Cryptic Crossoword

Introduction

Cryptic crosswords are distinctly different from a lot of the other games and puzzles on the list. One of the things that sets it apart, as a word game is that there isn't much "correctness" or strategy that can be applied. Language centred thinking is of course very different from what will be applied in a lot of other games. But there's a reason that it features on my list of games.
Crosswords sound like something that requires a great vocabulary. But the barriers to solving cryptic crosswords are surprisingly low. The cryptic part actually makes these crosswords much easier, and not more difficult, as it might sound at first.
The bulk of what I will put together here are the rules for solving cryptic crosswords. I will also try to organise some cool resources for finding and solving cryptic crosswords. There isn't much that can be done by means of analysing strategy for cryptic crosswords. But I shall try to complete a basic analysis for comparison against other types of games as well.

Before going much further, I should call out the main source from which I have learned what little I have about cryptic crosswords. The book solving cryptic crosswords for dummies was an invaluable starting point for me. The author, Denise Sutherland does a great job of going through each of the cryptic devices one by one, with examples and a lot of sample crosswords. In general, with games one can't really learn much just by reading the theory, but has to play them to learn. Similarly, I would strongly recommend reading this book (and solving the puzzles inside it), not just the rules below. And of course, it's only by solving a bunch of cryptic crosswords on your own that you can get any good. But in any case, I have documented below for my own benefit, my takeaways from the book and my learnings about cryptic crossowrds.

Rules

Objective

To fill in all of the blank spots in the crosswords with the right letters. More practically the objective is to get the correct word or phrase as an answer to each of the clues.

Anatomy of a Crossword

A crossword consists of white squares, where we need to guess the right letter, and black squares, which should be ignored. These white squares are organised in the form of horizontal and vertical words.
At the beginning (first white square) of each horizontal or vertical word is a number. This number represents the clue number which can be used to guess the word. Beside the crossword is a list of clues labeled as Across (horizontal) and Down (vertical). These clues are also numbered in correspondence to the horizontal or vertical word which they are a clue for.
Many white spaces are a part of only one word (the across or down word which they are inside). Other white spaces are in the intersection of an across and down word. They represent a point where the same letter is present at that position in both words. these white spaces in the intersections are called checked squares. These checked squares are a key tool in figuring out which words answer unsolved clues, as we begin to solve more of the crossword.

Each cryptic clue consists of 3 parts:
1. Definition - The definition is a word or phrase at the beginning or end (never in the middle) of the clue. This definition is a synonym of or a rather direct (but not exact) 'definition' of the word that will fit in the corresponding space in the crossword. Definitions usually have to 'fair'. This means that once you know the answer word, one should believe that the definition alone is a reasonable way of clueing the word (no more information should be absolutely necessary). Further, the definition and the answer word must be the same part of speech (tense, plurality, noun/verb/adjective etc).
2. Wordplay - The wordplay is the rest (excluding the definition) of the clue. The wordplay is another way of arriving at the answer word. This involves some sort of playing around with letters, synonyms, abbreviation or other such language tools in the rest of the clue to arrive at the same answer word in a different way. Thus, every clue consists of 2 ways of arrivng at the same answer word.
2.1. Indicator Words - As a part of the wordplay are some keywords which help us understand what type of cryptic device is being used. There is a finite set of cryptic devices (type or pattern of wordplay) which can be used to clue the answer word. Spotting these indicator words gives us hints as to what sort of wordplay we should search for, and therefore how we can try to crack the clue. Spotting and using indicator words is the key to solving cryptic crossowrds. This one element is what makes these potentially much easier to solve than a regular crossword. It's also the reason that one doesn't necessarily need to have a great vocabulary to solve a cryptic crossword. Each cryptic device has a large number of indicator words which can be used to signal the device. There is no hard and fast rule as to what indicator words can be used. However, there are lists of frequently used indicators by device, and all of them follow a similar pattern.
3. Word Length - At the end of the clue, in brackets is a number. this number indicates the length of the answer word. this can also be seen from the number of white squares in the corresponding word in the crossword. However, sometime this number is a comma separated or hyphenated set of numbers. This helps us understand when the answer word is a multi-word phrase, or hyphenated word. It also helps us understand the split up of letters across compoenent words.

Cryptic Devices

1. Anagrams
An anagram is a word or phrase which is formed by jumbilng/rearranging the letters from another word or phrase.
An anagram may act as the entire cryptic device for a clue, or it may provide only a part of the answer, while another cryptic device is used to help clue thee rest of the answer. On the whole, anagrams are one of the easier cryptic devices.
Indicators - Anagram indicator words express the idea of something being broken, rearranged, stressed, upset, active, sick, confused, unusual, wrong or unattractive. It should be easy to understand why these ideas indicate that one needs to jumble letters and find anagrams.

2. Charades (part wise synonyms)
Charades, or linked words is a device through which the answer is clued in smaller parts. For each smaller part, a synonymous word or phrase is provided. If not a direct synonym, the clue for the part may be an obvious hint or even any of the other cryptic devices. Abbreviations are a device which are very frequently embedded as part-wise clues in charades. Further, sometimes one or two letter parts of the answer are left as is, in the charades clue. That is, you may find individual letters like 'A' or 'I' in the cryptic clue, as opposed to a synonym or cryptic device for these letters.
Indicators - Charades is a cryptic device for which no indicator is provided. This is because synonyms are technically not a cryptic device, and is the norm for a regular crossword. Moreover, the synonyms/part-wise clues appear in the same order in which they must be put together in the final answer.

3. Containers (via synonyms)
In container clues, one word goes around another word. This combination results in the answer word or phrase. Note that this could also be thought of as one word going inside another word.
Indicators - Container indicators are words that express the idea of one word being put inside another, or may express the idea of one word surrounding another. These indicators will be placed such that one can understand which word is going in and which one is surrounding.

4. Subtracting/Substituting
In these clues a part of a word or phrase may be either cut out or replaced with another set of letters.
Indicators - The exact set of indicators depend on whether letters are to be removed or substituted. Further, it depends on which letters are to be removed or substituted. In the case of deletions, words expressing removal, cutting or lacking are used. The first letter may be referred to as capital, initial, first or head. And therefore deletion of it may be referred to as decapitation, headlessness etc. Similarly deletion of the ending may be references through words like almost, tailless, cut short etc. The middle letter(s) may be referred to as the heart, core or centre etc. If both the first and last letters are removed, phrases like endless, missing covers etc may be used. If half the word is to be cut out, it must be exactly the first half or second half, of an even letter word.
In case of substitution, phrases like <a> for <b>, instead of, replaced with etc can be used.

5. Reversal
Reversals are cryptic devices where words (or parts of words) or phrases are reversed to give the answer or at least a part of the answer.
Indicators - Reversal indicator words express the idea of something being reversed, turned around, sent back and so on. In the context of 'down' clues, this can also be expressed as something being sent back up.

6. Homophones
This cryptic device uses words and phrases which sound like the answer word or phrase. These are usually easy clues to solve, as long as they are identified correctly. In homophone clues, a dialect may also be specified. For example "cockney" suggests a british dialect where one drops the 'H' sound while saying a word out loud.
Indicator - Homphone indicators may express the ideas of something which is either said or played out loud, or express the idea of having to listen or say something.

7. Double Definitions
A double definition contains 2 definitions. Thus the cryptic device is also a definition, not a special clue. Keep in mind the 2 definitions may be used to define 2 different words, as long as the 2 words have the same spelling. These are called heteronym double definitions.
Indicators - Double definitions also have no explicit indicator words. But linking words are often used. These linking words would express ideas such as 2 definitions being the same, or distinct but similar. Words such as also, gives, from etc can be used to express that 2 definitions are equivalent. But these words can often be used within other cryptic devices, so shouldn't be read into too much.

8. Hidden Words
These cryptic devices are used to show that the answer is in plain sight, within the clue. This means that a consecutive set of letters somewhere in the clue is in fact the answer. Sometimes these letters may be in reverse. If that's the case, unlike in a reversal, these letters are not a clean reversal of a word, but are spread across parts of a few words. However, in both these cases they are always continuous, and don't need to be scrambled, like in an anagram. Other variants of hidden words include where the word is spelled out through alternate letters of the words in the clue, or when the first letters of a series of words spell out the answer.
Indicators - The indicators words for hidden words give the idea that the word is hidden inside some other word. This is distinct from indicators for containers in that a sense of being hidden is also expressed. For the alternating variants, indicator words expressing oddness or evenness can be used. For the variant with first letters, initially may be the only used indicator word.

9. Abbreviations
In this cryptic device a larger word or set of words signifies a letter or two (maybe a couple more). This is often used to clue a few letters, and the rest of the letters come from other devices. There are entire dictionaries which are dedicated to cryptic crossword abbreviations. For the most part one just picks up the most common abbreviations over time with practice. There are no indicator words for this device. Just the word which signifies a shorter abbreviation. There are a few patterns of abbreviations, but each word may form a given abbreviation for various different literary or historical (or other references) reasons.
Some types of abbreviations are:
Numbers are sometimes abbreviated to their roman numeral form.
If a foreign language (usually French or German) is mentioned, the adjoining word should be translated into that laguage. This is usually a short and commonly known word, so you don't need to be fluent in other languages.
Famous personalities, fictional characters and gods may be clued through synonyms or descriptions, if their name (first or last) is short. Some names like Bob and Grace have alternate meanings, which can be used as a synonym like abbreviation.
Some normal names just need to be shortened to their first few characters.

10. &lit clues
These clues don't have separate definitions and cryptic devices. The same clue can be read in two ways. On reading it once you can see the definition (the whole clue). On reading it a second time, you can look out for cryptic devices and read the whole clue as if it's a cryptic device. Both ways of reading it should help you arrive at the same answer.

11. Others
There are a few more obscure and rarely used cryptic devices. These are similar to &lit clues. But these are not used in most common cryptic crosswords. One example which I quite like is spoonerisms. A spoonerism is clued using phrases like 'spooner says'.

Resources

1. Free cryptic crossword sites
Lovatts
A new cryptic is released every day. At any point of time you can access all of the crosswords from the last 7 days. There are word, letter and peek hints available. It automatically let's you know if the full word is correct or not. It's an Australian site, so those are the kind of references you can expect.

The Hindu
A new cryptic is released every day. At any point of time you can access all of the crosswords from the last 15 days. There are word, letter and peek hints available. You have to manually check each word once typed in. It's an Indian site, so those are the kind of references you can expect.

The Guardian
Virtaully unlimited cryptic and quick crossowords. Only 1 crossword is accessible directly. After selecting a crossword, the crossowrd number in the URL can be edited to access older puzzles. There are chec all, reveal all and clear all features. You have to manually check each word once typed in. It's a British site, so those are the kind of references you can expect.

Australian Crossword Club
This page has monthly crossword magazines. Each edition contains 6 new crosswords and solutions to the previous month's crosswords. There is a little more of a discussion about the crossword, and obviously no immediate solution or support. Perhaps this is useful and interesting for more advanced solvers.

2. Blogs discussing cryptic crosswords
Crossword Unclued
Fifteen Squared
Always Puzzling
Paul's Weekly Cryptic Blog

3. Tools & dictionaries
Dictionary
Alphabetical as well as cryptic device ordered list of abbreviation and classic clues.
Word Search
Search bar driven tool to help find a list of relevant and plausible answers.
Anagram Solver and Word Completer
Search bar driven tool to find anagrams or to identify potential words given limited letters and spaces.
Crossword Solver
Finally, the most powerful tool of them all. If you're absolutely stuck, and want the answer to a clue, but aren't ready to give up on a rank or timing yet, this tool gives you a bunch of potential answers to the clue typed in. The first one is usually right too.