Solving Italian Crosswords Using the Web

We designed and implemented a software system, called WebCrow, that represents the first solver for Italian crosswords and the first system that tackles a language game using the Web as knowledge base. Its core feature is the Web Search Module that produces a special form of web-based question answering that we call clue-answering. This paper will focus its attention on this task. The web-search approach has proved itself to be very consistent: using a limited set of documents the clue-answering process is able to retrieve over two thirds of the correct answers. In many cases the targeted word is given in output among the very first most probable candidates (15% of correct answers in first position). To complete the crosswords solving problem the system has to fill the grid with the best set of word answers. Currently, WebCrow’s performances are interesting: crosswords that are “easy” for expert humans (i.e. crosswords from the cover pages of La Settimana EnigmisticaTM ) are...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: AIIA
• Authors: Giovanni Angelini, Marco Ernandes, Marco Gori
• Keywords: AIIA 2005, Artificial Intelligence, Correct Answers, Crosswords, first Solver