Sunday Times Teaser 2935 – A Palindrome

by Graham Smithers

Published December 23 2018 (link)

In this Teaser, a jig* is defined as an outwards move to an adjacent empty square, either horizontally, upwards or downwards, the letter * being inserted in all such squares.

Begin with the letter W on a regular grid of empty squares.

From the W, jigO. From every O, jigN. From every N, jigD, and so on until the central diagonal reads SELIM’S TIRED, NO WONDER, IT’S MILES.

Looking at your grid of letters, in how many ways can you trace the palindrome above?

[You can start at any S, move to adjacent letters till you reach the W and then on to any S (including the one you started at). You may move up and down, left and right.]