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I don’t think I have blogged many puzzles by Wire so it was interesting to solve a puzzle from a setter who is fairly nw to me.
It’s Tuesday so there was likely to be a theme. This one was fairly well signalled with a mention of every possible chess piece in the clues. Each of pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen and king was contained in a clue. White also got in on the act, but I didn’t see a reference to black.
Within the grid we had a few chess terms as well as reference to the series of games between GRANDMASTER Garry KASPAROV and the computer DEEP BLUE. KASPAROV was the first GRANDMASTER to lose a set of chess games to a computer under championship rules. KASPAROV won the first set, but DEEP BLUE got revenge in the second set. STALEMATE was another chess reference as was the musical at 20 down.
We have had I as a single letter definition a few times recently, so it was a change to see a different single letter this time at 11 across.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Record decisive win finally for white (7) |
ALBUM (long-playing disc; record) + EN (last letters [finally] of each of DECISIVE and WIN) ALBUM E N |
ALBUMEN (white [of an egg]) |
| 5 | Compartment for passenger‘s drink (7) |
SIDECAR (small car attached to the side of a motorcycle usually for the carriage of a passenger) SIDECAR |
SIDECAR (kind of cocktail consisting of brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice) |
| 9 | Established standards in mock exams externally (5) |
COD (mock) + ES (outer letters of [externally] EXAMS) COD ES |
CODES (established principles or standards) |
| 10 | Draw of Spooner’s patriarchy (9) |
STALE MATE (which Dr Spooner would pronounce as MALE STATE, a phrase that could describe a patriarchy [community of related families under the authority of a MALE head]) STALEMATE |
STALEMATE (in chess, a situation where a player not actually in check has no possible legal move, resulting in a draw) |
| 11 | Dunno … he maybe on the end of ward C (3,7) |
Anagram of (maybe) DUNNO HE + RE (with reference to; about; on) + D (last letter of [end of] WARD) ONE HUND* RE D |
ONE HUNDRED (C is the Roman numeral for one hundred) |
| 12 | See 6 Down |
See 6 Down BLUE |
[DEEP] BLUE – see 6 down |
| 14 | Having issue on drug price reviewed (11) |
Anagram of (reviewed) ON DRUG PRICE REPRODUCING* |
REPRODUCING (producing offspring; having issue) |
| 18 | Expert on board relative’s trailer when train missed (11) |
GRANDMA’S (relative’s) + TER (letters remaining in T GRANDMAS TER |
GRANDMASTER (originally the title given to a chess player winning a major international tournament, now given to a player achieving a high score in three major tournaments; expert on board) |
| 21 | Certainly not free for cycling (4) |
OPEN (free) with the letters moved one position to the right and the last letter going to the front (cycling) NOPE NOPE |
NOPE (an emphatic no; certainly not) |
| 22 | Catholic in with another crowd to see magic (10) |
(C [catholic] contained in [in] [WITH + C{catholic, another one}]) + RAFT (large number; crowd) WIT (C) H C RAFT |
WITCHCRAFT (sorcery; magic) |
| 25 | Text English channel pics featuring king in revolution (9) |
(E [English] + RUT [channel] + [PICS containing {featuring} R {rex; king}]) all reversed (in revolution) (SC (R) IP TUR E)< |
SCRIPTURE (sacred writings; text) |
| 26 | Take in circuit ahead (3,2) |
LAP (circuit) + UP (ahead) LAP UP |
LAP UP (take up with the tongue) |
| 27 | Follower of slithy thing from the East in river (7) |
(TOVE [reference the slithy TOVE in Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll]) reversed [from the east]) contained in (in) DEE (one of many rivers of that name) D (EVOT<) EE |
DEVOTEE (follower) |
| 28 | Knight crossing main road by city is fairly close (7) |
SIR (title of a knight) containing (crossing) (MI [designation of a motorway {main road} in England] + LA [Los Angeles, American city]) SI (MI LA) R |
SIMILAR (much the same; close) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Rook flies south from farm on old moor (6) |
(RANCH [farm] + O [old]) with the R moved down the end of the entry [south, as this is a down clue]) ANCH O R |
ANCHOR (berth; moor) |
| 2 | Economical move essentially strategic (6) |
BUDGE (move) + T (central letter of [essentially] STRATEGIC) BUDGE T |
BUDGET (cheap; economical) |
| 3 | See drama unfolding around Queen’s Ball (10) |
Anagram of (unfolding) SEE DRAMA containing (around) QU (queen) MAS (QU) ERADE* |
MASQUERADE (masked ball) |
| 4 | Pried regularly into US deeds (5) |
Letters 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 [regularly] of INTO US DEEDS NOSED |
NOSED (pried) |
| 5 | Blame safari company initially over simian attack (9) |
SC (first letters [initially] of each of SAFARI and COMPANY) + APE (simian) + GO AT (attack) SC APE GO AT |
SCAPEGOAT (put the blame on) |
| 6 / 12 | Player with chips went up and down (4,4) |
PEED (urinated; went) reversed (up; down clue) + BLUE (sad; down) DEEP< BLUE |
DEEP [BLUE] (name of the first computer / computer program to defeat a chess grandmaster [player with {electronic} chips]) |
| 7 | Old comic features a bishop’s junior colleague? (8) |
CHAPLIN (reference Charlie CHAPLIN [1889 – 1977], comic actor; old comic) containing (features) A CHAPL (A) IN |
CHAPLAIN (Christian clergyman attached to an institution, establishment, organization or family; could well be a junior colleague of a bishop) |
| 8 | Appear again stripping trees and verges, stopped by 1st of May (2-6) |
(REE [letters remaining in RE-E (M) ERGE |
RE-EMERGE (appear again) |
| 13 | Course of spicy food unfinished on ICU by smoker (10) |
CURR CURR ICU LUM |
CURRICULUM (the course of study at a school, college, university etc) |
| 15 | Empty remark by priest on allowance (9) |
P (priest) + LATITUDE (allowance) P LATITUDE |
PLATITUDE (an empty remark made as if it were important) |
| 16 | Couldn’t decide if San Diego was lousy (8) |
Anagram of (was lousy) SAN DIEGO AGONISED* |
AGONISED (struggled; couldn’t decide) |
| 17 | Perhaps one with match over in outskirts of Kiev (8) |
(A [one] + SPAR [boxing match] + O [over]) contained in (in) KV (first and last letters of [outskirts of] KIEV) K (A SPAR O) V |
KASPAROV (reference Garry KASPAROV [born 1963], Russian chess grandmaster first grandmaster to be beaten by the DEEP BLUE [entry at 6 down / 12] computer) |
| 19 | Floral part of short Persian cover possibly left (6) |
CARPE CARPE L |
CARPEL (female organ of a flower, a modified leaf) |
| 20 | Lethargy of Politburo put Stalin in the ascendant (6) |
STUPOR (hidden word reversed [the ascendant; down clue] in [of?] POLITBURO PUT STALIN) STUPOR |
STUPOR (lethargy) |
| 23 | Duke’s wife skipping half of dull musical (5) |
CHESS |
CHESS (1986 musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the pop group ABBA, lyrics by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, and a book by Rice) |
| 24 | Drunk gets pawn in position (4) |
SOT (drunk) containing (gets … in) P (pawn) S (P) OT |
SPOT (awkward position or situation) |
I only saw the theme at the end after semi-guessing KASPAROV and entering DEEP BLUE from wordplay alone, without initially knowing what the ‘Player with chips’ def (v. nice) meant. I didn’t know the “Jabberwocky” reference, so 27a went in unparsed.
Good theme, not too obviously signposted, and an enjoyable solve.
Thanks to Wire and Duncan
There are also all the chess pieces named in the clues.
Nice one, Wire. Thanks – and of course to Duncan too.
Apologies, Duncan, I didn’t read your preamble carefully enough. You’d already spotted the pieces in the clues.
Having lurked for some time, I’ve posted for two reasons. 1) The Guardian blog is complaining about too many posts and, including one correction, there’s only three here at the moment. The work of both setter and blogger deserve more. Thanks for parsing WITCHCRAFT, Duncan. The second catholic defeated me. 2) Jabberwocky is the only poem I ever learned by heart and I’ve never seen it appear in a puzzle. A real pleasure when TOVE actually dropped into place.
Thanks to Wire and Duncan
…though of course it’s TOVES (plural) in Jabberwocky.
Well worth reading the German and French translations of same which work surprisingly well.
Nice crossword and excellent blog so thanks to S&B
reddevil: you’re right, of course, though I always assumed TOVES were plurals which would allow for a single Tove? I always felt ‘wabe’ wanted to be a plural word but I guess that uncertainty is the point of a nonsense poem. I had never heard of any translation so thank you. The Wikipedia article on the poem gives the first verse in a dozen or more languages. Including signing.
Wot no castles? Spoilsport
Great clue for DEEP BLUE
Thanks Wire, Duncan
Just remembered that Through the Looking-Glass, where Jabberwocky occurs, is loosely based on a game of chess. And btw ‘toves’ is plural; in chapter 6 where Humpty Dumpty explains the poem to Alice he says ‘Well, “toves” are something like badgers—they’re something like lizards—and they’re something like corkscrews.’
allan_c : well spotted re the ‘Through the Looking Glass’/ chess/Jabberwocky link. I will hold my hands up … it’s a total fluke. But at least it bumps up the ‘theme count’. Thanks to all for the comments and to duncanshiell for the blog.
I agree with Postmark@4 that the work of both setter and blogger deserve more (than just one or two comments). This was a lovely puzzle, everything fitting together very nicely. As Eimi says, quoting Dave Gorman, a little bit of poetry in the corner of your newspaper [albeit a virtual one].
NW corner held me up, but got there with help from a word wizard. Ashamed to say I failed to parse DEEP BLUE.
I assumed 17d is an &lit clue, but I can’t see what Kiev has got to do with the definition part of the clue.
Spotted the chess pieces in the clues, and also white, but I couldn’t find black.
I needed to cheat on several at the end but I did finish it.
I first came across the French and German translations of Jabberwocky in Martin Gardner’s Annotated Alice back in the sevneties. One of the last live musical events I went to before lockdown was Gerald Barry’s opera Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which includes a Russian translation sung to the tune of It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.
A very impressive puzzle. I found certain areas quite challenging including the NE corner but was helped by the Kasparov and chess theme to realise it was Deep Blue.
I also smiled at the slithy give. Thanks to Wire and Duncanshiell.