A strange little side quest
A small trivia drop for Protect The House: Arthur Wynne published a diamond-shaped 'Word-Cross' in the New York World on December 21, 1913; the name later shifted to 'Cross-Word' and then 'crossword'. And the history keeps stacking up: The word 'checkmate' is linked to the Persian expression 'shah mat', used when the king was trapped. That long chain of experiments is part of why puzzles still feels fresh when a game finds the right twist.