The Mini: Thursday

by Andy Kravis

• Play it ↗
• Difficulty: medium

Today's puzzle is the first of a couple of vacation puzzles, or more accurately, puzzles from the past that I'm writing about now because I'm vacationing. Today's puzzle was published on 6/20. Hello, future readers.

The New Yorker calls this a mini but its 9x9 so it's a midi in my book. I think this is the first time that I've seen a puzzle this size with two Z's in it, an impressive feat that carries over to an awesomely fun solve.

I'll just dive straight into it because it's the star of the show, but ZUGZWANG is some wicked fill. I had the benefit of recognizing the Chess concept, though I didn't slot it until I had a few letters at the crosses because I couldn't quite remember the name.

The term describes a situation where a player would benefit by skipping their turn, since every possible move is a bad one. Unfortunately, they can't. One must always play a move in Chess, otherwise the game ends in stalemate. In a way, a ZUGZWANG mate is the ultimate flex, since the opponent is forced to move into the position that has them lose the game. "Stop hitting yourself." ^[1]

Incorporating ZUGZWANG into this grid is no small feat, building into the two z-crosses of ZEROES and ORZO. ZEROES is accompanied by the clever, "Six in a million?", a wordplay figure that's easily, well, figured. ORZO I've seen pop up a few times in the sparse number of grids that have Z's in them, so I'm familiar enough with the word even though I've never tasted the rice.

AUTOMATA threw me for a loop since I originally slotted ANDROIDS, a mistake that you'll likely only fall into if you're working acrosses and downs at the same time. Is AUTOMATA pronounced "aw-toh-mah-ta" or "ah-tah-mah-tah"? I know which side I'm on.

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