Fucking Stupid

Diversions

The Blackless Crossword

A grid with no blocked squares at all. Every letter is checked in both directions, and the across and down answers are the same words, which halves the work.

By The Editor Unsigned 2026-08-16

Ordinary crosswords are mostly blocked squares. Roughly a sixth of a daily grid is black, and every one of those squares is a place the setter gave up. They are there because English will not do what is being asked of it, and the blocks are where the compromise is buried.

This week we have dispensed with them.

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5 × 5 · no blocked squares · every letter checked twice

Across

  1. 1 Pump on the left (5)
  2. 6 The last of the fire (5)
  3. 7 Put to wrong use (5)
  4. 8 What the pine leaves on your hands (5)
  5. 9 Which way things are going (5)

Down

  1. 1 It has chambers (5)
  2. 2 Still warm, hours later (5)
  3. 3 Treat badly (5)
  4. 4 Sit the paper again (5)
  5. 5 Direction of travel, figuratively (5)

There are no blocked squares in the grid above. Every letter belongs to an across entry and a down entry, so each one is checked twice — a courtesy the better papers extend only in the corners, and we extend everywhere.

We have gone further. The grid is a word square, which means the across answers and the down answers are the same five words in the same order. Solve 1 Across and you have solved 1 Down. The puzzle is, in the strictest sense, half the size it appears.

We considered whether this made it too easy. On balance we thought the generosity was worth it.

Fill it in at your leisure. Everything checks.

A note on method, since readers have asked. Our setter does not use blocked squares to hide a difficulty; a blocked square is an admission, and this paper does not make them. Clues are ordinary, each answer is a common word, and no entry depends on another being solved first. Should you find yourself unable to complete a square, the fault will be in the solving rather than the setting, and we would encourage patience.