ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ CHECK THESE OUT]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ CHECK THESE OUT]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Are we already at that time of the month where we have another Visual Thesaurus puzzle? Yeah, I guess we are. Time flies, etc. etc. Go get ’em.
Also, what the hell’s going here, Quigley? More chess related material in the puzzle? Last time I checked the name at the top of this blog does not say Matt Gaffney. I go to his site for the esoteric bullcrap about Garry Kasparov. Where’s the indie rock minutiae? (Hey, now, take a chill pill and look at 49-Across. See? I got you covered.)
There was a very brief moment in my life (I think we’re talking like six months) where I played chess. Lots of it. That doesn’t mean I was any good at it. It just meant I played a lot of it. Okay, the one and only chess tournament I competed in I won whatever remedial group I was forced to play in. I think it was called the Nosepickers division, if memory serves. I think I had a distinct advantage over the other sad sacks competing because I knew the forward-thinking strategy of castling.
Chess humor, folks. Embrace it!
Well, anyway, I got this theme the other week whilst IM-ing with Matt. We shoot the shit all the time. Subjects include: puzzles, our new-found celebrity, grainy Belgian documentaries on the Bilderberg Group, you name it. Well, anyway, it’s no secret cuz I’ve said it before, but let me repeat it: when I started off constructing, I liberally ripped off Matt G’s style. So let’s take a moment to embrace this nod/homage to my homie. Read it and weep, Matt. Read it and weep that I couldn’t come up with an ALEKHINE pun.
Programming note: This one was rated Hard based on how well you know your chess champions. It might be a Mard, I dunno. Don’t shoot the puzzlemaker.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
[Is Emanuel’s wife available?] I DUNNO, I’LL LASKER
loved this one. then again, i know my chess champions. except for f***ing smyslov.
MORPHY ADDICTION?
Lots of great stuff. Taking over a Virgin tops my list. Couldn’t quite get the top themed answer (never heard of him, didn’t have enough crosses) but the rest was merry, merry mard.
Nice puzzle, but not your MAGNUS OPUS…..
Nice ones, eP and Joon! “EUWE” ARE THE GREATEST!
BEQ, I applaud your choice of these. As the chess nerds say, ‘Always check, it might be mate.’
Eric Maddy hits from downtown! This party has gotten started.
{Alexander’s answer when somebody poses him a tough chess problem?} ALEKHINE TO IT
Thought of a better one to replace my earlier entry:
[Stoned Emanuel’s relative?] BAKED A LASKER
[Free endgame lessons from Vasja during lunch hour?] A PIRC OF THE JOB
OK eP, you’ve released my inner chess nerd — Pirc was never world champion like the others (we’ll give MAGNUS a pass since he’ll be world champion very soon) and it’s pronounced “peerts” instead of “perk”.
/nerd rant over
I can’t do anything with SPASSKY, but there was a Cold War-era Capitol Steps song about spying where they rhymed it with “passkey.”
Sorry … I just know the names from the openings, not so much their *master status, and certainly not their pronunciations! Maybe if I was a chess writer and had a presS PASS, KY information like that wouldn’t be a problem.
Oh I just saw BAKED A LASKER. Nice! He was a cigar smoker, but who knows whether he snuck some green stuff into them before games?
Viswanathan Anand was an answer in a puzzle I did recently (maybe here). Is this guy becoming the new Mel Ott?
Wish I had a chess pun to bring to the party! Knew of Karpov and Fischer but not of Anand or Tal, so yes—a very hard solve for me. But I maintain that not being up on my chess masters (no mistresses?) does not strip me of my geekhood.
@BEQ, you are the winner of this week’s Oreo Achievement Award for coming up with the best clue since the one about how many flowers are on one.
Still cannot figure out “KAS in kind”. Elucidation? Joon? Anyone? (Oh god pleeease don’t let it be too effing obvious!)
BTW, I know enough French to get ON DIT, but shouldn’t the clue cue the foreign language?
@Matt – When solving the puzzle, I kept trying to fit BOTVINNIK into 57A … I had -INKOFWATER but felt sure that it was supposed to be -NIKOFWATER 🙂
“k” as in kind
It’s so nice to see men binding together over chess I almost feel like putting in an INTERJ but I’ll just stay on the sidelines. I’m surprised nobody played off my fav Capablanca, I’m sure a horrible Manilow pun can come from that.
“p” as in parse…
Thanks.
Electronica version of Volare? : Nel blu di pinti DEEP BLUE
We lost one of the world champions today:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6219
What does the first entry “translate” to:
“Turning off and on” is about the best I can come up with
Same here. I remember chess names from the musical (Chess), but guess I didn’t realize that Tal was also a Mikhail.