The Times - UK (2022-01-03)

the times | Monday January 3 2022 11

MindGames

© PUZZLER MEDIA

Divide the grid

into square or

rectangular

blocks, each

containing one

digit only. Every

block must

contain the

number of cells

indicated by the

digit inside it.

Enter each of

the numbers

from 1 to 9 in

the grid, so that

the six sums

work. We’ve

placed two

numbers to get

you started.

Each sum

should be

calculated left

to right or top

to bottom.

1235 3124

2413 5312

31 2351 31

517243

986 213

798 421

942715

24 1532 13

3125 5321

1243 3142

1 Moss 2 Yellow 3 Macbeth 4 Thirty 5 Henry Cavill

6 Harold Macmillan 7 Sarah Burton

8 George Frideric Handel 9 The Nore

10 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 11 Robert McKee

12 The Old Dark House 13 The Virgin Mary

14 Gail Devers 15 Penélope Cruz

Penteconter (b) A ship

with 50 oars (Collins)

Metage (b) An official

weighing of coal, grain etc

(Chambers)

Flagitious (b) Extremely

wicked (OED)

Kakuro 3079

Sudoku 12,904

Killer 8093

Futoshiki 4120

Cell Blocks 4357 Set Square 3082

Suko 3376

Train Tracks 1520

Word watch

Quiz

Saturday’s answers

cense, cine, coin, concise, cone, conic,

conn, conscience, cosine, ensconce,

eosin, icon, incense, nene, neon, nice,

niece, nine, noise, nonce, none, noni,

nose, once, oscine, scene, scenic, science,

scion, sconce, scone, seine, sene, senecio,

since, sine, sone, sonic

times2 Crossword No 8791 Brain Trainer
Just follow the instructions from left to right, starting with the number given to reach an answer at the end.

ANSWER

EASY^5

ANSWER

MEDIUM^110

ANSWER

HARDER 96

+ 8

+ 88

x 2

x 4

÷ 5

+ 194

x 2

x 2

• 75


• 11 x 4 + 16

x 3 + 58 + 88

x 2

+ 9

/ 2

OF IT

1

+ 668

/ 3

OF IT

1

+ 75%

OF IT

50%

OF IT

/ 3

OF IT

1

/ 4

OF IT

+^1 / 3

OF IT

+^2 – 992 / 6

OF IT

5

Across

1 Contests; corresponds (7)

5 Tall structure (5)

8 Exactly the right thing

(4,3,6)

9 Religious ceremony (4)

10 Indonesian volcano (8)

13 Warship (3)

14 Large area of land (5)

15 Charged particle (3)

16 Badly formed sweet or

biscuit (8)

17 Rotate rapidly (4)

20 Thoughtless (13)

22 Conjecture (5)

23 Children's room (7)

Down

1 Important, significant (5)

2 Lab items (4,5)

3 Intensely dislike (4)

4 Concerted attempt to

discredit (5,8)

5 Small ornaments (8)

6 Chinese frying pan (3)

7 Learn a new job (7)

11 Aircraft control surface (9)

12 Prints (8)

13 Totalling (7)

18 Very poor (5)

19 Shakespearean king (4)

21 Signal to actor (3)

Solution to Crossword 8790

T2 CROSSWORD No 8791

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8

9 10 11

12

13 14 15

16 17 18

19

20 21

22 23

HAMPERED A IM

P Y E U L A

PARALLELBARS

L I A U I

PELT YOSEMITE

E R W A

NAUSEA EAS ILY

N C E T

WARCHEST YANG

E A C L O

EMBRYOLOGIST

I R A R N E

ANY RENEGADE

Cell BlocksNo 4358

© PUZZLER MEDIA

Polygon Set SquareNo 3083

From these letters, make words of

three or more letters, always including

the central letter. Answers must be in

the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding

capitalised words, plurals, conjugated

verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending

in LY, comparatives and superlatives.

How you rate 15 words, average;

21, good; 27, very good; 33, excellent

Please note, BODMAS does not apply

Killer Gentle No 8094 Solutions

Killer Tricky No 8095

As with standard Sudoku, fill the grid so that every column,

every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set

of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number

in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted

lines, a digit cannot be repeated.

Need help with today’s puzzle? Call 0905 757 0143 to check the
answers. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s
network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

Cluelines Stuck on Sudoku, Killer or KenKen? Call 0901 293

6263 before midnight to receive four clues for any of today’s

puzzles. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network

access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

Have you met this second-hand-

high entry-killing play?

Dummy (entryless)

West ♦AJ1098East

♦K32— ♦Q54

Declarer

♦^76

When declarer (in, say, 3NT)

leads ♦6, West must hop up with

♦K. Declarer can now win only

one diamond trick — dummy’s ♦A.

This interesting 4♥ cropped up

in an Andrew Robson Bridge

online duplicate. West cashes the

ace-king of clubs and, sensibly

unwilling to break open the

majors, tries the ace of diamonds.

As declarer you ruff, and want

to reach dummy to take the heart

finesse. You lead the eight of

spades and West smoothly plays

low. You think West may rise with

the king if he has it (understand-

ably worried he’ll lose it because

declarer has two discards on

dummy’s promoted minor-suit

masters). Placing East with the

king, you therefore withhold

dummy’s queen.

If East wins the king of spades,

you can reach dummy via the

queen of spades to take the heart

finesse. East therefore lets the

eight of spades win. However, you

now cash the ace of spades and

lead a third spade to the jack,

queen and king.

East has no good play and can’t

do better than lead the queen of

diamonds. You discard your 13th

spade and win dummy’s king. You

can now lead the jack of hearts for

a finesse (or lead low to the

queen). East’s king soon falls under

the ace, and that’s ten tricks and

game made.

Have you spotted the winning

defence? West must cover the

eight of spades with the jack (key

play). If you withhold dummy’s

queen, West leads a second spade.

If you cover with dummy’s queen,

East wins the king and promptly

returns a second spade. Either way,

you can’t reach dummy to take the

heart finesse and must go one

down.

Note, if declarer cashes the ace

of spades first, and leads the eight

on the second round, again East

must cover it with the jack.

[email protected]

Contract: 4♥, Opening Lead: ♣A

Dealer: South, Vulnerability: Both

N

W E

S

1 ♥ 2 ♣(1) 2♥ 3 ♣(2)

4 ♥ End

(1) Marginal — I’d have probably doubled

despite the lack of a fourth spade. Double is

always your most economical and flexible

call. Overcalling a vulnerable 2♣ with ace-

king and three rags is too dangerous.

(2) Marginal but a vulnerable Two-level

overcall normally contains a sixth card.

S W N E

♠K76

♥K10

♦QJ874

♣ 1076

Pairs ♠Q42

♥J42

♦K1062

♣QJ3

♠A1098

♥AQ98763

♦-

♣ 92

♠J53

♥ 5

♦A953

♣AK854

Bridge Andrew Robson

H A N G

T A N

C O S T L Y

M E L

I O

C A P O N

EXCUSE

OH

DNA

UVV

SPOKE

TY

1 Flue

2 Prude

3 Confide

4 Compete

5 Precedent

Easy 46; Medium 141; Harder 6,730

1 ... Qxh2+! leads to 2 Kxh2

Rh6+ 3 Kg2 Bh3+ 4 Kh1 Bf1

mate

S D B O P N

A C H I L L E S E T A L

O S O P C V

I T C H E N R A T T Y

F D Y E O

B R I D G E Y A R R O W

E E A N

D E A L E R P O L I T E

I O D E H

A N V I L L A N C E R

D E L O A L

P E A R E X T E R N A L

N Y R A K M

Lexica 6160

Lexica 6159

Chess — Winning Move

Quintagram

Brain Trainer

Quick Cryptic 2039

KenKen 5466

Codeword 4474

Square Routes

146

Tredoku 1714

H C S S A

O F F U L

O T E R C

L O N A H

B O D E R