Guardian Genius

The twist in this puzzle was that each clue contained a superfluous word.  The initial letters of these words spell out the opening line of a work, which proved to be a song … Read more >>

Given the “Special instructions: 16 is displayed in all other solutions. All clues lack definitions.” my first step was to look at 16ac but I could not parse the clue other than to … Read more >>

Quite typically, I forgot I was meant to be blogging the Genius puzzle this month, so we solved it in a rush this morning in order to get this post done. This was … Read more >>

The preamble, or ‘Special Instructions’, as the Genius calls them, tell us to resolve one clash in each across solution, working out which of the clashing pair ‘best fits’ the grid. These corrected … Read more >>

This Genius puzzle by Puck had a fairly short preamble, as follows: Eight solutions, lacking further definition, are of a kind (one of them disputedly)  Their type can be confirmed by finding the … Read more >>

As is often the case in Genius puzzles, the special instructions were a little mysterious at first: “Seven solutions are of a kind and lack further definition. They must be suitably transformed before … Read more >>

This puzzle by Crucible used a device also to be found in the previous puzzle in this series by this setter, No 113 in November last year.  A number of clues (19 in … Read more >>

The special instructions were: *28 across and 12 down are unclued. Five solutions are 28 12 down, not further defined in their clues and 28 12 downs, say, have featured three other solutions, also … Read more >>

Annoyingly, I forgot that we were meant to be blogging this crossword until a reminder from Gaufrid today, so we were too late to actually enter the solution. However, it was fun to … Read more >>

Guardian. Genius. Araucaria. What more to say?!…   (I have to admit my heart skipped a beat when I saw my turn on the Genius rota was an Araucaria. After 20+ years of solving the … Read more >>

The Genius lulls you into a false sense of security.  You know you have a month to complete it so you keep putting off starting it. Then when you do you start, you realise … Read more >>

After a worryingly poor showing in my first session on this one, things went much better in the second and I managed to work my way bit by bit though it, with the … Read more >>

The preamble read as follows: Ten solutions can also be 30, initially. Any secondary definition or wordplay in their clues leads to the solution as it might appear if it were, indeed, 30 of any 26 12 before 22 down 22 across. … Read more >>

Well, this was an interesting challenge. My initial progress was quite rapid because I concentrated on the clues that were obviously not affected by the special instructions. The first modified entry that I … Read more >>

We hadn’t done a Guardian Genius for a while, but did this one since I was down on the rota for doing a blog post on it. I’m very glad about this in … Read more >>