Sunday Themeless: 124 Words

You can probably see that I've been tweaking the 132-word Sunday themeless grid to get lower and lower word counts. This one's got 124, and is probably harder than the other ones, but it's still shaped like the cool S. It's still got an average word length of under 6, but now it's JUST under: 5.98. Also please ignore the cheater squares in the top-right and bottom-left corners; they're load-bearing. Next time I do a Sunday themeless, I'm probably going to try the same grid but without those, and honestly I'm a bit scared.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

25x25 Themeless: Parking Lot

We've finally breached the 6.00 average word length mark! And in a big way, with a massive 25x25 asymmetrical themeless. This puzzle was inspired by the work I did on Crosscord's Freehand Grid , which was a massive, completely asymmetrical crossword made without constructing software. While the massive open center of this puzzle started with Crossfire, it was mainly used to create a small central section that I expanded outwards myself. 74-, 90-, 97-, and 99-Across, 32-, 36-, 65-, and 75-Down were all added manually, and half of those weren't even in my wordlist. 
Read more

25x24 Themeless: International Waters

Hopping back on the train of asymmetrical themelesses with open centers. This one is a fair bit harder than the last, as a result of the center being bigger. The previous puzzle, "Parking Lot," had a 6x6 open section; this one has a 7x6. While all of the answers are legitimate (at least to me), be warned that they might be less familiar overall. Once again, the center was achieved with a little bit of computer fill in the center and a lot of manual fill around the edges. Besides the larger center, this puzzle has a higher average word length than the last. "Parking Lot" was 6.08 on average, this one is 6.13 on average. So, good luck! Thanks to Joel Grus for noticing a couple of errors in an earlier version!
Read more

21x21 Themeless: Now with Rotational Symmetry

Image
This themeless was inspired by Diana Sessions, a Pre-Shortzian constructor who was making puzzles with centers like this as early as the 1950's. I have no idea how you could even start to go about this back then; I used Crossfire and it still took ages and a lot of manual reworking to achieve anything like it. Just a couple of stats for the puzzle before we begin. It has 126 words, but only 52 black squares, thanks to the fact that the open center takes up so much space that you need minimal blocks to make the edges fillable. It's also finally a big-center themeless with rotational symmetry. Enjoy!
Read more