Comments on: Guardian 24,599 (Sat 17 Jan)/Araucaria – Auf Wiedersehen Monty

By: smutchin

smutchin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:07:06 +0000

I’m not a chess player, hence had no qualms over whether or not “K1″ was correct terminology – it didn’t stop me getting the correct solution, anyway.

Agree that the surface of 23d is strange, but again not a difficult one to solve in spite of that.

19d got me – I thought “rehashed” was the anagram indicator, so was looking for an anagram of AT + FAULT. With no joy, I might add. Hmph.

I wouldn’t have got 16d if I’d stared at it solidly all week. Too clever by half.

By: rightback

rightback — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:00:29 +0000

K1 vs e1/e8: I wondered if this would attract any comment, but I don’t agree that ‘K1′ is incorrect. I was born in the 80s but ‘K1′ is the notation I always used and still do, or rather would if I ever played these days, so I’ll defend Araucaria on this, for once!

Thanks for the ‘Gateway’ explanation. This is an easy word to make a mistake on as it’s an anagram of, and shares the same odd letters (hence checking letters here) as ‘getaway’.

By: Roger Murray

Roger Murray — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:58:33 +0000

I felt pretty good about figuring the word play for languid and finishing this puzzle but then was totally stumped by the midweek Araucaria. Consistency will come one day, I hope!

By: Ralph G

Ralph G — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:19:29 +0000

Thanks, Rightback for the blog. I didn’t get the explanaion for 16d languid. Completely overlooked ‘neighbours rendering’, standard synonym for translating.
Agree with Derek L. above on K1 at 1d being obsolete.
Thankyou TwoPies for the ‘Govt Gateway’ explanation.
Re 24a ‘does it have social benefit?’ – this is a question that the Charity Commission now asks of all charities, and many sports clubs have registered as charities for the tax benefits. But this seems a bit esoteric.

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:36:40 +0000

Not good with xhtml, so I may have the tags wrong….

I’m not seriously suggesting that 1ac is ageist, but if you were to go into serious nit picking mode you could make a case for that.

It is incorrect that K1 is the home square for the King. It used to be many years ago, but nowadays it is e1 or e8, depending on which king you are talking about. As it is several decades since the notation was changed only an older person could be expected to know this. The casual younger chess player would not be aware of the old notation. Younger non-players who rely on accidently seeing chess columns in the papers for their chess knowlege will certainly not know this.

LOL.

By: TwoPies

TwoPies — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:30:13 +0000

Thanks rightback, excellent blog. The Government Gateway is a website where you can apply for a passport, view your pension details etc.