ADVENT NINESQUARE ADVENT

 

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1+0	1+1	1+2	1+3	1+4	1+5	1+6	1+7	1+8
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	I
19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	9
1+9	2+0	2+1	2+2	2+3	2+4	2+5	2+6	ME
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
I	ME	I	ME	I	ME	I	ME	1
9	18	9	18	9	18	9	18	9
-	1+8	-	1+8	-	1+8	-	1+8	-
-	9	-	9	-	9	-	9	-
I	ME	I	ME	I	ME	I	ME	1
9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
I	ME	I	ME	I	ME	I	ME	1

 

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

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J

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1

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10

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19

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21

22

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25

26

1+0

1+1

1+2

1+3

1+4

1+5

1+6

1+7

1+8

1+9

2+0

2+1

2+2

2+3

2+4

2+5

2+6

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

2

3

4

5

6

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8

9

1

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3

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7

8

A

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Y

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A

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D

E

F

G

H

I

J

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M

N

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P

Q

R

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X

Y

Z

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

2

3

4

5

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7

8

A

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C

D

E

F

G

H

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J

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L

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V

W

X

Y

Z

 

 

3	THE	33	15	6
4	NINE	39	12	3
6	SQUARE	81	36	9
13	-	153	63	18
1+3	-	1+5+3	6+3	1+8
4	-	9	9	9
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-
3	THE	33	15	6
7	ENGLISH	74	38	2
8	LANGUAGE	68	32	5
18		175	85	13
1+8		1+7+5	8+5	1+3
9		13	13	4

 

 

THE TIMES

Saturday December 3 2005

It's still beating the best brains, but can you crack world's most difficult puzzle?

By Simon de Bruxelles

"COMPUTERS and the inter­net have transformed the world of word puzzles, turning a previously solitary pastime into a communal brainstorming activity.
But computers were no use to Ted Clarke, a retired engineer from Cornwall, whose ten-square acrostic word puzzle, published in The Times on Thursday, took seven years to compile using pencil and paper. Described as the world's most fiendish puzzle, as addictive as the most cryptic crossword, it is the ideal companion for the numerical Su Doku.
Since Mr Clarke's word square, the largest in any language, was published he has been inundated with e-mails of congratulations from around the world. Although some experts dispute at least one of the words, most agree that it is the "best attempt" yet at a ten­letter word square.
One expert in word' games has estimated that 900 nine-letter word squares have been compiled, but Mr Clarke's is the first with ten that does not include proper names or for­eign words. Mr Clarke, 79, said: "For me getting it published in the The Times was better than winning the lottery."
Readers who enjoyed the challenge of trying to fill in the blanks now have the chance to have another go. We have gathered a selection of word squares ranging in size from three by three to eight by eight against which to test your wits.
To give you a helping hand we have left some of the letters in situ. On Monday we will be publishing a nine-letter square. For the largest square we have also provided some crossword clues."
Samurai Su Doku, Books, page 28

 

 

THE TIMES

Monday December 5 2005

Page 12

Isoscelar: Having two equal sides

Sartorite: A rare suphide mineral

Organette: A form of musical keyboard with fewer keys

Stamached: A Scottish version of stomached Conactors: Joint agents

Erectable: Able to be put up

Lithobiid: A centipede that lives close to dead logs

Atterllng: A shrew

Reed-sedge: A form of reed

 

I	S	O	S	C	E	L	A	R
S	A	R	T	O	R	I	T	E
O	R	G	A	N	E	T	T	E
S	T	A	M	A	C	H	E	D
C	O	N	A	C	T	O	R	S
E	R	E	C	T	A	B	L	E
L	I	T	H	O	B	I	I	D
A	T	T	E	R	L	I	N	G
R	E	E	D	S	E	D	G	E

 

 

1	I	=	9	9	ISOSCELAR	101	38	2
2	S	=	1	9	SARTORITE	125	44	8
3	O	=	6	9	ORGANETTE	105	42	6
4	S	=	1	9	STAMACHED	74	29	2
5	C	=	3	9	CONACTORS	108	36	9
6	E	=	5	9	ERECTABLE	71	35	8
7	L	=	3	9	LITHOBIILD	88	52	7
8	A	=	1	9	ATTERLING	106	43	7
9	R	=	9	9	REEDSEDGE	72	45	9
45	-	-	38	81	First Total	850	364	58
4+5	-	-	3+8	8+1	Add to Reduce	8+5+0	3+6+4	5+8
9	-	-	11	9	Second Total	13	13	13
-	-	-	1+1	-	Reduce to Deduce	1+3	1+3	1+3
9	-	-	2	9	Essence of Number	4	4	4

 

 

THIRTEEN 99 THIRTEEN

99 NAMES OF GOD GOD OF NAMES 99

NUMBERS OF LETTERS LETTERS OF NUMBERS

 

 

THE TIMES

Thursday December 1 2005

NEWS

Page 3

'Su Doku' word game that baffled Ancient Greeks took an expert 7 years to crack - you've got 10 minutes (and a little help}

A Cornish engineer claims to have completed the 10-letter acrostic that foxed a computer

A BRITISH engineer claims to have solved a puzzle that has counfounded some of the world's best brains since the time of the Ancient. Greeks.
Ted Clarke, 79, believes that he has devised the largest acros­tic square - ten letters by ten, spelling out the same words
horizontally and vertically ­in the English language.
However, his claim to have come up with the "best yet" solution to the conundrum of the ten-square puzzle does not satis­fy some experts. They say that because one of his words does not appear in any dictionary it should be disallowed.
Like the immensely popular numbers puzzle, Su Doku, which The Times introduced to Britain, the. acrostic word square is based on a grid. The words must read the same hori­zontally and vertically and there must be no misspellings or leftover letters.

One of the most famous acrostics was found scratched on a wall in the ruins of Pompeii: It reads:

ROTAS

OPERA

TENET

AREPO

SATOR

" It is unique in that it not only reads the same up .and down and left to right, it also spells out a passable Latin sentence translated as "the sower Arepo holds the wheels at work".
Mr Clarke, a retired aircraft engineer from Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, has been fascinated by word puzzles since he was a boy. He made.thec::laim to have completed the ten-word acros­tic in Word'sWorth, the puzzle magazine that he publishes.
He said: "Over the years people have been trying to con­struct bigger and bigger squares. People have made them from fantastic words that no one could find. Some have done it using names of cities and people names. These have been eschewed."
Mr Clarke is still seeking the "perfect" solution using non­compound words, but says that may be impossible. "Most ex­perts agree that it can't be done, but this is the closest we' ve got to it so far."
The challenge proved too much for a crossword-solving computer program, so he com­pleted his square "by hand". He said: "1' d leave it running all night looking for ten-letter words that would fit, but 1'd come down in the morning and it wouldn't have one."
His claim to have constructed the world's first ten-letter square is supported by Tony Augarde, author of the Oxford Guide toWord Games. Mr Augarde said; "It's not perfect but it's the best I've seen. Previous attempts used words that no one one had heard of or tautonyms, words that repeat the same sound like orang-utan, which made it easier.
"Some of the words in Ted Clarke's square are not well known and he has pushed the boundaries of language, but who is to say what is a word and what isn't?"
Other experts believe that Mr Clarke has "pushed the boundaries" too far with the word nonesevent. According to Mr Clarke the word, perhaps more correctly nones-event, is an event that takes place during a period of the month known as the nones by the Ancient Romans, rather like the Ides of March.
Ross Eckler, an expert from New Jersey, and Jeff Grant, an Australian who has spent the past 30 years trying to crack the problem, say that the puzzle is still waiting to be solved.
Roger Millington, author of The Strange World of Cross­words, who has traced the origins of the acrostic to Ancient Greece, wrote that the creator of the first accepted ten-letter square would achieve "a lifetime of immortality". Mr Clarke said: "I am not claiming immortality yet, but this is the closest we've got to solving this puzzle."

Page 3

Example of the previous best - a nine letter puzzle

Source; Oxford Guide to Word Games

 

F	R	A	T	E	R	I	E	S
R	E	G	I	M	E	N	A	L
A	G	I	T	A	T	I	V	E
T	I	T	A	N	I	T	E	S
E	M	A	N	A	T	I	S	T
R	E	T	I	T	R	A	T	E
I	N	I	T	I	A	T	O	R
E	A	V	E	S	T	O	N	E
S	L	E	S	T	E	R	E	D

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1905049,00.html

THE TIMES

December 5, 2005

Acrostic challenge tests up to the nines
By Sam Coates

READERS of The Times are finding that it’s impossible to be agnostic about the acrostic, as Britain’s sharpest brains race to solve the latest round of fiendish word puzzles.

Today we challenge you to complete a nine-letter word square, a linguistic Samurai Su Doku that will stimulate your powers of logic, wit and language. Our crossword experts have even compiled some cryptic clues to help you along.

Tony Augarde, author of the Oxford Guide to Word Games, said: “This is one of the word games that has amused people for centuries. Five and six-letter word squares are comparatively easy.” But he recognises that this puzzle pushes the English language to its limit. “I don’t think there are any of eight letters or more that don’t include disputed words,” he said.

Peter Taylor, from Cambridge, has written his own puzzle-solving computer program, but acknowledges its limitations: “If Ted Clarke’s [the retired engineer from Cornwall who came up with a ten-square puzzle] dictionary contains about 45,000 words, I estimate that it would take my program between 7½ months and seven years to conduct a search to crack the problem.”

The Times Killer Su Doku

Killer Su Doku takes the puzzle to the next level. Using the same 9x9 grid there is a double challenge - complete it so that every row, column and cube contains the digits 1-9 but there are now outlined cubes on the grid that also need to add up to the same number

Format: Paperback

 

6	SUDOKU	91	19	1
9	CROSSWORD	134	44	8
10	CROSSWORDS	153	45	9

 

 

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/13495041.htm

Posted on Wed, Dec. 28, 2005

Sure, Sudoku looks simple

By Joan Morris

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

THE CASHIER at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Pleasant Hill scoops up the familiar yellow-and-black "For Dummies" book and thumbs through it while the customer rummages in her bag for a twenty.

"I just started doing these," she says, holding up the self-help guide for solving Sudoku puzzles. "I can do Monday and Tuesday in the paper, but I'm lost after that."

She is not alone. The puzzle phenomenon that has swept the nation has legions of fans. In addition to books, there are now computer games, Web sites and a television show in the works. Just imagine how popular it would be if we could just figure out how to solve the darn things.

Every week phone calls, letters and e-mail come into the newsroom from people asking the same question: "Where do I start?"

We've often wondered that ourselves. The Times began publishing the daily puzzles in August. The easiest puzzles are at the beginning of the week, the hardest at the end. Monday and Tuesday puzzles are considered beginner level (one to two stars). Wednesday and Thursday are intermediate (three and four stars).

Friday is expert level, carrying a five-star designation. And Saturday - oh, Saturday - is six-star (actually, 12-star because there are small stars inside the larger stars). The stars translate roughly to "Put out the dog, turn up the heat and restock the refrigerator. You're going to be working on this one a long, long time."

That's an awful lot of angst for a puzzle that requires neither inane trivia knowledge or math skills. The only way to get good at solving Sudoku puzzles is to do them, those who are good at solving them say. But borrowing liberally from "Sudoku for Dummies" (John Wiley & Sons Ltd., $9.99) and "Teach Yourself Sudoku" (Teach Yourself books, $9.95), we'll give you some tips for understanding how the puzzle works and how to get started.

Basic rules

The rules are very simple. Each column, row and block must contain the numbers one through nine. Therefore, no column, row or block can contain two or more of the same number.

This is easier to understand what that means by looking at the puzzle. See the rows going across? Each row has nine squares, and you fill in the numbers, one through nine. Look at the columns that go up and down on the grid. They also have nine squares that will contain the numbers one through nine. Now look at the boxes. In the Times puzzle, some are shaded to help you identify them. The boxes also consist of nine squares and, you guessed it, they will contain the numbers one through nine.

There is only one solution to each puzzle, and we aren't sure whether that's good or bad news when it comes to solving the thing.

Getting started

Every puzzle will contain a few numbers already in their proper places. The easier puzzles have more numbers filled in.

There is no set starting place. It may be easier to start in an area that has the most numbers filled in.

As you work the puzzle, ask yourself this question, over and over: "If this square contains such-and-such number, will so-and-so number go into this other box?" The question has only three answers: Yes, no or maybe.

If it's a yes, write it in. If it's no, move along. If it's maybe, pencil in the possible numbers in the upper or lower corners of the squares.

The key is to consider the puzzle as a whole, even as you're working small sections of it. Just because you can fill in all the numbers in a block, doesn't mean those numbers are correct for the row or column.

When working a block, check the rows and columns that intersect it. Are you about to write a "2" into a square that already has a "2" in that row? Is the "5" you just wrote down in conflict with a "5" somewhere else in the column?

Experts recommend looking for pairs located in the stacks and bands. Let's say you have a band (a horizontal line of three blocks) that contains two eights. There is an eight in the top row of the first box, and an eight in the middle row of the third box. That means the center box is missing its eight.

Now you have to figure out what row and what column the eight will go into. You know it can't go in the first or second row because there already are eights in those rows. So now you know it goes in the third row. Check the columns for other eights. With a little luck, you should be able to figure it out.

When you run into a roadblock of "maybe" answers, move to another portion of the grid and work on completing blocks, rows and columns. Often, by solving a portion of the puzzle, you'll find that you've cleared up questions in another part."