PostMag Quick Crossword (South China Morning Post)

The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's English-language daily, offers two crosswords on its SCMP Games page. The PostMag Quick Crossword, named after the paper's PostMag magazine, is the one it pitches at casual solvers looking for a quick brain boost; the SCMP Cryptic Crossword is the harder one.

Each day's grid is 13 by 13 with about twenty-five clues. The clues are plain synonyms, mostly a single word followed by the answer's length: Squander (5), Detestable (7), Affianced (7). The Across and Down lists sit beside the grid, with the current clue in a bar above it, and arrows step from one clue to the next.

The puzzle is filed under its date, so every reader solves the same grid that day. A timer runs as you solve, Check/Reveal helps when you are stuck, a How to Play box explains the controls, and Save keeps your progress. Today's grid opens without signing in; the past days listed below it carry a lock and come with an SCMP subscription. The page shows the newspaper's display ads above the puzzle.

It suits newer solvers and anyone who wants a short daily crossword without cryptic wordplay, and it works on a phone as well as a desktop.