Types of crossword puzzles and their names. What are the types of crosswords? Stages of compiling educational crossword puzzles

Many adults and children are very fond of solving crossword puzzles, but few people know what a crossword puzzle really is and where it came from. This article will tell about it.

What is a crossword

What is a crossword? A crossword is usually called a game with words. This game is the most common and intellectual. If you literally translate the word "crossword" from English, you get two independent words: a cross and words. Thus, translating into Russian, we get a cross of words or a crossword. From this we can conclude that the crossword puzzle has its own distinctive property - it consists of the intersection of words. And his main rule is that each letter should be written separately from the rest, in its own cell.

Summing up, we found out that the crossword puzzle has its own distinctive properties and its own compilation rules. But in many newspapers and magazines, completely different tasks are called a crossword puzzle, not related to the intersection of words, or even not related to guessing words at all. And this means that such "crossword puzzles" were invented by illiterate compilers, and such publications themselves cannot be considered of high quality.

So, we figured out what a crossword puzzle is in its classic version, then we will consider what crossword puzzles are.

Types of crosswords

Sometimes it is difficult to understand what kind of crossword puzzle, relying only on its name. The classification of crossword puzzles by their geographical name is more understandable: for example, a crossword puzzle can be American, English, Russian, Scandinavian or Japanese. Such crosswords have their own rules, which are the same in almost all publications, and they are always solved according to the same principle.

But it also happens that by name it is difficult to understand what kind of crossword puzzle it is. For example, the tea word has nothing to do with tea or Chinese Chinatown. This is a linear crossword puzzle, where words should not intersect, as in a classic crossword puzzle, but they are arranged in one line. The last letter of the last word is the beginning of the next one.

Another type of crossword is the cyclocrossword. It also has a special structure: all the words here have the same number of letters and are located around the task.

So, what is a crossword puzzle, we figured it out, now let's look at the history of the crossword puzzle.

Where did crossword puzzles come from?

The earliest mention of a crossword puzzle is considered to be a plate with a pattern very reminiscent of a crossword puzzle. It was found during excavations of an ancient settlement in England and dates back to the 3rd-4th century.

Modern crossword puzzles appeared relatively recently - about a century ago. But where exactly they appeared is a very controversial issue. To date, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa dispute the right to be considered the birthplace of crossword puzzles. Each country has its own history of the appearance of the first crossword puzzle. For example, the inhabitants of England believe that the first crossword puzzles began to be published by the London newspaper The Times in the middle of the 19th century. And in the United States, they believe that they have printed crossword puzzles since 1913 in the New York World newspaper.

Residents of South Africa tell a very romantic story of the appearance of the first crossword puzzle: they were invented by a prisoner who drew his puzzles on the stone floor of the cell. The cellmates approved this novelty, it was subsequently transferred to paper and sent by mail to the newspaper.

Crossword in the life of a child

What is a crossword puzzle in a child's life? Teachers answer this question unequivocally: this is an intellectual game that helps develop memory, teaches a culture of thinking, teaches you to look for missing information. While solving a crossword puzzle, the child consolidates the knowledge gained, and also during this, active memorization works for him, which helps to effectively learn the material.

When choosing crossword puzzles for children, you need to take into account the child’s age capabilities, only then solving a crossword puzzle will benefit him, facilitate further learning, and also become an exciting and useful activity.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Usually the meanings of the words are given descriptively under this shape, first the meanings of the words that should be obtained horizontally, then vertically.

Classic crossword rules

Crossword, like many games, does not have strict rules and strict restrictions, but there are traditions that most crossword publications adhere to. Usually, when “crossword rules” are mentioned, it is this unspoken standard that is meant, and only deviations from it are specified.

rule	Variations
Crossword is a game that consists in guessing words by definitions. Each word is given a textual definition, in a descriptive or interrogative form, indicating a certain word that is the answer. The answer fits into the crossword grid and, thanks to the intersections with other words, makes it easier to find answers to other definitions.	Instead of textual definitions, any tasks can be used that allow you to give an answer in one word (puzzles, illustrations, separate puzzles). There are also "numerical" crossword puzzles, the answers to which are not words, but numbers (for example, the dates of certain events).
The hidden words are presented in a crossword puzzle in the form of a chain of cells, each of which contains the letters of the answer in order - one in each cell. In a classic crossword puzzle, cells look like square cells arranged in a straight line.	Obviously, you can break the rule "one cell - one letter", but such a crossword puzzle can no longer be considered "classic".
The words "intersect" with each other, forming a crossword grid. The mesh must be connected, without isolated areas "torn off" from the rest of the mesh. The classic crossword grid consists of words written vertically (top to bottom) and horizontally (left to right). Any word must be crossed at least twice.	Quite often, a variety of geometric shapes are used for the grid - for example, a circle with words inscribed along the circle and radii, or an "asterisk" of intersecting curves.
To link the answers to the definitions in the crossword puzzle, the cells containing the first letters of the answers are numbered sequentially. Numbering follows the rules of reading: from left to right and from top to bottom. Words coming from the same cell in different directions are numbered with one digit. In the list of definitions, the direction of each word is specified (most often, definitions are grouped by direction).	If the direction of reading is different from the European one, then the numbering order of the crossword puzzle may change. For example, in Israel - from right to left and from top to bottom, in Japan - from top to bottom and from left to right. The use of a different numbering system for the first cells (for example, according to the “sea battle” principle) does not negate the fact that this puzzle is a crossword puzzle.
Answer words must be nouns in the nominative case and singular. The plural is allowed only when it denotes a single subject (what in linguistics is called pluralia tantum) or the singular is rarely used ("parents", not "parent"). In many languages, this rule does not make sense (since one word can play the role of a noun, an adjective, and even a verb) and is not respected.	The exception for the plural can be interpreted quite broadly, so that in the crossword puzzle you can find not only "boots" as the name of the song, but also "boots", "children", etc. Naturally, the definition for such a word should clearly indicate the plural .
Crossword answers do not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. In many languages, it is customary not to distinguish between certain letters (in particular, to omit diacritics). In Russian, this rule applies to the letter "Ё", equating to "E".	There are crossword puzzles (more often - scanwords), in which the letters "Y" and "I" are "combined". This rule facilitates the compiler's work at the expense of the quality of the puzzle.

A good tone (but not a rule) is the symmetry of the crossword grid about vertical, horizontal or diagonal axes. Symmetry about the central point is also possible, in which the mesh does not change when rotated by 180°.

Traditionally, a cell for a letter is indicated in white, and an empty space, surrounded on all sides by white cells, is filled with black or gray. Typically, the border of the white cell is thinner at the border of two cells, which visually emphasizes their merging.

Story

Researchers came across finds similar to a crossword puzzle dated back to the 1st-4th centuries. n. e. In particular, during the excavations carried out in Pompeii, a puzzle was discovered that surprisingly resembles a modern crossword puzzle, which scientists dated to 79 AD. e. At the same time, there are various versions of the invention of crossword puzzles. Among the countries claiming to be the birthplace of crossword puzzles are Italy, Great Britain, USA.

According to one version, the prototypes of modern crossword puzzles appeared in the 19th century. The very first crossword puzzle that has come down to us was published in 1875 in the September issue of St. Nicholas magazine in New York. At the same time, the first crossword puzzle, corresponding to modern ideas about the crossword puzzle, was created by Arthur Wynn and published in the Sunday issue of the New York World newspaper on December 21, 1913.

Crossword puzzles became popular in the mid-1920s.

In the supplement "Our World" to the Berlin newspaper "Rul" on February 22, 1925, the term "crossword" was first used, which was coined by Vladimir Vladmirovich Nabokov for crossword puzzles. Nabokov compiled the first Russian-language crosswords, which were also published in the Rul newspaper. (He mentions this in his autobiography "Memory, Speak")

The very first crossword puzzle in Russia was published in Leningrad on December 2, 1925 in the literary magazine Cutter No. 48.

Crossword puzzles, which were published for many decades in the Ogonyok magazine, gained wide popularity.

In the post-Soviet period, "branded" author's crosswords appeared in the central newspapers (for example, Victor Boboriko's prize-winning crosswords in the Field of Miracles newspaper or the traditional "Oleg Vasiliev's crossword" in KP).

In the late 1990s, specialized "crossword" newspapers appeared. In addition to the classic crosswords and their varieties mentioned below, "Scandinavian" crosswords, as well as digital puzzles, appeared in print and became very popular. First, “drawing by numbers”, renamed “Japanese crossword”, then “sudoku”, “kakuro”, and their numerous variations.

For 2013, more than 400 printed publications are registered, publishing crosswords and puzzles (both verbal and digital) of varying degrees of complexity.

The crossword continues to evolve both in form and content. There are many varieties of this game. Different countries have their favorite variants of the crossword puzzle, and they can be used not only as useful entertainment, but also for educational purposes. In many countries, competitions are held for solving and compiling crosswords, there are crossword clubs (in Russia - the International Club of Russian Crosswords "Krestoslovitsa" in St. Petersburg).

"Crossword" publishers

Large Russian publishing houses producing specialized crossword editions:

Bauer Media (brand "")
Burda (brand "Liza")

Varieties of crossword puzzles

“Crosswords” in Russian-language entertainment newspapers are often called puzzles in which words do not intersect (and this is the basic rule of a crossword puzzle) or there are no words at all (as in the so-called “Japanese crossword puzzles”). Very often, the “geographical” name does not carry any semantic meaning: “American crossword” is called a puzzle that combines the rules of the classic and “Japanese crossword”, while in the USA and Japan there really are crosswords that differ from European ones, but these are still crosswords, although and with a few additional rules.

IN American version crossword puzzle all cells must be at the intersection of words. So the grid is not sparse, as in European, but dense, as in Scandinavian crossword puzzles. True, the compilers of these crossword puzzles do not consider it shameful to use abbreviations, colloquial or foreign words, and even, for example, the name of the key "ESC" or the direction " NNW" (north-northwest) as hidden words.

IN Japanese version crossword puzzle black cells should not touch the sides (which means that there should not be blocks of black cells - accordingly, the density of the grid also approaches the crossword puzzle) and the corner cells of the grid must be white (so the grid must remain a strict rectangle). Apparently, the answers are written in Japanese, i.e. kana and (less commonly) kanji. Therefore, even "two-cell" words are acceptable.

Estonian crossword similar to the classic one, but its grid does not contain empty cells. Cells that do not belong to the same answer are delimited by a thick line. In English editions, this option is called: English. barred crossword- "crossword with partitions".

As a model, in December 2000, a 3D-Spaceword (three-dimensional spatial crossword with a specialized structure).

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Notes

Literature

Roger Millington. Crossword Puzzles: Their History and Their Cult. T. Nelson, 1974. 190 p.

An excerpt characterizing the Crossword

“Listen, you remember our dispute in Petersburg,” said Pierre, remember about ...
“I remember,” Prince Andrei hastily answered, “I said that a fallen woman must be forgiven, but I did not say that I could forgive. I can't.
- How can you compare it? ... - said Pierre. Prince Andrew interrupted him. He shouted sharply:
“Yes, to ask for her hand again, to be generous, and the like? ... Yes, it is very noble, but I am not able to follow sur les brisees de monsieur [follow in the footsteps of this gentleman]. “If you want to be my friend, don’t ever talk to me about this… about all this. Well, goodbye. So you pass...
Pierre went out and went to the old prince and princess Marya.
The old man seemed livelier than usual. Princess Mary was the same as always, but out of sympathy for her brother, Pierre saw in her joy that her brother's wedding was upset. Looking at them, Pierre realized what contempt and anger they all had against the Rostovs, he realized that it was impossible for them to even mention the name of the one who could exchange Prince Andrei for anyone.
At dinner, the conversation turned to the war, the approach of which was already becoming obvious. Prince Andrei spoke incessantly and argued now with his father, now with Desalles, the Swiss educator, and seemed more animated than usual, with that animation that Pierre knew so well the moral reason.

On the same evening, Pierre went to the Rostovs to fulfill his assignment. Natasha was in bed, the count was in the club, and Pierre, after handing over the letters to Sonya, went to Marya Dmitrievna, who was interested in finding out how Prince Andrei received the news. Ten minutes later Sonya came in to Marya Dmitrievna.
“Natasha certainly wants to see Count Pyotr Kirillovich,” she said.
- Yes, how can I bring him to her? It’s not tidied up there,” said Marya Dmitrievna.
“No, she got dressed and went out into the living room,” said Sonya.
Marya Dmitrievna only shrugged her shoulders.
- When this Countess arrives, she completely exhausted me. Look, don’t tell her everything, ”she turned to Pierre. - And scolding her spirit is not enough, so pitiful, so pitiful!
Natasha, emaciated, with a pale and stern face (not at all ashamed as Pierre expected her), stood in the middle of the living room. When Pierre appeared at the door, she hurried, obviously undecided whether to approach him or wait for him.
Pierre hastily approached her. He thought that she, as always, would give him a hand; but, coming close to him, she stopped, breathing heavily and dropping her hands lifelessly, in exactly the same position in which she went out into the middle of the hall to sing, but with a completely different expression.
“Pyotr Kirilych,” she began to say quickly, “Prince Bolkonsky was your friend, he is your friend,” she corrected herself (it seemed to her that everything had just happened, and that now everything is different). - He told me then to turn to you ...
Pierre sniffed silently, looking at her. He still reproached her in his soul and tried to despise her; but now he felt so sorry for her that there was no room for reproach in his soul.
"He's here now, tell him... to just... forgive me." She stopped and began to breathe even faster, but did not cry.
“Yes ... I will tell him,” Pierre said, but ... “He did not know what to say.
Natasha was apparently frightened by the thought that could come to Pierre.
"No, I know it's over," she said hastily. No, it can never be. I am tormented only by the evil that I did to him. Just tell him that I ask him to forgive, forgive, forgive me for everything ... - She shook all over and sat down on a chair.
A never-before-experienced feeling of pity overwhelmed Pierre's soul.
“I will tell him, I will tell him again,” said Pierre; - but ... I would like to know one thing ...
"What to know?" asked Natasha's gaze.
- I would like to know if you loved ... - Pierre did not know what to call Anatole and blushed at the thought of him - did you love this bad man?
“Don’t call him bad,” said Natasha. “But I don’t know anything…” She began to cry again.
And an even greater feeling of pity, tenderness and love swept over Pierre. He heard tears flowing under his glasses and hoped that they would not be noticed.
“Let's not talk anymore, my friend,” said Pierre.
So strange suddenly for Natasha this meek, gentle, sincere voice seemed.
- Let's not talk, my friend, I'll tell him everything; but I ask you one thing - consider me your friend, and if you need help, advice, you just need to pour out your soul to someone - not now, but when it will be clear in your soul - remember me. He took and kissed her hand. “I will be happy if I am able to ...” Pierre was embarrassed.
Don't talk to me like that, I'm not worth it! Natasha screamed and wanted to leave the room, but Pierre held her by the hand. He knew he needed something else to tell her. But when he said this, he was surprised at his own words.
“Stop, stop, your whole life is ahead of you,” he told her.
- For me? No! Everything is gone for me,” she said with shame and self-abasement.
- Everything is lost? he repeated. - If I were not me, but the most beautiful, smartest and best person in the world, and would be free, I would this minute on my knees ask for your hand and love.
Natasha, for the first time after many days, wept with tears of gratitude and tenderness, and looking at Pierre left the room.
Pierre, too, after her, almost ran out into the anteroom, holding back the tears of emotion and happiness that were crushing his throat, put on a fur coat without falling into the sleeves and got into the sleigh.
“Now where are you going?” asked the coachman.
"Where? Pierre asked himself. Where can you go now? Really in a club or guests? All people seemed so pathetic, so poor in comparison with the feeling of tenderness and love that he experienced; in comparison with that softened, grateful look with which she last looked at him through tears.
“Home,” said Pierre, despite ten degrees of frost, opening a bearskin coat on his wide, joyfully breathing chest.
It was cold and clear. Above the dirty, half-dark streets, above the black roofs stood a dark, starry sky. Pierre, only looking at the sky, did not feel the insulting baseness of everything earthly in comparison with the height at which his soul was. At the entrance to the Arbat Square, a huge expanse of starry dark sky opened up to Pierre's eyes. Almost in the middle of this sky above Prechistensky Boulevard, surrounded, sprinkled on all sides with stars, but differing from all in proximity to the earth, white light, and a long tail raised up, stood a huge bright comet of 1812, the same comet that foreshadowed as they said, all sorts of horrors and the end of the world. But in Pierre, this bright star with a long radiant tail did not arouse any terrible feeling. Opposite, Pierre joyfully, with eyes wet with tears, looked at this bright star, which, as if, having flown immeasurable spaces along a parabolic line with inexpressible speed, suddenly, like an arrow piercing the ground, slammed here into one place it had chosen, in the black sky, and stopped, vigorously lifting her tail up, shining and playing with her white light among countless other twinkling stars. It seemed to Pierre that this star fully corresponded to what was in his blossoming towards a new life, softened and encouraged soul.

From the end of 1811, increased armament and concentration of forces in Western Europe began, and in 1812 these forces - millions of people (including those who transported and fed the army) moved from West to East, to the borders of Russia, to which in exactly the same way since 1811 th year, the forces of Russia were drawn together. On June 12, the forces of Western Europe crossed the borders of Russia, and the war began, that is, an event contrary to human reason and all human nature took place. Millions of people have committed against each other such countless atrocities, deceptions, treason, theft, forgery and issuance of false banknotes, robberies, arson and murders, which for centuries will not be collected by the chronicle of all the courts of the world and which, in this period of time, people those who committed them were not looked upon as crimes.
What produced this extraordinary event? What were the reasons for it? Historians say with naive certainty that the causes of this event were the insult inflicted on the Duke of Oldenburg, non-compliance with the continental system, Napoleon's lust for power, Alexander's firmness, diplomats' mistakes, etc.
Consequently, it was only necessary for Metternich, Rumyantsev or Talleyrand, between the exit and the reception, to try hard and write a more ingenious piece of paper or Napoleon to write to Alexander: Monsieur mon frere, je consens a rendre le duche au duc d "Oldenbourg, [My lord brother, I agree return the duchy to the Duke of Oldenburg.] - and there would be no war.
It is clear that such was the case for contemporaries. It is clear that it seemed to Napoleon that the intrigues of England were the cause of the war (as he said this on the island of St. Helena); it is understandable that it seemed to the members of the English Chamber that Napoleon's lust for power was the cause of the war; that it seemed to the Prince of Oldenburg that the cause of the war was the violence committed against him; that it seemed to the merchants that the cause of the war was the continental system, which was ruining Europe, that it seemed to the old soldiers and generals that the main reason was the need to put them to work; to the legitimists of the time that it was necessary to restore les bons principes [good principles], and to the diplomats of the time that everything happened because the alliance of Russia with Austria in 1809 was not cleverly hidden from Napoleon and that a memorandum was awkwardly written for No. 178. It is clear that these and countless, infinite number of reasons, the number of which depends on the countless difference of points of view, seemed to contemporaries; but for us, the descendants, who contemplate in all its volume the enormity of the event that has taken place and delve into its simple and terrible meaning, these reasons seem insufficient. It is incomprehensible to us that millions of Christians killed and tortured each other, because Napoleon was power-hungry, Alexander was firm, the policy of England was cunning and the Duke of Oldenburg was offended. It is impossible to understand what connection these circumstances have with the very fact of murder and violence; why, due to the fact that the duke was offended, thousands of people from the other side of Europe killed and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow provinces and were killed by them.
For us, descendants, who are not historians, who are not carried away by the process of research and therefore contemplate the event with unobscured common sense, its causes appear in innumerable numbers. The more we delve into the search for causes, the more they are revealed to us, and any single reason or a whole series of reasons seems to us equally just in itself, and equally false in its insignificance in comparison with the enormity of the event, and equally false in its invalidity ( without the participation of all other coincident causes) to produce an accomplished event. The same reason as Napoleon's refusal to withdraw his troops beyond the Vistula and give back the Duchy of Oldenburg seems to us the desire or unwillingness of the first French corporal to enter the secondary service: for if he did not want to go to the service and would not want another, and the third , and a thousandth corporal and soldier, so much less people would be in Napoleon's army, and there could be no war.
If Napoleon had not been offended by the demand to retreat beyond the Vistula and had not ordered the troops to advance, there would have been no war; but if all the sergeants did not wish to enter the secondary service, there could also be no war. There could also be no war if there were no intrigues of England, and there would be no Prince of Oldenburg and a feeling of insult in Alexander, and there would be no autocratic power in Russia, and there would be no French revolution and the subsequent dictatorship and empire, and all that that produced the French Revolution, and so on. Without one of these reasons, nothing could have happened. Therefore, all these causes - billions of reasons - coincided in order to produce what was. And therefore, nothing was the exclusive cause of the event, and the event had to happen only because it had to happen. Millions of people, having renounced their human feelings and their minds, had to go to the East from the West and kill their own kind, just as several centuries ago, crowds of people went from East to West, killing their own kind.
The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose word it seemed that the event took place or not took place, were as little arbitrary as the action of every soldier who went on a campaign by lot or by recruitment. It could not be otherwise, because in order for the will of Napoleon and Alexander (those people on whom the event seemed to depend) to be fulfilled, the coincidence of innumerable circumstances was necessary, without one of which the event could not have taken place. It was necessary that millions of people in whose hands was real power, soldiers who fired, carried provisions and guns, it was necessary that they agreed to fulfill this will of individual and weak people and were led to this by countless complex, diverse reasons.
Fatalism in history is inevitable for explaining unreasonable phenomena (that is, those whose rationality we do not understand). The more we try to rationally explain these phenomena in history, the more unreasonable and incomprehensible they become for us.
Each person lives for himself, enjoys freedom to achieve his personal goals and feels with his whole being that he can now do or not do such and such an action; but as soon as he does it, so this action, committed at a certain moment in time, becomes irrevocable and becomes the property of history, in which it has not a free, but a predetermined significance.
There are two aspects of life in every person: personal life, which is all the more free, the more abstract its interests, and spontaneous, swarm life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed to him.
A person consciously lives for himself, but serves as an unconscious tool for achieving historical, universal goals. A perfect deed is irrevocable, and its action, coinciding in time with millions of actions of other people, acquires historical significance. The higher a person stands on the social ladder, the more he is connected with great people, the more power he has over other people, the more obvious is the predestination and inevitability of his every action.

1. Classic crossword puzzle

The pattern of this crossword puzzle has, as a rule, two- or four-sided symmetry. Preferably, at least two intersections, and ideally, single black blocks touching diagonally. There are open crossword puzzles, i.e. black blocks are also available outside or closed - only letters are outside the crossword puzzle.

2. Japanese crossword

The optimal size of a Japanese crossword puzzle horizontally is 20-35 or 55 cells. The number of cells that is not divisible by 5 without a remainder is undesirable.

A row (column) should contain no more than five groups of filled cells.

It is desirable that the resulting picture is recognizable and more or less interesting.

A Japanese crossword must have a unique solution.

3. Keyward

A kind of crossword puzzle, in the cells of which numbers are indicated replacing letters. For the same letters, the same numbers. Perhaps, to simplify the solution of the crossword puzzle, it already indicates a word.

4. Criss-cross

Given a crossword puzzle grid and the words that need to be placed in it. Perhaps, just like in a keyword, a word or letters are inscribed in the grid to simplify the initial process.

5. Scanword

Questions to words are written inside the grid, in cells not occupied by letters. The correspondence of questions to words is indicated by arrows. If the arrows are only horizontal and vertical - the type of gothic crossword puzzle. If there are arrows and diagonally, then italic.

6. Fillword

This type of crossword is a field filled with letters. In all this accumulation of letters, it is necessary to find the words that are listed next to each other. There are two types of fillwords: Hungarian and German. Hungarian assumes the direction of the word in any direction, including along a broken line. In this type of fillword, one letter can be used once.

/ Simon Belcher

A crossword puzzle (from the English crossword - the intersection of words) is a puzzle, which is an interweaving of rows of cells that are filled with words according to given values. As a rule, the meanings of words are described under a certain sign, which includes words that should be obtained horizontally and vertically.

The first crossword puzzles appeared in the 19th century. They were puzzles with words in which it is necessary to enter words under each other so that they form a square in which inscriptions would be obtained, read in all terms from top to bottom and from left to right.

Winn's Crossword, 1913 Photo: Public Domain

The first crossword puzzle that has survived to this day was published in 1875 in the September issue of St. Nicholas magazine in New York. At the same time, the first crossword puzzle corresponding to modern ideas was created Arthur Wynn and published in the Sunday issue of the New York World on December 21, 1913.

When did the first Russian-language crossword appear?

The Russian-language crossword puzzle first appeared in Berlin in 1925, its author was the writer Vladimir Nabokov. He also proposed the Russian name for the puzzle with words - a crossword, and this word was used for a long time in circulation in Russian-language publications and among Russian emigrants.

What are crossword puzzles?

Today there are many varieties of crossword puzzles. The most popular among them are:

— Classical- a standard crossword puzzle, the pattern of which is symmetrical. Questions are presented in the form of a separate numbered list - horizontally and vertically, and the guess words fit in from top to bottom and from left to right.

— Scanword (Scandinavian crosswords) is one of the most popular crosswords. The tasks in this crossword puzzle are entered directly into the grid of the crossword puzzle itself, and the words are guessed with the help of pointer arrows. In addition to words, a picture or photograph can serve as a task in the scanword.

— Japanese crossword- unlike other crossword puzzles, the answer will not be a word, but a picture. The Japanese crossword consists of three fields - one main and two auxiliary. The main field contains the encrypted image itself, and the cells of the auxiliary fields contain hint numbers. The numbers located vertically and horizontally on the grid indicate the number of fused cells. There must be at least one empty cell between groups of numbers. The player's task is to find out how many empty cells are between groups of numbers.

— Alphabetical- the words hidden in such a crossword puzzle have a certain common feature, for example, they consist of the same number of letters or begin with the same letter.

— Philwords (Hungarian crosswords)- crosswords made in the form of a field filled with letters. The task is to find the words from the whole combination of letters that are indicated in the form of a separate list or to find the words-answers to a number of questions attached to this crossword puzzle. Guessing words can be arranged in any direction in the form of a broken line at right angles. Each letter can only be used once. In the fieldwords, options are possible when, after finding all the words in the field, there are still several separate letters left, from which it is necessary to compose a word.

—Crossword puzzle- crosswords, in which the riddle is a rebus or a charade, having solved it, the player enters the guessed word.

— Crisscross (American)- in the grid of such a crossword puzzle, it is necessary to enter certain words given nearby.

— dual- a crossword puzzle, in the grid of which letters are already inscribed, but there are two of them in each cell. It is necessary to guess which of the letters is superfluous in each cell, and then the crossword puzzle will be solved.

— keyward- a crossword puzzle in which letters are replaced by numbers. The same numbers correspond to the same letters. The player needs to guess which number corresponds to which letter. A hint can be an open word or several letters.

— Linear- a crossword puzzle in the form of a chain of words, where the last letter of the word is the first for the next. Unlike a regular crossword, words in a linear crossword cannot overlap.

Crossword rules

rule	Variations
Crossword is a game that consists in guessing words by definitions. Each word is given a textual definition, in a descriptive or interrogative form, indicating a certain word that is the answer. The answer fits into the crossword grid and, thanks to the intersections with other words, makes it easier to find answers to other definitions.	Instead of textual definitions, any tasks can be used that allow you to give an answer in one word (puzzles, illustrations, separate puzzles). There are also "numerical" crossword puzzles, the answers to which are not words, but numbers (for example, the dates of certain events).
The hidden words are presented in a crossword puzzle in the form of a chain of cells, each of which contains the letters of the answer in order - one in each cell. In a classic crossword puzzle, cells look like square cells arranged in a straight line.	Obviously, you can break the rule "one cell - one letter", but such a crossword puzzle can no longer be considered "classic".
The words "intersect" with each other, forming a crossword grid. The classic crossword grid consists of words written vertically (top to bottom) and horizontally (left to right). Any word must be crossed at least twice. The mesh must be connected, without isolated areas "torn off" from the rest of the mesh.	Quite often, a variety of geometric shapes are used for the grid - for example, a circle with words inscribed along the circle and radii, or an "asterisk" of intersecting curves.
To link the answers to the definitions in the crossword puzzle, the cells containing the first letters of the answers are numbered sequentially. Numbering follows the rules of reading: from left to right and from top to bottom. Words coming from the same cell in different directions are numbered with one digit. In the list of definitions, the direction of each word is specified (most often, definitions are grouped by direction).	If the direction of reading is different from the European one, then the numbering order of the crossword puzzle may change. For example, in Israel - from right to left and from top to bottom, in Japan - from top to bottom and from left to right. The use of a different numbering system for the first cells (for example, according to the “sea battle” principle) does not negate the fact that this puzzle is a crossword puzzle.
Answer words must be nouns in the nominative case and singular. The plural is allowed only when it denotes a single subject (what in linguistics is called pluralia tantum) or the singular is rarely used ("parents", not "parent"). In many languages, this rule does not make sense (since one word can play the role of a noun, an adjective, and even a verb) and is not respected.	The exception for the plural can be interpreted quite broadly, so that in the crossword puzzle you can find not only "boots" as the name of the song, but also "boots", "children", etc. Naturally, the definition for such a word should clearly indicate the plural .
Crossword answers do not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. In many languages, it is customary not to distinguish between certain letters (in particular, to omit diacritics). In Russian, this rule applies to the letter "Ё", equating to "E".	There are crossword puzzles (more often - scanwords), in which the letters "Y" and "I" are "combined". This rule facilitates the compiler's work at the expense of the quality of the puzzle.

Story

Wynn's first "crossword puzzle", 1913

Crossword puzzles became popular in the mid-1920s. There are several versions of where and when they were invented, perhaps the prototypes of modern crossword puzzles appeared in the 19th century. Italy, Great Britain, and the USA claim the title of the motherland of crossword puzzles.

The first modern crossword puzzle (under the name "Word-Cross", eng. word cross) was created by Arthur Wynn and published in the Sunday issue of the New York World on December 21, 1913. The first crossword puzzle in Russian was compiled by the writer V.V. Nabokov and published in the supplement "Our World" to the newspaper "Rul" in February 1925 in Berlin. He also came up with the Russian equivalent of the word "crossword" - a crossword. This word came into fairly wide use in the language of Russian emigrants and back in the late 1930s. in Russian-language emigration magazines, crosswords were called crosswords. However, in the Russian language of the USSR, it was the English-language name that took root. It is believed that in the USSR for the first time a crossword puzzle appeared in the magazine Ogonyok in 1929.

In Soviet newspapers, crossword puzzles, like any other materials, inevitably had to have some kind of ideological justification. It was usually believed that the crossword broadens the reader's horizons and develops his erudition. The successful and complete solution of a crossword puzzle compiled with such an attitude required considerable knowledge (often completely irrelevant) and reference to sources in the form of dictionaries, encyclopedias and atlases.

Publications of the post-Soviet period, oriented not to ideology, but to the reader's demand, quickly changed their mindset. In the central newspapers, "branded" author's crosswords appeared, the solution of which was more like entertainment than a serious puzzle.

The newspaper boom of the late 1990s revealed a significant interest in entertainment publications, including intellectual and entertainment ones. Specialized "crossword" newspapers appeared. However, demand clearly exceeded supply and provoked three waves of "expansion" of puzzles popular abroad to the Russian market in 1999-2006.

The first were "Scandinavian" crossword puzzles, which quickly gained even more popularity than the classic ones. Their features lead to the fact that scanword editions can even less than crossword editions claim the title of "intellectual".

Then Japanese puzzles were taken into circulation. At first, “drawing by numbers”, renamed “Japanese crossword”, attracted masses of readers to solve pictures, tearing off a solid part of the audience of crossword publications.

Then the rest of the digital puzzles came up - Sudoku, Kakuro, Hoshi, Futoshiki and others. They could not overtake "Japanese crossword puzzles" in popularity, but they also gained their audience, taking it away from other entertainment publications.

Classical crossword puzzles could not compete with such a variety and lost the status of the reader's favorite puzzle earned in Soviet times. Now it is already difficult to find purely "classic" crossword editions - more often there are collections of puzzles listed later in this article.

Over the ten years of its existence, the Russian market for "crossword" publications has stabilized, and the bulk of such newspapers and magazines are published under one of the brands - "World of News", "", "Liza" or "Krot". The usual edition of the sample of the early 2000s simply cannot compete with dozens of newspapers, magazines, brochures, published in millions of copies. Circulations clearly show that the demand for intellectual and entertainment publications is still quite high.

The spread of computers and the Internet is gradually becoming a threat to the entire newspaper and magazine market. Unlike information publications, entertainment publications do not have to compete with blogs and news feeds, but with entertainment portals and casual games. Attempts to introduce "paper" puzzles into the new "electronic space" are being made, but they cannot be called particularly successful. If Japanese digital puzzles more or less successfully fit into the computer environment, then the format of any of the crossword puzzles does not fit well with the new gaming paradigm. It is not yet clear whether crossword puzzles will be able to adapt to new realities or remain an old-fashioned "puzzle of the 20th century."

Varieties of crossword puzzles

Grid of the American version of the crossword puzzle

Scandinavian crossword puzzle (scanword) and its variations
Hungarian crossword represents a field of cells in which the letters of the answers are already entered. In the chain of cells that make up each answer, adjacent cells must touch each other, as in the game of "bastard". Answer words do not intersect and do not have common cells with other words. This puzzle is much simpler than a crossword and is often published in children's publications (with rebuses or illustrations instead of definitions). Also, the Hungarian crossword can be used as part of another puzzle - for example, instead of the omitted definitions of the classic or Scandinavian crossword. Often, after solving the Hungarian crossword puzzle, “extra” letters remain on the field - from them (in order or in an anagram) a general answer to the puzzle is compiled.
English crossword similar to Hungarian, the same field with letters is used, but each word always goes in one direction (including diagonal), without breaking inside itself. At the same time, unlike the Hungarian crossword, words can intersect in letters, so the same letter can belong to different words. Just like in the Hungarian crossword, after guessing all the words on the field, there may be “extra” letters that make up the common keyword of the crossword.
African crossword
American crossword- this is a classic crossword puzzle, in which a rectangular field of cells is given instead of a grid, and the definitions are tied to specific horizontals and verticals, but the exact position of the answers is unknown. Typically, the length and order of line answers are given, so that the original crossword grid can be found by a method similar to solving a Japanese puzzle. Grid symmetry can make the solution easier, but it's usually not respected. This puzzle is quite popular, and there are editions devoted exclusively to American crosswords and American crosswords (a variant with a tighter grid and "scanword" style definitions).