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Cryptic crosswords have rules. Rules are actually your friends as long as you understand them; they inform you how you can win. But sometimes people who are desperate to win tend to want to obscure the rules and make them seem complex so that you don’t understand them. This makes rules seem intimidating and, therefore, have a force of their own. This forcefulness can at times make fools of us by diverting us from clearly perceiving the rule’s actual import, which would be obvious — limpid, even — to us when we are at leisure and perceiving freely without being under the pressure of a force.
Point being, if you ever need to work out a problem to save your life, try to ignore the life-or-death pressure of survival. Just clear your mind, and try to be at leisure. Because that is possibly the best and only way you may be able to solve the…