Checkerboard
by Ian Tullis, Yar Woo
Answer: LEGAL BALANCE
The checkerboard in this puzzle refers to former president Richard Nixon's famous (infamous?) "Checkers" speech, in which he attempted to project a humanizing tone while talking about his family's new dog, Checkers. The excerpt of the speech relevant to the puzzle is as follows:
"It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he'd sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it"
This excerpt is exactly 64 words long and can be filled into the checkerboard. Indexing into the words on the squares provided yields the message ENEMIES AND AIDES.
The enemies are the red checkers (because Nixon hated communists). All of these initialed people were members of Nixon's enemies list. Taking their position on the enemies list gives the word LEGAL.
1. (A) Arnold Picker …
5. (E) Charles Dyson …
7. (G) Allard Lowenstein …
12. (L) Sidney Davidoff…
The aides are the black checkers, the seven men known as the Watergate Seven. Identifying by the enumeration and indexing into their names gives the word BALANCE.
| 5 7 8 (8) | harry roBbins haldeman | B |
| 4 10 (13) | john ehrlichmAn | A |
| 4 6 8 (17) | john newton mitcheLl | L |
| 6 7 (12) | robert mardiAn | A |
| 6 9 8 (6) | gordoN creighton strachan | N |
| 7 6 (1) | Charles colson | C |
| 7 9 (5) | kennEth parkinson | E |
The answer is LEGAL BALANCE.