Jack Reuter author page
1 puzzle by Jack Reuter
with Jeff Chen comments
| T | I | D | E | P | O | D | T | H | E | R | A | N | G | E | S | P | R | A | T | ||
| I | C | O | N | C | U | R | O | O | Z | E | S | O | U | T | E | R | O | S | E | ||
| K | E | R | A | T | I | N | K | N | I | G | H | T | T | O | B | E | I | G | H | T | |
| I | B | M | S | O | R | E | K | N | E | E | S | A | N | N | U | A | L | ||||
| B | L | A | C | K | A | N | S | E | L | S | M | E | D | I | C | I | N | E | |||
| A | U | N | T | I | E | E | M | V | E | X | T | E | S | T | Y | ||||||
| R | E | T | O | T | A | L | C | H | I | P | S | A | H | O | Y | H | I | S | |||
| D | I | S | H | O | N | O | U | R | A | N | A | ||||||||||
| B | R | A | V | O | S | P | E | R | K | U | P | M | A | K | E | S | I | T | |||
| O | A | T | E | R | M | O | R | N | R | E | S | I | N | P | A | N | I | C | |||
| A | D | O | R | E | A | K | U | T | E | R | E | S | A | H | U | M | P | H | |||
| R | I | N | D | S | T | A | B | L | E | D | P | T | S | E | N | O | T | E | |||
| D | U | C | A | T | I | N | S | E | T | S | P | Y | S | W | I | N | O | S | |||
| S | E | N | E | S | C | E | C | H | O | P | U | P | E | S | T | O | P | S | |||
| T | S | A | C | H | E | R | O | K | E | E | S | ||||||||||
| B | T | W | N | O | S | F | E | R | A | T | U | C | O | W | B | I | R | D | |||
| I | R | I | S | H | B | I | C | G | O | S | S | A | M | E | R | ||||||
| F | A | N | T | A | S | I | A | C | M | A | J | O | R | W | H | I | T | E | |||
| O | C | T | A | N | E | P | R | O | M | I | N | E | N | T | T | I | S | ||||
| C | H | E | C | K | M | A | T | E | I | N | O | N | E | C | O | L | L | A | R | S | |
| A | E | R | I | E | F | R | E | E | T | O | G | O | A | M | P | U | T | E | E | ||
| L | A | S | E | R | L | A | N | D | E | D | O | N | A | B | S | C | E | S | S |
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.