Our Toughest Crossword

 A Chessword Puzzle by Radix

The Queen retains her normal powers. An Amazon combines the powers of Queen & Knight, a Crusader those of King & Knight, an Emperor those of King & Rook, and a Pontiff those of King & Bishop. The moves of every piece, however, must always be in the appropriate direction (South or East or in between for clues 1-10, S or W or in between for clues 11-20, and so on).

After entering the first letter of an answer in its numbered square, the solver should make a 'legal' move to a new square and enter the second letter there, and so on, in such a way that the final letter is just one legal move away from the appropriate corner (the SE square for clues 1-10, and so on). Some letters are already entered.

Every white square is visited exactly twice but never by pieces moving in the same direction, and every grey square exactly once. All the pieces other than Queens visit a grey square. The moves of the pieces exhibit the normal 180° symmetry.

QUEENS

5 Till Eulenspiegel rather enjoyed toppings (3)

8 What flows into the Severn is oddly sandy (3)

12 Dundee's very tense after extra time (3)

17 A halfpenny for The Listener? (3)

25 It's dead - stiff (3)

28 I tend to tremble when parking (3)

32 Geelong's head, one pre-eminent in Victoria (3)

37 Jack Tar knocking off regularly, --- having a wife in every port! (3)

AMAZONS

3 Malleable material from Italian port, and not to be returned (7, hyphenated)

7 Desperate to dress in Adelaide's bloomer (9, two words)

15 An item on which sailors were reliant at sea - literally so (7)

19 Open country for each steeplechaser (6)

23 Europe's initial mindless response to Middle East question (7)

27 A touch of urban common sense about diseased vine - it's not green (9)

35 Second master regrouped pupils classified as A, B, … (7)

39 A slave performing chore after a bit of encouragement (6)

CRUSADERS

1 Remit one hundred thousand thousand in Japanese currency (7)

10 A series of novels à la The Last of the Mohicans? (8)

13 English Suite composed for Hitler? (8)

20 Charms everybody in roughly ten hours (9)

21 Mineral water taken by Nick? Quite the reverse! (7)

30 A public service before the onset of Easter where grief prevails (8)

33 One who hangs around in underwear that is rejected by the Queen (8)

40 I could help you turn extremely slim, but bottom will be the same (9, two words)

EMPERORS

4 Garter service on first (6)

6 What lively priest may exhibit (6)

11 Marshal Ney's no. 1 in fashion (5)

16 Vietnamese at war exempt from VAT? North and South were (7)

24 Takes drugs regularly again - starts getting Ecstasy for nothing (6)

26 Pen, one left by American (6)

31 Riotous fun in swinging bar (5)

36 Made in Italy, best poisonous gas (7)

PONTIFFS

2 Pip's account, one incorporating Pocket (6)

9 Old-style adulterers like, um, fashionable young girls about (8)

14 Foreign birds strip in summer? Nix on! (8)

18 A mole engaged in gathering information (5)

22 Withdraw, cheesed off when Hungary does (6)

29 The Times apt to be easily forgotten (8)

34 Four aces enough for me to get vole playing écarté? (8, two words)

38 Slipshod of me to pen only 60% of essay (5)

Published in 2004, this was the toughest puzzle ever on the Crossword Centre, with  correct entries in single figures. A real tour de force by Roddy Forman (Radix)