HIDDEN TACTICS

This is my first puzzle to get accepted for publication, which I'm very excited about! I've always been interested in puzzle construction, mostly for the challenge of creating a fun, vibrant grid. I'm a big fan of games like Bananagrams and Boggle, and generally find the problem of stacking words neatly into a symmetrical grid very appealing. I think it appeals to the math-y side of my brain.

This puzzle has been in the works for a while. I've been going back to it sporadically for the past year or two, and just finally hunkered down and finished it. I came up with the idea after going to the World Chess Championship in NYC back in 2016. I was on a big chess kick—playing online and doing chess tactics every day—and thought ‘hey, wouldn't it be cool if you could somehow put a chess tactic inside a crossword puzzle?'

After that, it took some fiddling to figure out how best to do it. I knew it had to be a checkmate, so I spent some time looking through some "mate-in-one" puzzles to find a suitable one. I eventually found one I thought could work, saw that the solution KNIGHT TO B EIGHT lined up length-wise with CHECKMATE-IN-ONE, and decided to try it out. With some adding and removing of pieces (while being careful to keep the checkmate intact) I was able to fit it into the grid and fill in the rest from there.

I immediately thought of a previous chess puzzle in the NYT (so did Jim), but that's no knock on today's. Jim and I are hardly your average solver.

I feel bad for electronic solvers today. The experience behind my keyboard was terrible, to the point that I'd have considered not issuing electronic files whatsoever. The print version is SO much better. It still took me a while to figure out what was intended, but in the end, Jack sets up an interesting chess problem whose solution isn't immediately obvious.

(Unless you're Matt Gaffney, who's a chess aficionado. Or ... if you read 25-Across. Huh.)

(For non-chess folks, the knight is confusingly not represented by K — that's the king. The knight is N, perhaps with a nod to the silent K?)

Some nice touches in the execution. Did you notice that the black crossword squares in the middle of the puzzle lie atop only black chessboard squares? (See image below.) I didn't notice that during my (electronic) solve, so I'm glad I took a second look.

I also liked the use of black squares to (sort of) outline the BOARD / CHESS — er, CHESS / BOARD. Those long black bars on all four sides remind me of the peanut gallery, watching a critical chess match from above.

There are a lot of problems in grid execution. It could have used a few more rounds of revision to get rid of stuff like ANASS, ENOTE, EROSE, MATIC, AKU, and about 15 other ugly entries. Not to mention swapping the order of BOARD / CHESS. If you're going to go to a 22x22 grid and 150 words — much higher than usual max — bite the bullet and make it a smooth 156-word puzzle. It's not like longer entries like THE RANGE and LANDED ON will do much for anybody, anyway.

Some of the best things in life come from the mix of two disciplines that aren't immediately connectable. Chess and crosswords? Absolutely! I'd have enjoyed this one more if it had depicted the end of a championship match. Or a famed chess move with a cool name.

Or better yet, a contest puzzle! Send in the answer to something like BLACK'S MOVE, MATE IN THREE. I'd have tried my hand at that, for sure.

I liked this more than Jeff did for a few reasons:

• I'm a sucker for novelty, and this puzzle is undoubtedly innovative.
• The layout is a plausible end-game situation.
• The mate-in-one problem is non-trivial but simple enough for casual players to see.
• I care less about inelegancies than Jeff does.

Fun fact: this is the first 22x22 NYT crossword.

Update: One of the great things about the Internet (truly) is that when you say something stupid online, you get a flood of responses pointing out your, let's not say abject stupidity, but rather, uh, well, stupid is close. I previously somehow claimed that squares without circles or triangles were not legitimate chess symbols. Not even close. There are extra Rs, an extra N, and even an extra K (We Three Kings!) Even my first comment about innovation is incorrect. Patrick Blindauer created a similar puzzle in 2007 for the New York Sun, edited by Peter Gordon.

Thanks to all our loyal readers who called me out.