Puzzles: Expert Guides and Resources

Discover how solving crossword puzzles can benefit your senior brain by strengthening memory, mind function, and more. Next, dive into crossword-puzzle tips for seniors that can enhance your efficiency and enjoyment and hone your puzzle-solving skills.Using crosswords to stimulate your senior brainFor seniors, solving crossword puzzles can fortify memory and ability to focus, according to studies.

Working crossword puzzles is great exercise for your brain — and great fun as well. To maximize your enjoyment and your mental workout, take some time to learn basic tips for solving crossword clues. Then, create the right environment so you can focus, move at your own pace, and give the crossword your best effort.

Unlike traditional word or number puzzles, picture puzzles challenge you to discover differences or similarities between pictures or pieces of a picture. By following a few strategies (and they’re not just mental!), you can solid solve a puzzle and boost your brain power at the same time.Solve picture puzzles solidlyPicture puzzles, no matter what variety you choose to solve, can be, well, puzzling.

Cryptography offers you the chance to solve all kinds of puzzles. Use basic solving techniques to crack substitution ciphers, including the Freemason’s cipher. Encode your own messages, decode incoming communications, and have fun trying to figure out conspiracies, codes, and cryptograms!Cryptography 101: Basic solving techniques for substitution ciphersIt doesn’t matter whether a cryptogram presents you with letters, numbers, arcane symbols, lines and dots, or weird alien squiggles — if you’re asked to replace each letter in the alphabet with another symbol, you’re dealing with a simple substitution cipher.

These five cryptograms are all letter substitution ciphers, at an Easy level. Each letter of the alphabet is substituted by another letter, and no letter is encrypted as itself.To start out on these puzzles, look for the most frequent letter in each cryptogram — you’ll find it’s almost always E. Single-letter words will be A or I.

Word searches are fun once you get the low-down on how to solve them. They also bring benefits you may not realize and can play an important role in keeping you mentally fit. After you've mastered solving word searches, you can stretch your brain another way and try composing your own.How to solve a word search puzzleIf you already have a solving method for word search puzzles that works for you, consider adding it to the following list.

People love to do puzzles of all kinds, but cryptic crosswords are often seen as a challenging form of entertainment — delight may be rare to anyone new to cryptics! This cheat sheet covers the basics of how to start on a cryptic crossword grid, and you’ll also find some handy reference lists and explanations to spotting certain clue devices.