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Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by anothernewdude on Saturday July 02, 2022 @11:25PM (#31964770)
I'm looking for a good online cryptic crossword. Something harder than Lovatt's Cryptic. The Guardian is no good, I can look at their solutions and still have no idea why those are the answers.
Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by culturedsystems on Sunday July 03, 2022 @04:14AM (#31966042)
More useful than just the solutions on the Grauniad's site is https://www.fifteensquared.net/ which has solutions with explanations of most of the UK newspaper cryptic crosswords, including the Guardian.
Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by dash2 on Sunday July 03, 2022 @01:56AM (#31965441)
There’s a subreddit on UK-style crosswords that will help you with understanding clues: r/crosswords. NB that r/crossword is for the US style.

You might find the Telegraph easier than the Graun to start with.

Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by Agingcoder on Sunday July 03, 2022 @03:03AM (#31965710)
You just need to ask someone /read guides about solving cryptic crosswords. Once you get used to it, it makes sense, but there can a surprising amount of 'unofficial' knowledge (abbreviations, 'common' crossword answers, etc), or things which are uk-specific and are not straightforward if you're not from the uk.

Some compilers are also easier than others / will make more sense to you (I like brendan, nutmeg, vulcan, and philistine).

Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by billfruit on Saturday July 02, 2022 @11:30PM (#31964798)
May be the Guardian one needs a Chambers dictionary to solve it?

But still, is there a good guide to get into Cryptics?

Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by tominous on Sunday July 03, 2022 @01:12AM (#31965253)
Cracking the Cryptic, e.g.: https://youtu.be/ecytVCusIeY

It's mostly a variant sudoku channel but Mark Goodliffe is an insanely good cryptic crossword solver, and both Simon and Mark are good teachers.

Beyond the intro the key skills are: parsing the clues into definition and wordplay, knowing signifiers for different types of wordplay, recognising common abbreviations (there are lists a web search away), recalling short synonyms, and anagramming.

If you want to get your mind blown I highly recommend spending the $2 for Cracking the Cryptic's Patreon to watch Mark solve the Monthly Club Special using almost pure wordplay and whatever string manipulation coprocessor he has in his head (which also seems to work for sudoku too).

Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by billfruit on Sunday July 03, 2022 @02:20AM (#31965547)
That youtube channel seems to have veered into mostly Sudoku style puzzles than Cryptics.
Re:The Berkeley Crossword Solver by tominous on Sunday July 03, 2022 @03:03AM (#31965709)
Yes I said that. Still -- many, many hours of cryptic crosswords being solved and explained if you want to see how the best in the world does it.