The last puzzle we blogged by Atrica was back in July last year which had a theme based on cocktails.
It’s Tuesday – another theme day. Nothing leapt out at us as we filled the grid. It was only afterwards that we noticed KINGS and GAMBIT next to each other. We know how to play chess (but not how to win) and we had both heard of the QUEEN’S GAMBIT.
A quick search online revealed the following gambits : FRIED LIVER, EVANS, VIENNA, Double DUTCH, SICILIAN, SCOTCH and AUSTRALIAN. These all have particular codes attached to them. We thought there may be more and a few more guesses online revealed two other ‘openings’ – the LONDON system and the STONEWALL attack. There may be more….
There is a subtle difference apparently between openings and gambits. A ‘gambit’ is a move or set of moves that sacrifices material for a better position. Apologies to anyone who plays chess and feels that we have made some errors in our list of gambits/openings or in the explanations.
Thanks Atrica.
IS replacing or ‘covering’ ‘e’ (earl) in VIOLeT (shade)
An anagram (‘peculiar’) of DIALECT
E (Engineering) VAN’S (vehicle’s) – George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans
An anagram (‘fractured’) of TURKISh (missing last letter or ‘mostly’) and AND
Double definition
Hidden (‘inside’) manY A HOOdlum
B (bishop) missing or ‘leaving’ bETAS (Corinthian/Greek letters) – ETAS are ‘other’ Greek letters
SIC (‘this is meant’) + a reversal (‘returning’) of NAIL (arrest) I (one)
Fish may well be IN the SOLENT if they were near Portsmouth
Alternate or ‘occasional’ letters in aDmItS + H (husband)
Hidden (‘involved’) in prANK LEvitating
FOLK (people) LORIC (first or ‘original’ letters of Lived Outside Rome In Catacombs)
BAND (musicians) AGING (becoming increasingly geriatric)
V (very) pALE (feeble) missing or ‘losing’ ‘p’ (pawn) + T (tempo)
TrUSS (Liz Truss, ‘ex-PM’) missing or ‘ignoring’ R (resistance) + LED (what she did for 44 days as PM)
mEAn (missing or ‘disregarding’ the first and last letters or ‘extremes’) R (Republican) BASH (party)
ANNE (Queen) reversed or ‘from the south’ underneath or ‘supporting’ VI (six in Roman numerals – ‘what Catullus wrote’ for ‘sex’ – Latin for six)
ORANGe (fruit) missing last letter or ‘most of’ + U (a homophone – ‘reportedly’ – of YOU) + TAN (bake in the sun)
IN (popular) SET (‘painted flats’ – on a stage)
TAKE (appropriate) ISSUE (children)
CUE (hint) around or ‘capturing’ R (rook) V (against)
An anagram (‘moving’) of DIRECTLY around C (speed of light)
Double definition, the first being Cockney rhyming slang for ‘wife’
LO (check this out) N (new) DON informal name for Donald Trump, the president-elect
An anagram (‘perhaps’) of AS WELL NOT
CA (about) T (time) replacing ‘a n’ (knight) in anALOGUE (continually changing)
AA (motorists as in Automobile Association) around or ‘touring’ US (American) TRAIL with I L (one left) reversed or ‘going the wrong way’
G (golf) AMBIT (range)
Double definition, the first referring to whisky
booKINGS (reservations) without or ‘expressing’ ‘boo’ (disapproval)
FRIEnD (buddy) without n (name)
A reversal (‘upset’) of R (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of player) EVIL (wrong)
E as an abbreviation for engineering in EVANS is very questionable. With equally valid wordplay, gamble fits the definition better that GAMBIT for 20d. Maybe the theme got in the way of some better clues.
I liked SCOTCH very much especially the surface and NIGHTLIFE which raised a smile. I thought ETAS was a funny old clue but I guess it was there because of the theme which I missed, d’oh. Sometimes I wish I was smarter, but then chess gives me a headache so … thanks B & J and Atrica.
Wonder why (S)he didn’t go for ‘electric vehicle’ (e-van) in 9a.
That was a puzzle to gladden the heart of an ex-county chess player, even if some answers were slightly contrived to fit the theme. The ORANG-UTAN is also an opening (the unconventional 1 b4, also known as the Polish Opening).
I joined the school chess club because I fancied one of the members, but lost every single game, so the theme was lost on me. Some very weird clues/answers/definitions but quite enjoyable, so thanks Atrica and B&J.
Thanks very much to B&J for the blog, and to everyone who has commented. There is actually a little more thematic material in the clues, although it has no effect on any of the answers and I’m not sure why I put it there. Tim C @1, re. e = engineering, it is listed as an abbreviation in Chambers (alongside electron, electronic and engineer). I used it on purpose as e is often energy or electronic in crosswords and I thought engineer(ing) would be a useful addition, especially as it could have several interpretations. But if people find it irritating I’ll drop it in future. Finally, re. g(ambit) I must admit that I did not notice that an alternative answer was possible. In my defense I would offer that amble = range would be rather a loose equivalency.
Thanks Atrica and B and J. Very much enjoyed, especially VIENNA and INSOLENT
Amused (when I Googled him) to read how much Catullus had written about sex. Presumably everyone knew that, but I didn’t.
Thanks Atrica @6, what version of Chambers is that (e=engineering) in? I can’t find it in my 2016 hardcopy or the electronic version. They have eng=engineering listed as the abbreviation. It’s not irritating. I’d just like to find support for it because as you say “energy” and “electronic” are a bit overused.
Hi Tim C @8, I searched on chambers.co.uk, since I live in the USA. Trying to paste in a screen shot but it doesn’t work 🙁 This is the explicit link https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=e&title=21st
I was a bit surprised to find it myself, to be honest. Perhaps it’s too good to be true. It would have been easy to use e = electronic in that clue. btw thank you for the reply. Every puzzle I’ve set so far has been themed and it does introduce some very awkward words. I was debating about a New Year’s resolution to set non-themed puzzles, since after the poetry one I’m running out of ideas, but have not decided yet.
Atrica @9…. Well that’s very strange. I’ve been going through Chambers extracting the single letter abbreviations and have as the list for E in v.2016…
“tablet,drug (inf); Earl; earth; East; Eastern; Ecstasy, the drug (inf); electronic, esp as over the internet, as in e-mail, e-trading, e-economy; English; European (as in E number); exa-; Spain (ie Espana; IVR); 250; electric field strength; electromotive force; energy; 250000; the base of the natural system of logarithms; the eccentricity of a conic section; an electron”
I wonder whether the online search for Chambers is finding it in multiple words, for example Bachelor of Engineering is given as BEng as well as BE.
One other site I’ve found useful for these sorts of things when setting is the Clinical Data part of the Clue Clinic site. Dr Clue is pretty strict in what he finds acceptable.
I’ve just realised my first post probably came across as very negative by picking out the 2 negative things I found, but I generally enjoyed the crossword so many thanks.
Tim C @10, thank you for the link. I don’t think I’ll use E = “engineering” in the future. Although it is found for example in EE (electrical engineering) and CE (chemical engineering), pulling these compounds apart is indeed tricky and I’m not sure how happy I would be to encounter “chemical” for C.