A deceptively simple puzzle that sucked up my entire evening last night

[rhu]

My NPL friend Tyler Hinman posted an interesting puzzle by Renfield on his blog. I got completely caught up in a variation on it, which I'll share here because I couldn't solve it and I'm interested in seeing if it can be solved.

You have a 7x7 grid which you must populate such that you can, by a king's tour, traverse the alphabet from A to Z.

In Renfield's version, you are allowed to use nonsense entries but they score 0; real words score their length minus two. Your goal is to get the highest score possible.

In my variant, you are not allowed to use nonsense entries (but you are allowed to use anything with dictionary nature, so for example common abbreviations like Hg, MLK, and VW are perfectly reasonable) and your goal is simply to get it all to fit in a 7x7 with complete interconnection.

Your goal is to have the lowest score possible: you get 5 points for each unchecked letter and 1 point for each "extra" letter beyond the 26.

My best effort so far, which does not even meet the minimum requirements, is:

     W
....VAX
..QUAY.
.PERT.Z
NODS.CE
ML..DAB
.K.HEF.
..JIG..

It's got the one extra letter on top, so it doesn't fit in 7x7, and it does not have overall connectivity. Not to mention a few more questionable words than I'd like.

I know several of you out there can do better.

Comments

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I read that as "knight's tour"... Does that make it any easier?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

It might improve the odds that a solution exists, but it certainly won't make it easier to find!

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

I'm probably missing something here, being interested in things which will make my brain work and having no experience outside of a crossword puzzle, but here is my questions :o)

He says "Build a 7x7 crossword so that the entire alphabet can be spelled out in order"

Does that mean, from a to z?

If not, would this work using all the alphabet?

..THE..
.QUICK.
.BROWN.
FOX.DOG
.JUMPS.
.OVER.
..LAZY.

Thanks for your patience and help. :o)

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Yes, from a to z. And it has to form a valid crossword; you've got TURXUVL in your third column down. (Maybe that was an Incan deity?)

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

Across AND Down... :o) Now I'm with you!

I'm writing a "short story" about several deaths at an Archeological Dig, Called Sacrifices To The Water God. I'm going to use that, now that you point it out. Turxuvl, god of mystery. The one "they" would go to, when they had a life-puzzles to solve. His color of course, will be "green". :o)

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

OK, this time for sure:

 SUV X
 TR WY 
 I QT Z
MOPE AN
LN DEB 
K H FEC
 JIGS D

9 unchecked and 7 extra for a score of 52.

A lot of abbreviations here: SUV (the gas-guzzler), TR (the president), WY (the state), QT (the liquid measure), WT (weight), XY (the genotype), ZN (the element), LN (the math function), QED (from logic), MLK (the civil rights leader), CD (the music medium), and FEC (the Federal Election Commission).

Plus such stellar fill as EFS (the plural of the letter ef), UR (the birthplace of Abraham), and STION, which M-W defines as "a plant consisting of a stock and a scion."

But.... it's legal. I can stop now.

And I can hope someone else does better. :-)