01How a crossword grid worksSymmetry, numbering and checked squares explained. The grid tells you most of what you need before you read a single clue.
02Reading the clue: enumeration, part of speech and tenseA clue and its answer must be interchangeable. Matching number, tense and part of speech rules out most wrong answers before any crossing arrives.
03Fill words: the short answers that appear in almost every puzzleETUI, OLEO, ESNE and forty more. Why grids need these short words, how they are clued, and the fastest way to learn them.
04When you stall: a repeatable order of attackA half finished grid that has stopped moving is a structural problem, not a vocabulary one. Here is the checklist that unblocks it.
05Abbreviations: how a clue tells you the answer is shortenedFor short, briefly, Abbr., on a calendar. The flags that mean three letters instead of a word, and the families of abbreviation worth memorising.
06Question marks, quotation marks and other clue signalsA question mark means wordplay, quotation marks mean speech, square brackets mean a sound. What crossword punctuation is telling you before the words do.
07Themes and revealers: using the puzzle's big ideaMost weekday and Sunday crosswords are built on one idea. Learn where the theme entries sit, how the revealer announces itself, and how to spend the theme once you have it.
08Easy wins: fill-in-the-blank and proper-noun cluesEvery grid hands over a few answers for free. Here is how to find the blanks, partials, names and foreign words on a first pass, and how to turn them into crossings.
09How a cryptic clue is built: definition plus wordplayEvery cryptic clue is two clues printed on top of each other: a plain definition at one end and a set of building instructions beside it. Four worked examples.
10Paper or app: tools, check and reveal, and good solving habitsPaper and an app make different solvers. What each one does to your solving, what the three levels of checking cost you, and a working rule for looking things up.
11The weekly difficulty curve: which puzzle to pick and whenCrossword difficulty is scheduled. Here is how the American week is graded from Monday to Saturday, how British papers grade by series, and how to pick today's grid.
12A thirty-day solving routineA month of deliberate practice, half an hour a day, from an easy weekday grid to a first gentle cryptic, with four checkpoints and what to do when you miss one.