Despite everything you hear, or whatever you presume, cryptic crosswords aren’t that hard. Let me say that again: cryptic crosswords aren’t that hard. With one big if: if you know how to read the clues.
The moment you attune to the language, the eurekas flow. Veteran solvers know that already. Each clue has rules to obey. To an outsider, this may seem unlikely, given the puzzles read like gibberish, but there’s a hidden grammar awaiting your mind.
Chess is a good parallel. As a kid, glancing at a chessboard from a distance, I panicked. The game had no apparent logic. Different pieces had different mannerisms, from sliding castles to jumping horses. A pawn might move one square, or two, or cut a diagonal path if it wished to kill a bishop. Every contest seemed a genteel sort of chaos.
That changed the moment I grasped chess’s rules. As soon as I gleaned the principles—learnt where the pieces stand and how they travel—the chaos dissipated.
Of course, learning the rules of chess is not the same as mastering the game, which might take a lifetime. But the argument still holds: grasp the ABCs of KQB, and you can savour chess from the inside, enjoying the battle rather than battling to understand.
It’s not far to jump from a chessboard to a cryptic crossword. To fathom the clues, you need to read the instructions, which you’ll meet on the pages to come.
Or maybe you know the basics already and wish to improve your solving insights. Either way, the tools await you in Part Two.
That’s why I’ve split this section into four, five if we count this preamble. Coming up is a choice of tutorials, arranged according to your solving prowess. Novices should start at the lowest level, getting familiar with the basic clue formulas, before attempting the more advanced workout, where hardcore solvers are invited to begin. Or then again, even if you’re a dab hand already, you may well enjoy seeing the start-up stuff, if not to refresh your memory, then to measure the progress you’ve made since coming to the puzzle page.
The tutorials are as follows:
Body building is a brisk rundown of how a clue is made, a blueprint recommended for every reader. This section will show you how to scan a cryptic clue, and how to break it down. Learners will need to know this discipline, while experts will benefit from seeing the familiar principles revisited. After that comes your workout dilemma—the Neuro-cardio gentle start-up or the Guru yoga high-intensity training? Both courses teem with chances to stretch your wits and boost your brainpower for the wrestles to follow.
Neuro-cardio is a crash course for rookies, a chance to meet the most common recipes from anagrams to deletions. No stopwatch, no deadline—the circuit is there for you to get familiar with each mode of cryptic language, from reversals to charades, grasping the elements of each clue type, and alerting your senses to the regular traps.
Guru yoga, on the other hand, is more of a stretch. Made for cryptic insiders, this level tests your reflexes across a rarer range of clues, dipping into spoonerisms, entangling with puns and overhauling rebuses. By going deeper into the craft of crosswords, this session will help you glean the setter’s mindset, seeing all the moves and poses that go behind the deceits.
Your sessions await, custom-made for the tyro or the pro. And when you’ve sweated through one or both, then I can recommend Part Two’s last hurrah—the Booster pack, comprising the top ten tips for solving success. Treat this final checklist as a touchstone. If need be, fit the pack into your pocket to keep brain-fit for the real stuff coming. Let’s crack on.