Puzzle Notes

Dear friends,

This week's Classic puzzle is a diagramless crossword called "A Nice Diagramless" at 3/5 difficulty. Unlike a regular crossword, with a diagramless you need to determine where the black squares and answer numbers belong in the grid. The completed grid still obeys standard crossword rules (the answers fully interlock and are each three or more letters long). If this is your first diagramless puzzle, or if it's been a while, you may want to reference the accompanying hints file, which will tell you where in the first row 1-Across and 1-Down begin, as well as what type of symmetry the puzzle uses. Given the format, this puzzle is by necessity .PDF only.

Francis writes: "I had a delightful time collaborating with Alex on this, and also had a delightful time editing his upcoming book, 'Puzzlewright Guide to Diagramless Crosswords,' which will be on bookstore shelves on July 26. It was supposed to be out sooner, but supply chain issues have caused an unexpected shortage of blank crossword grids, so unfortunately it's not quite available yet to help you with *this* puzzle, but we tried to keep it on the easier side (and starting square and symmetry hints are available in a separate PDF)."

And Alex writes: "It was delightful working with Francis on both projects! Francis is an amazing editor and collaborator. And as a first-time author, I really appreciated Francis's help in navigating the publishing process. If you enjoy this puzzle, I'd recommend you pick up our book! It contains more than 50 brand new diagramless crosswords. You can pre-order it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble (among others)."

We hope you're having a lovely summer.


Yrs,
Ben and the expanded AVCX crew
avxwords.com // @avcxword // @lilavcx // @avcxplus // @avcxtrivia