A crossword is a grid of white and black squares in which every white square belongs to at least one word, read either left to right (Across) or top to bottom (Down). Each numbered square starts a word, and each numbered word has a clue. Because most white squares sit at the intersection of an Across answer and a Down answer, every letter you place is checked twice. That crossing structure is the whole point of the puzzle: it is what lets you solve a clue you could not have solved cold.
The puzzles here are 10×10 grids built around three themes — Card Games, Casino & Games, and Classic Solitaire — so the answers stay in familiar territory while you learn the solving habits. Click a square to select it, type letters, and use the arrow keys to move around the grid. The Prev and Next buttons move between puzzles, Check Word tells you whether the answer you are sitting on is correct, and Reveal fills it in when you would rather move on than stall. A timer runs at the top if you want to track your pace, and you can ignore it entirely if you would rather not.
Beginners usually start at 1 Across and work down the list in order. That is the slowest possible route. Better solvers scan for the clues they are sure of, fill those in wherever they appear, and let the crossing letters do the rest of the work.
Check Word is more useful than it looks. Use it on the answer you feel roughly seventy percent sure about — the one holding up a corner. Confirming or killing that entry unblocks everything crossing it. Using Check on every word as you go turns the puzzle into typing practice; using it never means you can spend twenty minutes building on a wrong letter.
Reveal is for when you have genuinely exhausted a clue. There is no scoring penalty here, and seeing an answer you could not get is how you acquire the vocabulary that makes the next puzzle easier. The words that recur in themed crosswords are a fairly small set, and you learn them mostly by meeting them.
The puzzle runs entirely in your browser with no account and no downloads. If you enjoy this, our strategy guides cover the card games that supply most of the vocabulary in these grids.