertaking transfixed the American public and continues to live on in historic imagination. Before this system of intrepid riders and blazing horses, mail took at least 24 days to get to California, whether carried…

TRIVIALOGIC: ONE NIGHT ONLY

This is a classic logic puzzle, with one important difference: All the information in it is factual rather than fictional. If you already know any of the answers, you’ll have a head start in solving the puzzle—but if you don’t, you should be able to figure it out from the clues. Some Broadway musicals run not just for years, but for decades. Think of The Phantom of the Opera, which lasted on Broadway for 35 years, racking up an astounding 13,981 performances. However, some musicals land all the way over on the other side of the ledger. We’ve rounded up five notorious Broadway flops, each of which shut down after giving a single performance. Try to match each maladroit musical (one of which is Onward Victoria) with the year it opened…

TRIVIALOGIC: ONE NIGHT ONLY

Answer the clues on the numbered dashes, one letter per dash. Then transfer the letters on the dashes to the correspondingly numbered squares in the puzzle grid to reveal a quotation reading from left to right. (Black squares separate words.) When you’re done, read down the list of answers; their initial letters will spell the author’s name and the source of the quotation. DOUBLE CROSS A. KINKY BOOTS B. ABSALOM C. THOMAS WOLFE D. INTIMATE E. ETHNICITY F. SHREWISH G. PAUL KLEE H. AUDIO I. LIMIT J. DEPTH K. IMPERVIOUS L. NATION M. GWYNETH PALTROW N. ECTOPLASM O. DANTE P. INEFFICIENT Q. SHAME R. ORLANDO S. NEATEN T. SHEET U. GOLDEN HORDE V. HOWARD HAWKS W. OTTERS X. SLOWDOWN Y. TITLE Z. STATE Leonardo…insisted until his death that there was still more to do before [the Mona Lisa] was complete. Which kind of puts the painting in a new perspective—the most famous image in the world, and yet…

READER SURVEY RESULTS

Last November, we sent a Reader Survey via email to our subscribers. We also posted that survey online so that it would be available to all readers, including those who purchase GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES from a newsstand or bookstore. Our sincerest thanks to each and every one of you who responded. We received an impressive total of nearly 2,200 replies when the survey closed in February. All of the feedback you provided will help us make GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES better. We were delighted with your answers. Overall, GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES readers are engaged, loyal, and (we already knew it!) intelligent. You really like the magazine and want it to be as good as possible. On these two pages, you will find a summary of the responses we received to each…

PATIOS OF PENTOMINOES

The pentominoes are the 12 different shapes that you can make with 5 unit squares. They are often identified by the letters they resemble, as shown at right. In these problems, your goal is to cover the patios with the 12 different pentominoes, so that each pentomino contains each digit from 1 to 5. One pentomino has already been placed in each patio. How are the patios covered? Pentominoes may be rotated or reflected as needed. Hint: Start by trying to place either the I or the X pentomino. In some cases, they will have one or maybe two possible placements, and then it’s a process of trial and error. PATIOS OF PENTOMINOES…

PATIOS OF PENTOMINOES

PAINT BY NUMBERS

These nine puzzles feature a unique blend of logic and art. The numbers are all you need to determine which squares should be filled in to form a picture. Here’s how it’s done: The numbers outside each row and column tell you how many groups of black squares there are in that line and, in order, how many consecutive black squares there are in each group. For example, 4 5 9 2 tells you that there will be four groups that will contain, in order, 4, 5, 9, and 2 consecutive black squares. The fact that the numbers are separated tells you that there is at least one empty square between them. (There may also be empty squares at the ends of lines.) The trick is to figure out how many…

PAINT BY NUMBERS

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 1

Each clue in a cryptic crossword has two parts: a definition of the answer and an indication of the answer’s literal makeup via wordplay. Either half may come first; finding the dividing point between the two parts is the key to solving. On page 61, eight common methods by which hints are given via wordplay are described; any combination of these gimmicks may be used. Expect to see references to abbreviations (doctor for DR, Hawaii for HI, or university for U), chemical symbols (iron for Fe), Roman numerals (five for V), and parts of words (end of year for R, head of cabbage for C, or heart of stone for O). A clue with an exclamation point may be what’s called an & lit. clue, in which the two halves overlap,…

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 1

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 2

Anagrams: The answer appears in anagrammed form, preceded or followed by a word or phrase that suggests the mixing, as in Changing times for ITEMS. Deletions: Deletions come in three varieties: beheadments, curtailments, and internal deletions. The clue always contains a word or phrase indicating the deletion. Examples: Uncovered bent charm for ENCHANT, a beheadment of PENCHANT; Fiery bird without a tail for FLAMING, a curtailment of FLAMINGO; and Heartless miserly bloke for CHAP, an internal deletion of CHEAP. Charades: The answer is broken into smaller words that are clued individually, as in Auto animal for CARPET. Homophones: A word that sounds like the answer indicated by use of a giveaway phrase such as “We hear” or “as they say.” Example: Counted frozen chicken out loud for NUMBERED (“numb bird”). Containers: A word such…

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 2

POINTS OF DEPARTURE

In this variety cryptic, when clue answers disagree at a given square, resolve the conflict by entering both and adding a third letter such that new entries using all 3 letters (in any order) can be formed in both directions. For example, if CANT and RATE cross at their first letters, one can add E to the conflicting C and R to form (REC)ANT and (CRE)ATE. Each 3-letter set can be formed into a trigram corresponding to a 24-Down. ACROSS 1 Bible reading guide has no covers (5) 5 Rushed outside of court and pounced (7) 10 A district prize (5) 11 Sculptured seraph is a stunner (6) 12 Velociraptor trapping spots (4) 14 A couple of schemes to cut Rx paperwork (5) 15 Taking the 5th, completely stop (4) 16 Ghost search nets one (5) 17 Pharaoh incarcerates a…

POINTS OF DEPARTURE

NOUGHTS & CROSSES

Some of the entries in this variety cryptic puzzle are too short to fully span their corresponding grid slots; you’ll need to leave one square blank when entering these answers. Blank squares will only occur at intersections; in each case, the crossing entry will fill the square with the letter O. Make big circles for your O’s, to mark the gaps in the short entries; then place a letter within each O that fills the “hole” in the short entry, creating a new word. Note that one of the newly created words is archaic. (Certain O’s will have more than one possible entry; it’s up to you to choose the correct letter.) The example shows the undersized entry MATH crossing MODEL; the gap has been filled with the letter C to…

NOUGHTS & CROSSES

COLOMBIAN SUDOKU

In this new sudoku variation, your goal is to solve the puzzle on the left following standard rules: Each digit from 1 to 9 (or 1 to 6 for puzzles 1, 2, and 3) must appear exactly once in each row, column, and outlined region, with no digit repeated. You will notice that not many digits have been placed. That’s where the diagram on the right comes into play: The dots above and to the right of that diagram indicate how many cells in the corresponding column or row will contain the same digit in the solved grid on the left. PUZZLE ONE PUZZLE TWO PUZZLE THREE PUZZLE FOUR PUZZLE FIVE COLOMBIAN SUDOKU…

COLOMBIAN SUDOKU

FAMILY REUNIONS

Change each group of 10 words below into a “family” of different words (words or proper names that have something in common) by dropping one letter from each word and then rearranging the remaining letters. For example, given the entries HAUNT, HAIRDO, and ADVANCE, you could drop the N from HAUNT to get UTAH, drop the R from HAIRDO for IDAHO, and drop the C from ADVANCE to get NEVADA, all in the category “U.S. states.” Can you reunite each family by determining the category for each and unscrambling the 10 entries? Answers include one two-word phrase. As a hint, a list of the four categories appears on page 70. FAMILY ONE FAMILY TWO FAMILY THREE FAMILY FOUR FAMILY REUNIONS FAMILY ONE Golf 1. Tee 2. Par 3. Cup 4. Ball 5. Bogey 6. Green 7. Rough 8. Course 9. Stroke 10. Scorecard FAMILY TWO Animal sounds 1. Moo 2. Roar 3. Bark 4.…

FAMILY REUNIONS

Each answer below is made up of two words that contain a 3-letter palindrome straddling the words. For example, in Clue 1, PEP and the clue “Common party streamer material” would lead to CREPE PAPER. How many “AHA” moments can you get by solving the rest? POP QUIZ PEP Crepe paper EVE Aloe vera POP Soap opera AHA Mata Hari DAD Canada Dry NON Reno, Nevada TUT Sport utility SOS Miso soup EWE Mae West NUN European Union BOB Bilbo Baggins NAN San Antonio TOT Significant other HEH The Hague TAT Margaret Atwood ONO Poison oak AKA Frida Kahlo LIL Optical illusion EYE Vintage year SIS Galápagos Islands…

THE WORLD’S MOST ORNERY CROSSWORD

Expansion Pack The crossword on this and the next two pages has two independent sets of clues: “Hard” and “Easy.” First, fold this page back on the dashed line so the clues below face the solving grid on page 69. If you use only the Hard Clues (appearing below and continuing under the grid), you’ll find the puzzle uncommonly challenging. If you want help, or prefer a less severe challenge, open to the Easy Clues (tucked in beneath your fold on page 68). HARD CLUES ACROSS 1 A Belafonte 6 Easy-to-grow indoor greenery 18 Full of venom 24 See 72-Across 25 1970 war film 26 Member of an eclectic sect, slangily 27 Make ___ for oneself 28 Without cash to spare 30 Fulbright ScholarProgram sponsor 32 Least bulky 33 Hay fever remedy 34 From the Silent Earth author Joseph 35 Viewing system, briefly 37 Debate side 38 A…

THE WORLD’S MOST ORNERY CROSSWORD

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