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Jono, for the Listener clue round is something you jump through

Candidates Tournament just started.
I'm watching the first day, but likely won't have time/patience to watch on any following weekdays.

FT 17,732 Buccaneer aka Picaroon, Rodriguez

Small jumpers worn by Kafka hero and men in the corners (5)

A neat example:

Entire opening from chess champion's letter (5)

Guardian 29,430 (Qaos), 9ac

Thanks Geeker,

I only got it by first solving the 3 down and one across clues that intersect it, and even though the definition was clear it still took me an age to understand the wordplay!

Now I do, though, I really like it - plus it's always nice when a master such as Mikhail gets a mention:-)

Excellent one in tonight's (US time) Guardian Prize 29,434 (Picaroon). No clue number to avoid spoiler...😉

This week’s Listener should be of interest to participants in this thread.

One of this month's Crossword Centre puzzles goes even further by getting us to actually play the game (with an ingenious device for identifying the pieces).

I thought today’s Guardian “chess expert” (5d) was rather specialised knowledge. Perhaps it’s just me.

I see he’s best known for his ranking system. One to remember.

I thought it was a bit arcane, but not unprecedented, as I've previously seen it in cryptics. An Indy puzzle just last year and an Azed came up quickly.


For instance https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Arpad+Elo%22+site%3A+fifteensquared.net

Given the brevity of the clue, the only well-known candidate was the reliable TAL, which had no chance of fitting. The only possible "prominent" player who came to mind was Iivo NEI, which I considered too specialised and didn't fit either.

So the solution arrived by process of elimination.