Ifor (EV) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

EV 1734 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1734 (Hints)

Dynamo by Ifor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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This week, I asked Gemini, “I am about to tackle a themed crossword puzzle from a setter called Ifor. Do I have good reason for trepidation?”

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EV 1721 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1721 (Hints)

At the Bottom of the Grid by Ifor

Hints and tips by Gabriel

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I submitted the preamble to OpenAI which to be fair found it completely incomprehensible and proposed several rewrites and offered to: “suggest alternative single-line preambles with different tones (concise, cryptic-setter-house style, or very-solver-friendly)” – is this an improvement: “In greyed columns missing bars, solvers must follow the name spelled by extra letters from down clues to form expected bottom entries, then rearrange and divide each to reveal what was actually seen, all resulting entries being real words or names”? Continue reading

EV 1706

Enigmatic Variations 1706 (Hints)

Impact by Ifor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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Keen to get ahead of the game, I asked Claude, “In a themed crossword puzzle, we are told that in the filled grid we must simulate the effect of an action by moving a thematic block of cells within the two central columns, thus displacing another block. What might the theme of the puzzle be?”

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EV 1692 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1692 (Hints)

Anonymous by Ifor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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This week I thought I’d do a search on Dave Hennings’ excellent database of themed crosswords (xwdb.info) to locate earlier puzzles that had a connection with the word ‘anonymous’.

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