Throughout history, the high level of thinking power possessed by those who identify clues and prepare puzzles must have inspired those who seek answers to questions and try to find the right answer… Ever since mankind existed, he has tried to make his life mysterious with puzzles. Both the intelligence that can solve the codes and the talents that can put clever clues have always been among the sought-after people.
When I think of crossword puzzles, I think of the excitement of my acquaintances who are looking forward to the crosswords of the newspapers, especially on Sunday. I am sure there are friends around you who take their tea and coffee after breakfast and get lost in the black and white boxes of that day’s puzzle, and do not drop their pen until they fill the last gap. Of course, the situation is not only valid for our country; Today, millions of people in every corner of the world spend their hours, their most precious time, to solve puzzles.
Just imagine, what a great effort and time allotted for solving the puzzle! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I see it as a waste of time. Solving puzzles is a very useful occupation that develops a person’s intelligence, enriches his general culture and increases his vocabulary. Moreover, it is often said that it is protective against diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as it keeps the mind alive. They even say that solving puzzles is a mental gymnastics that is as useful as the sport recommended for a healthy life.
Call it the market puzzle, square or crossword puzzle for today’s topic! A type of puzzle in which the answers to selected questions from every imaginable area are solved by writing a letter on each of the empty squares in a square or rectangular table, from left to right or top to bottom. Interestingly, there is hardly a newspaper in the world today that has a certain circulation but does not prepare crossword puzzles for its readers.
Those who read my articles know that most of my writings on cultural histories usually start from prehistory, even from the cave age, depending on the location. That’s not the case with the crossword puzzle, although it is so popular, the “square puzzle” theme has a history of just over a hundred years, when it first appeared. I mean, just think how much the passion for solving puzzles has covered the world in a short time…
Arthur Wynne of Liverpool, explorer of the crossword puzzle
Arthur, who went to America as an immigrant at the age of 19, settled in the city of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and started working for the Pittsburgh Newspaper, hoping to hold on to life in this new continent and to provide a new life for himself. He tried to participate in social life as much as he could in his new life, took violin lessons, and continued his work with the Pittsburgh symphony orchestra as an amateur for a while.
Moving to New Jersey in the following years, Arthur Wynne continued his career as a journalist and started working for the New York World newspaper, headquartered in New York. Arthur, who was 42 years old when he was tasked by his editor with finding a new game, or a puzzle style, to be presented to the readers on the entertainment pages of the newspaper, to engage the readers, met the readers on a Sunday, December 21, 1913.
In this first puzzle, the first name given to the boxes separated by the piece-by-piece black parts interspersed in this first puzzle was word-cross. In the next edition, the word “crossword”, which was written together after forgetting the apostrophe (-) between two words as a result of a mistake, became the name of this puzzle and passed into our language and other foreign languages as a “crossword puzzle”.
The puzzle must not have gained immediate popularity outside the United States, as it was first seen in another country 12 years later in France. The first French newspaper with crosswords met with its readers in 1925. In France, crossword puzzles became so popular that even a magazine containing only crosswords and which has survived to the present day began to be published in the same year.
This was followed by the establishment of the puzzle academy in the following years, and the famous novel-theatre writer Tristan Bernard, whose works were translated into our language, became the first president of this academy. Would you believe, they say that no one has been able to fill Tristan Bernard’s creative humor in crossword questions until today. I’m going to ask you a few questions from his puzzles, see if you can find the answer.
“- Cheaper when without a tail!”
“- When the sun goes down, Paris stays inside!”
I will give the answers at the end of my article, but you read and think; Let’s see if you can find this humorous-creative style in the puzzle. This means that in addition to placing white-black squares in puzzle preparation, intelligence, grace, knowledge and harmony play a role in the clues given to find the word to be searched.
There are so many experiences compiled about the puzzle; Believe me, if they were all gathered together, fascicles would emerge, not books. I would like to share some of them with you in titles. For example, during the Second World War, some passwords for the forces on the enemy front were given through crossword puzzles in the newspapers. It is known that there are puzzle-hungry ministers, prime ministers, kings and queens. There were even those who called the owner of the newspaper for the slightest mistake and warned them.
We have always talked about the beautiful aspects of it, but the reasons such as being indifferent to his wife due to his love of solving puzzles, neglecting his wife were included in the court records on the way to the end of many marriages. Puzzle solving clubs have been established all over the world on the basis of the love of solving puzzles, which has been the subject of competitions attended by hundreds of thousands; In a sense, puzzle lovers are organized. Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth, known for her bohemian life, was such a serious puzzle enthusiast that she even won a book and money prize in one of the competitions she participated many times.
When it comes to puzzles, I thought I’d take a look at the Internet, I saw interesting things. Puzzle solving and preparation trainings were given with or without payment. There are computer softwares that have been patented on this subject. I have read assertive articles about making puzzles by leaving at least a black square in a certain area. As a result of my research, I decided that it would be a great benefit especially for children in primary and secondary education to meet puzzles. In fact, I saw that in addition to solving puzzles, it is also enjoyable to prepare and develop an analytical thinking style at the same time.
1000-page puzzle 300 meters long with 93,769 questions
A Bulgarian named Hristo A. Yonitsov has entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s biggest puzzle for now. There were exactly 93,769 questions or clues in the puzzle he completed on June 3, 2014, but could not suppress it. For this work, for which he spent 14 years, Hristo went to libraries countless times, traced, found, learned and used tens of thousands of words. The result was a one-piece puzzle 300 meters long and 1000 pages long. I don’t know in how many years it will be solved or if anyone has solved it, but until a bigger one is built, the throne of Guinness records belongs to Hristo A. Yonitsov for now.
Do not look at the loss of circulation of newspapers and magazines in our country with each passing day! Let alone other topics, some European countries and America publish magazines whose content consists only of puzzles and puzzle-related topics. Tournaments are held, puzzles sent from all over the world are checked and printed; There are sharings among puzzle lovers over the internet.
Before I forget, let me give you the answers to the questions I asked at the beginning of the article; Let’s see if you will see the questions prepared by Tristan Bernard as coming out of a creative mind?
Piano is the answer to what’s cheaper when it’s tailless! When the sun goes down, what Paris stays in is also dark!
Those who have a passion for collecting as well as solving have a lot to do in this field. For example, puzzles in old newspapers and magazines are very valuable to them. Puzzles prepared by certain names in each country, those that were printed incorrectly, and those that were prepared or solved in the war environment, especially in the first and second world wars, are among the values that thematic puzzle collectors strive to possess. Puzzle-related ephemera, stamps, and first-day envelopes are among the ones they collect. I thought, collecting puzzles should be a hobby that keeps the passion of both solving and collecting at the same time.
I wish you to collect the beauties!
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