Guardian 26,823 – Paul / Updated

44 comments on “Guardian 26,823 – Paul / Updated”

1. I think manehi is swotting up on chess opening moves.

2. Thanks Paul and manehi – sorry to hear about your connection problems

   Really not on Paul’s wavelength today – one of my slowest solves for ages. Not a complete solve, in fact, as I had a semi-parsed GIST instead of RIFT.

   I used to play chess, but had never heard of the Latvian Gambit – possibly unsurprisingly, as Wikipedia has this to say about it:
   “FIDE Master Dennis Monokroussos even goes so far as to describe it as “possibly the worst opening in chess”.
   Solving it alerted me to other chess openings, though, so I entered an unparsed SICILIAN DEFENCE (which I have played). I didn’t parse HOSTILE either.

   No indication of foreign language for GELATO?

   Favourites were CHARISMA and EL DORADO.

   Minor typo, manehi – AIRED ALE for 8a.

3. Paul in absolutely top form.End of

4. Hard work – my first quick run through produced absolutely zilch, so I wondered whether I would get completely stuck. But gradually got there, although couldn’t parse CHARISMA. Favourites were the chess clues LATVIAN GAMBIT (even though I spend a lot of time looking at chess puzzles on Youtube, I had never heard of this!) and SICILIAN DEFENCE, and PAWN and POND SKATER. Many thanks to Paul and manehi.

5. Thanks Paul and manehi. This seemed very much like a prize crossword, and a very good one.

   Except…
   I got 1/4d from the definition, took forever to parse it, and still can’t account for the “when”. Is “when buckles” supposed to be the anagrind?

6. Where’s 2d?

7. Oops – 2dn is RENT, a double definition. Will edit it in later.

8. I enjoyed this, especially as the theme was obvious (even to me!). Was stuck for ages with “rent” and “rift” so it’s a good job the blog was late or I would have had to cheat; could have kicked myself when the answers finally sprang to mind! As usual with Paul, some lovely surfaces.

   Thank you very much Paul & manehi.

9. Thanks Paul and Manehi,very enjoyable crossword. Strange that i got LATVIAN GAMBIT,which i hadn’t heard of,before i found the SICILIAN DEFENCE. Not having much of a schooling as a child, my fault, its amazing how much Latin, French, Spanish and German i’ve picked up from doing the Guardian cryptic for over thirty years, oh and a soupcon of Italian.

   Ciao.

10. Thanks Paul and Manehi. More difficult for me than usual with my favourite setter, but enjoyable nonetheless.

    To Muffin@2 – is GELATO really foreign? What about spaghetti? BATH OLIVER on the other hand paired with “mammalian liver” as wordplay was my LOI and required a word search with the crossers.

    UTE for truck could also be considered foreign but since The Guardian has an Australian edition I am expecting a lot more such references to even things up a bit.

11. Thanks Paul & manehi.

    Another chess player who’s never heard of the LATVIAN GAMBIT. Opening Gambit would have fitted in; perhaps that was what started Paul on openings.

    I filled in the RHS but then got considerably stuck on the LHS; LOI was RIFT.

12. HKrunner @10
    We don’t have a word for “spaghetti”, so are forced to use the Italian. However we call “gelato”………… er, “ice cream”.

    Actually it wasn’t a problem; I speak Italian, and I’m sure that most people would recognise the word. Still not a fair clue, in my opinion, though. Contrast it with 11a, which I found more difficult, but was entirely fair.

13. Made pretty heavy weather of this, and resorted to a bit of guess and check, with RIFT last in. LATVIAN GAMBIT was unfamiliar but easily guessable (I gave up chess quite young because I couldn’t find any enthusiasm for learning openings – just looking at Wikipedia’s list makes me think I made the right decision). Liked the variety of uses of the theme.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

14. Thanks to Paul and manehi. I too had great trouble getting started but getting SICILIAN DEFENCE and the gambit in LATVIAN GAMBIT got me going. I managed to parse BATH OLIVER and POND SKATER (both new to me) and knew PAPER CHASE as the title of an old Law School TV show. Last in were RENT-RIFT and PAWN. Overall, quite a challenge for me but well worth the effort.

15. I nearly mentioned UTE too – a word I only know from Guardian crosswords!

16. muffin: GELATO. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s in Chambers. But I was surprised to see it noted as (esp. Aus),

    A great puzzle, which I found very tricky.

    Especially liked the misdirection in PAPER CHASE – I was trying to make an anagram of “a seat in apse”

    Thanks to manehi and Paul

17. Thanks Paul and manehi.

    This was hard going, but fun, especially TOP NIT, LOON and CRACKPOT. I first entered RESOLVED at 16d, I always forget that “utility” vehicle. Had to google to check the chess moves – I was taught to play on a ship when 9 by a Jewish boy, 12, David Rosen, who was being sent out after the war by the International Red Cross to relatives in Australia, often wish I could thank him.

18. Muffin@12, your response is interesting and surprising to me. I am more used to seeing ice cream and gelato sold separately and hearing conversations about which someone prefers. I never considered one a translation of the other. I think most people expect gelato to be much lower in fat and more dense in texture with fruitier flavours, but that might just be in my parts of the world.

    In my vocabulary, a truck is what you would probably call a lorry and a ‘ute’ is a car with the back seat and boot replaced by a cargo space, but that is what the Americans would call a mini-‘truck’, so that clue is an amalgam of two non-UK terms. Vive la difference!

19. Are you Australian, HKrunner? That would tie in with the point that cholecyst made @16.

    Italian “gelati” perhaps have more ingredients than English ice-cream, but I don’t know of any other distinction (and that one might be dated – I’m thinking back to the “Tutti Frutti” from my childhood; there are lots of interesting English ice-creams available nowadays).

    You aren’t conflating “gelato” with “granita” or “sorbet”, are you?

20. Thanks manehi. Puzzle # is 26823.
    Didn’t care for the theme, but was able to work out all openings.
    Entered ARRIVE IN 22a unconvinced, so 22d beat me as well.

21. Re UTE: I’ve never heard the term used in conversation in the US or seen it in print (as opposed to SUV), but it turns up repeatedly as a favorite 3-letter word in the N. Y. Times crosswords.

22. I spent far longer on this than I usually do with this setter and found some of the clues tough going- RIFT ( LOI and I wanted the answer to be gist) DORMER and BATH OLIVER. I did know the chess terms although I couldn’t describe them. I haven’t played since I was a teenager- and, yes, they did have chess then!
    Nothing wrong with this but harder than usual. I agree that this would have made a good prize.
    Thanks Paul.

23. Oops! Thank you, Paul.

24. almost all openings, it should be, since I didn’t get DORMER :-(.

25. Great puzzle, came back to it many times during the day, almost completed it!
    Must be missing something, but please can someone explain what the double
    definition is in 18d, as I can’t/couldn’t find anything cryptic in the clue?

26. Thanks for the spot, ilippu.

    RH – a LIVE WIRE is literally a “Plug component”, and figuratively a person with a lot of energy, a “dynamo”

27. ACD @21, the word UTE in the US (and the NY Times crossword) is likely to refer to a Native American person from Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

28. I totally agree with copmus @3

    A tour de force from Paul. That in my opinion is how to “do” a theme. In one clue it’s chess, in another it’s a hole and then of course in another it’s part of the word play.

    Great fun and a decent challenge.

    Muffin, how can you moan about gelato when the word is in the SOED, Chambers and Collins? It’s an English word for Italian style ice cream so absolutely no need for any indication of foreign language.

    Thanks to manehi and Paul

29. BNTO @ 28
    I think that “moan” rather exaggerates my point. I’m rather more interested in HKrunner’s distinction between “gelato” and “ice-cream”.

30. Thanks, Paul and manehi. Good puzzle, sympathy for connection problems and good blog even so.

    This particular American has never called anything a “mini-truck.” What HKrunner describes sounds something like what most of us would call a pickup, although a pickup isn’t based on a car but on a small truck or lorry.

    Around here, at least, both gelato and ice cream are each sold as such, and they’re different. So are spaghetti and noodles.

31. I’m a bit puzzled by this. When I’m I’m in Italy, if I want an ice-cream, I ask for a gelato. What am I missing here?

32. Muffin, you appear to be missing the obvious. “Gelato” is an English word to describe Italian style ice cream. It’s recognised in all the English dictionaries I’ve checked.

    In Italy “gelato” is the word the locals use for any ice cream. That’s an Italian word that actually doesn’t mean quite the same thing as the English word “gelato” (even though the English word is derived from its Italian counterpart)

33. Not an “English” word, BNTO! I’m familiar with it in Italian, and Chambers gives it as “especially Austr.” (I would like to hear more about this).

    However I’m not really bothered about it.

34. Indeed, a very enjoyable puzzle in which 10ac (RIFT) defeated us.

    In the posts above I can find only one comment that questions 1,4d.
    That’s a bit of an odd clue, isn’t it?
    ‘After (all)’, is that ‘since’? If ‘all’ is not part of it, what do I have to do with it then?
    And if it is like that, I cannot really make sense of ‘when buckles’ as the anagram indicator.
    Unfortunately, ‘when’ can also describe ‘since’, and ‘buckles’ can also mean ‘goes around’ (as it can mean something similar to ‘clasps’).

    It doesn’t happen very often that I am still wondering about a Paul clue so long after solving.
    Thanks manehi.

35. To Muffin – you and everyone else have probably moved on by now but to answer your question, I am Australian but a watered-down one, not having lived there since 1977. Now in Hong Kong again I have also lived for extended periods in the US, Norway, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan. I don’t remember meeting gelato as a child, we did eat cassata made by Italian neighbours. My exposure to gelato is mostly in Asia where it is differentiated from ice cream, perhaps more for marketing reasons than any well-defined characteristics.

36. Thanks for clarifying, HKrunner

37. A very interesting, not to mention tricky Paul puzzle, especially for us non chess players. I especially liked 11, 16 and 20, but share Sil’s reservation about 1/4.

    The only way I can see it working is if you take the “I prefer his version – after all he is my brother” sense of “after all”, where you can just about substitute “since” to describe the ground and consequent relationship.

38. I found this very tough, finishing too late last night to post here at that time. I don’t have anything of possible interest to add except to say that, like Sil and ulaca, I am somewhat puzzled by SICILIAN DEFENCE. I parsed it as SINCE = “After all” around (FAILED NICE)* with “buckles” as the anagrind, leaving “when” doing nothing. Perhaps it should have been “when buckled”, though I’m not sure about the effect of that on the surface.

    Thanks, Paul and manehi.

39. Muffin @33

    So you are saying that a word that is listed in SOED, Collins and Chambers is not an English word?

    I look forward to your authorised list of non_english words.

    I’ll start you off:

    patio
    blase
    louvre
    libretto
    aperitif
    voyeur
    forte
    bravura
    gauche
    attache
    ballet
    architrave
    bureau
    cache
    kitsch
    waltz
    rucksack

    The list may get very long 😉

40. I’m very late with this, but I wanted to express my admiration for this excellent crossword, a bit more difficult than is usual for Paul, but rewarding – it was a joy to solve. I endorse what copmus and Brendan have said about the quality of this offering.

    I’m keen on chess and had no difficulty with the two ‘openings’. I might have struggled a lot with this puzzle if I didn’t know chess.

    Having lived in Australia more recently than HKRunner, I can say that his definition of ‘ute’ @18 is spot on, as I understand it, and a ‘gelato’ is a term more common over there than over here (in the UK). I cannot remember buying ice cream in Australia – I always choose gelato.

    I noted ‘impossible’, ‘buckles’ and ‘poor’ as anagrinds in this puzzle. Sometimes I wonder whatever next? As for ‘jack up’ for ‘up’ 16D: it was needed for the surface, but I have to say that when you jack up a car it stays the same way up! It was still fun, except for the NW corner with the multiple-choice answers in 10A and 2D (which crossed!): note that one was a DD and the other a subtraction – not good when they cross and there are that many possibilities to think of and to eliminate. At least the clues were precise and they worked – that’s what I have come to rely on with Paul.

    I’m grateful to ulaca @37 for explaining ‘after all’ = ‘since’. I was held up by this, although my chess knowledge helped in the end!

    Huge thanks to Paul, and thanks to manehi for a blog submitted in trying circumstances. I also enjoyed reading all the comments/debates, which I couldn’t access until today (Sunday).

41. jennyk @38

    Re ‘when buckles’ in 1D. It looks like a mistake: it needs ‘when buckled’ or just ‘buckles’, as you say, but, whichever variation you choose, the surface doesn’t seem to come right with this construction.

    I now get ‘after all’ = ‘since’, but with the ‘buckles’ problem as well I would have clued this phrase differently. This is a blemish in a crossword that I otherwise found to be top of the class. (Without my chess knowledge, though, I might have found it too challenging.)

    I omitted to mention this in my earlier comment.

42. A Rolls-Royce of a puzzle from Paul. I was defeated by ‘rift’; ‘gist’ being substituted when exasperation set in. Wasn’t convinced because I couldn’t parse it of course (hoping the penny would drop later). Doh!

    Plaudits to Paul and thanks to manehi

43. Thanks Paul and manehi.

    It took a while to get going – typical for me with a Paul – and I agonised for ages over the four-letter words (PAWN/PATE in the SE and RENT/RIFT in the NW). And I was indeed beaten by RIFT putting an unconvinced GIST in instead.

    The LATVIAN GAMBIT was new to me too but at least gettable from the elegant clueing.

    Although beaten, I salute this as yet another top class puzzle from Paul.

    My favourite was CHARISMA.

44. Thanks Paul and manehi

    Got to this just before Easter … and my notes say that it took the whole elapsed day to get it finished. It then languished in the completed but not checked pile until tonight, where I was able to relive the pleasure of when I actually did it.

    As has been said, an excellent way to use a theme with different variations on the key word ‘opening’, with a more than casual connection to chess throughout as well. Having almost no chess knowledge, the two opening gambits were among the last solutions in and had to look up both of them to check and see that they were in fact legitimate phrases. Was another who took an age to parse CHARISMA. Although RENT and RIFT were near the end of the solve, the were pretty clear cut to me and didn’t present as big a problem as some others seem to have had with them.

    Finished in that NW corner with RIFT, LATVIAN GAMBIT and TINPOT the last few in.

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