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Biased

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“Biased” by Mathrix was our twelfth grid for 2026.

Stats: 59 solvers attempted this puzzle. 41 solvers managed to complete the puzzle and 39 solved the puzzle and submitted the bonus forms as well. Only 26 solvers got the full score.

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Bonus Questions: 5 synonyms for BIASED that can be found diagonally (on a bias) in the completed grid:

Ans

ASLANT, INFLUENCED, PREJUDICED, WARPED, PARTIAL

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Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)

Out of 59 solvers,  39 completed and submitted the grid and bonus forms, of which 26 got the full score. Each of the following scored 199 points (Grid Score – 194,  Bonus – 5).

Al Sanders
Amita Annette Joseph
Arnav V Raju
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
D Narayana Swamy
Devi Prasad
Himanshu Rajurkar
Jose A
Lakshmi A J Vaidyanathan
Lakshmi Prakash
Max Jackson
Mona Sogal
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Nilesh Parmar
P. Venkatesan
Panyam Tejas
Prakash Arumugam
Ramachandra Nagendra Prasad
Ramki Krishnan
Ratna Rao
Ratnakumar V
Samit Kallianpur
Sohil Bhagat
Steve Gunter
Venkatraghavan S

Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a superb rating of 9.1. It was rated a perfect 10 by 15 out of the 39 folks who voted (39%). The lowest rating was 7.

Favourite Clues:  The Top clues were

  1. 11A I’m amazed! Finally! My drinking problem is not very big (7) – 11 votes
  2. 18A Obstinate, like Varahi? (9) – 10 votes
  3. 39A Brass instrument blowing, or holding note – it’s one of three gifts from my true love (6, 3) – 7 votes
  4. 40A How Barbie addresses gift tag for souvenir (5) – 7 votes
  5. 12A Toast sent back – seems egg is missing (4) – 7 votes

Thanks Mathrix. What a fabulous grid construction and fun puzzle. The comments from solvers says it all. Enjoyed solving it and look forward to the next new idea from you. The solvers ratings and the comments in the thread below  

Comments

33 responses

  1. Madhusudan H Rao Avatar
    Madhusudan H Rao

    Nicely done. Solving bonus questions took time. Thanks for the puzzle !

    Reply
  2. Prakash Arumugam Avatar
    Prakash Arumugam

    Lovely clues and a well-crafted puzzle

    Reply
  3. Sunday, August 2, 2026 – Daily Crossword Links

    […] 1Across: Biased by Mathrix. .pdf, online. Beneath The Surface: Printer’s Devilry #6 by Kyle Dolan. The Gnomon: Issue #8, June 2026 by Andy Yingst. Subscribe at link. In Pursuit of Puzzles: Rows Garden #8 by Jeanne D. Breen. Sporcle: Daily Acrostic. Online only Stay Golden Puzzles: ($) Rows Garden by Juliana Tringali Golden. […]

    Reply
  4. Ramachandra Nagendra Prasad Avatar
    Ramachandra Nagendra Prasad

    SUPER PUZZLE. HAD TO DIG DEEP TO GET THE LAST OF THE SYNONYMS IN THE GRID.

    Reply
  5. Rengaswamy Narasimhan Avatar
    Rengaswamy Narasimhan

    Nice one. Enjoyed solving.

    Reply
  6. Ramki Krishnan Avatar
    Ramki Krishnan

    Very enjoyable grid. For a change, I could quickly answer the bonus questions too (which have been the big challenge for me in Ian’s puzzles!)

    Reply
  7. Sampath Shrinivasan Avatar
    Sampath Shrinivasan

    The diagonal words exercise was a novelty (for me). Overall, a nice grid!!

    Reply
  8. Veera Raghavan Sundararajan Avatar
    Veera Raghavan Sundararajan

    Very good puzzle. Nice, challenging clues. Skilfully placed theme words.

    Reply
  9. Al Sanders Avatar
    Al Sanders

    Great puzzle, excellent cluing and an amazingly clean grid given all the constraints. Well done!

    Reply
  10. Panyam Tejas Avatar
    Panyam Tejas

    Most of the clues were easy, but some difficult and obscure. Good ratio of the same, it was enjoyable. Not sure about the Barbie Universe, so not sure if that clue needs a bit more information… Overall enjoyable

    Reply
  11. Samit Kallianpur Avatar
    Samit Kallianpur

    Good puzzle and theme with a nice endgame!

    Reply
  12. D Narayana Swamy Avatar
    D Narayana Swamy

    Nice clues

    Reply
  13. Mukundala Balasubramanyam Avatar
    Mukundala Balasubramanyam

    Nice puzzle

    Reply
  14. NARAYANAN R Avatar
    NARAYANAN R

    Nice Grid but wass challenging to find the Bonus answers

    Reply
  15. P. Venkatesan Avatar
    P. Venkatesan

    Excellent grid. Enjoyed solving.

    Reply
  16. Krittibas Dasgupta Avatar
    Krittibas Dasgupta

    Cool puzzle, with a great theme. Unsure how 32DN works

    Reply
  17. Ramesh Ss Avatar
    Ramesh Ss

    Some excellent word play. 28 & 39 i could do only due to the bonus question. Had to do the opposite of 16D to fill the bonus! Enjoyable solve Matrix.

    Reply
  18. Devi Prasad Avatar
    Devi Prasad

    Nice grid.

    Reply
  19. Mona Sogal Avatar
    Mona Sogal

    Lovely theme…smooth clues.
    I see what you did in 32 D
    Enjoyed myself 🙂

    Reply
  20. Ratnakumar V Avatar
    Ratnakumar V

    Lovely grid , enjoyed solving

    Reply
  21. Sparsh Sinha Avatar
    Sparsh Sinha

    Enjoyed the clues

    Reply
  22. Sandhya Paruchuri Avatar
    Sandhya Paruchuri

    This is, without bias, one of the finest puzzles I have ever solved!

    Reply
  23. Paul Henderson Avatar
    Paul Henderson

    Fortunately (for me, not for him, of course) Jethro passed on not too long ago otherwise I might have struggled. And the remarkably named Mr. Uecker took a bit of finding. But it all came together well, and an excellent set of clues, which made it hard to settle on the top three.

    Reply
  24. Sohil Bhagat Avatar
    Sohil Bhagat

    Didn’t particularly enjoy this one – neither the fill nor the cluing. Reading the comments below, I’m glad it seems like I’m in the minority – because I can imagine how hard fitting the bonus words in the grid would have been.

    Reply
  25. Arvind Ramaswamy Avatar
    Arvind Ramaswamy

    Enjoyed solving this one, nice clues and theme.

    Reply
  26. Venkatraghavan S Avatar
    Venkatraghavan S

    Superbly done

    Reply
  27. Ashit Hegde Avatar
    Ashit Hegde

    Fairly enjoyable grid. Ingenious bonus puzzle

    Reply
  28. Shobha Nayak Avatar
    Shobha Nayak

    A few tough clues but the theme was fun esp the diagonal placement of words

    Reply
  29. CrossBird Avatar
    CrossBird

    Really enjoyed the grid and bonus questions!

    Reply
  30. Lakshmi A J Vaidyanathan Avatar
    Lakshmi A J Vaidyanathan

    Nice puzzle !

    Reply
  31. Steve Gunter Avatar
    Steve Gunter

    An outstanding, creative puzzle with many original and clever clues.
    However, the editor made a huge blunder with the instructions for the Bonus Questions.
    You essentially gave away the theme/nina by giving Too Much Information !
    Thus, you robbed the solver of the “aha” moment we enjoy upon discovering said theme.
    The original instructions were sufficient: ” … find five additional words, with … a meaning and
    a placement that is suggested by the title.”
    For that reason, and that reason only, this wonderful puzzle does not deserve a perfect score.

    Reply
  32. Himanshu Rajurkar Avatar
    Himanshu Rajurkar

    Brilliant!

    Reply
  33. Max Jackson Avatar
    Max Jackson

    The “diagonal” instruction made finding the hidden words quicker.
    Nicely constructed puzzle to fit all those words in.

    Reply

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