ADVENT TENSQUARE 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

 

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1+0

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2+0

2+1

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2+6

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DAILY MAIL

Thursday, December 1, 2005

James Mills

HAS THIS MAN SOLVED THE GREAT TENSQUARE TEASER?

Ted Clarke within a whisker of Immortality

The ultimate in word weaving . . . but 'nonsevent' could make it a non event

" IT is, more fiendish t.han any Countdown conundrum, more rriind-bogglingly frustrating than the most cryptic of crosswords.
The idea is to fill a grid with ten words, each containing ten letters, which read the same across as down.
Known as a tensquare, the puzzle has been around for centuries and has stumped anyone who has ever tried to solve it - even those armed with a computer program.
But now a retired aircraft design engineer from Cornwall claims to have ­ cracked it well, almost.
Ted Clarke, 79, has come up with a solution which - by his own admission - is not perfect,.but comes closer than. any other that has so far been found.
He has achieved it by including one word - nonesevent- which is now the subject, of a heated-debate among word puzzle experts around the world.
Mr Clarke, says nonesevent means an event occurring on. the nones - the ninth day before the Ides of March in the
ancient Roman calendar.
Unfortunately, it does.not;appear in any dictionary. 'Finding the perfect ten­square is so extraordinarily difficult that it is widely accepted that the boundaries of. language liave to be stretched a little,' Mr Clarke said yesterday.
'They. say that anyone who comes with the perfect solution will be immortalised.
'Well I don't. claim to have made nyself immortal, but I think I have come withiin a whisker of it - and certainly closer than
anyone else',
'Others have done it by pushing together names such. as Kevin Brown, or repeating .the same words twice.. But no one has ever created a tensquare using ten different recognisable words, and possibly they never will.

'Not perfect, but it's the best yet'

Ross Eckler, editor of Word Ways magazine,in the United States, and New Zealander Jeff Grant, a Scrabble fanatic who has spent the past 30 years trying to crack the problem, have accepted all Mr Clarke's words besides nonesevent.
Six of the words can be found in various dictionaries. These are discussing; incantator, scarlatina, carnitines, unlikeness and itinerates.
Two others - satinweave and grassnest - are technically two words, but are often used as one these days. Satinweave is a
type of fabric and grassnest is a bird's nest made of grass.
The remaining word, statewren, is also a little dubious. According'to Mr Clarke, it refers to a number of wrens which are
the symbols of American states, such as South Carolina.
Puzzle expert Tony Augarde, who compiled the Oxford Guide to Word Games, said Mr Clarke's is the best tensquare he has ever seen. 'It's not .perfect, but it's the best yet,' he added.
'Some of the words in Mr Clarke's square are not well known -put it. depend,s on your definition of what language is.'Mr Clarke has pushed the boundaries of language, but who is to say what is a word and what isn't?'
The first word squares were con­structed in ancient Greece as far back as 600BC and are the forerunners of the modern crossword.
A five-word square was found carved, on stone in the ruins of Pompeii, dating from tlie first century AD.
The game was developed in England in the19th Century to include 'across' clues an in 1913 the first crossword was published in the New York World newspaper, Word squares using more than six letter words are extremely difficult to construct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A numberof seven-word squares using recognisable 'Words have been created, but squares using eight or nine-letter words. require the use of obscure or archaic words and a computer program.
Other tensquares have been created in the past, but have fallen short of the ideal that foreign words should not be used in an English-language puzzle.
Thus, one tensquare that used the French phrase ses tunnels - with the words run together - and the German verb amputieren, was frowned upon.
Another possible disqualification in the eyes of purists is that words must not be too tortuously contrived. ­
Mr Clarke, who has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren, lives with his 74-year-old wife Margaret in the village of Mawgan Porth, near Newquay.
He has been a fan of word puzzles since he was a boy and over the past decade has built up a computer database of more than 70,000 words.
He uses a spiecal program to search the millions of combinations for possible solutions.
Once he finds one that comes close, he tries to find obscure words that might fill in the gaps.
John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, said: 'As far as I can see, all potential tensquares have a few wobbly words in them. This seems to be no exception, but I'm not a word square expert.

 

Many of the words in the puzzle above, such as 'discussing' and 'unlikeliness' need no explanation. But some of the others may be a little less familiar...

INCANTATOR: Person who ritually recites magic words or sounds

SCARLATINA: Technical name for scarlet fever

CARNITINES: A nutrient found in the liver and muscle

STATESWREN: According to Mr Clarke, it refers to a number of wrens which are sy mbols of American states

SATINWEAVE: Type of fabric

ITINERATES: Verb meaning to move from place to place

GRASSNESTS: Birds nests made,of grass

 

D	I	S	C	U	S	S	I	N	G
I	N	C	A	N	T	A	T	O	R
S	C	A	R	L	A	T	I	N	A
C	A	R	N	I	T	I	N	E	S
U	N	L	I	K	E	N	E	S	S
S	T	A	T	E	S	W	R	E	N
S	A	T	I	N	W	E	A	V	E
I	T	I	N	E	R	A	T	E	S
N	O	N	E	S	E	V	A	N	T
G	R	A	S	S	N	E	S	T	S

 

"Can you come up with the perfect tensquare"

?

 

1	D	=	4	10	DISCUSSING	124	43	7
2	I	=	9	10	INCANTATOR	115	43	7
3	S	=	1	10	SCARLATINA	98	35	8
4	C	=	3	10	CARNITINES	112	49	10
5	U	=	3	10	UNLIKENESS	129	39	7
6	S	=	1	10	STATESWREN	144	36	7
7	S	=	1	10	SATINWEAVE	119	38	3
8	I	=	9	10	ITINERATES	120	48	10
9	N	=	5	10	NONSEVENT	133	43	10
10	G	=	7	10	GRASSNESTS	141	33	10
55	-	-	43	100	First Total	1235	407	56
5+5	-	-	4+3	1+0+0	Add to Reduce	1+2+3+5	4+0+7	5+6
10	-	-	7	1	Second Total	11	11	11
1+0	-	-	-	-	Reduce to Deduce	1+1	1+1	1+1
1	-	-	7	1	Essence of Number	2	2	2

 

 

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

 

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

 

 

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."

 

 

3	THE	33	15	6
7	PERFECT	73	37	1
6	NUMBER	73	28	1
2	OF	21	12	3
4	GODS	45	27	9
7	LETTERS	99	36	9
5	TEN	39	12	3
2	SQUARE	81	36	9
6	ELEVEN	63	27	9
5	SEVEN	65	29	2
3	ONE	34	16	7
3	TWO	58	13	4
4	WORD	60	24	6
5	WORDS	79	34	7
8	LANGUAGE	68	32	5
9	LANGUAGES	87	42	6
7	ENGLISH	74	38	2
8	LANGUAGE	68	32	5
15		142	70	7

 

NUMBERS OF LETTERS LETTERS OF NUMBERS