___ Defense, one of the standard openings to combat in the Queen’s Gambit
13A
Nose around
14A
Make blonde again, perhaps
15A
Petty peeve
17A
Can material
18A
When the chess match ends decisively
22A
U.S. rep. for NY’s 14th congressional district who once said “There’s no debate as to whether we should continue producing fossil fuels. There’s no debate, we should not. Every single scientific consensus points to that.”
24A
One in water
25A
Religion of the Koran
26A
Hereditary factors
30A
Dime
31A
“Coming right up after this quick break”
32A
The wrong way to write 2003 to a Roman
33A
Not identified, and missing the start of “not”
34A
Not straight
35A
Many Canadian gas stations
Verticali
1D
Connery or Penn
2D
“Pay ___ mind”
3D
“Have a sample”
4D
Like “Pawn Sacrifice” or “Searching for Bobby Fischer”
5D
Den appliance
6D
“Wait a minute!”
7D
Comedian Boosler (I’ve never seen this name spelled that way prior)
8D
Qe4 or Bc5
9D
Bits that fill the board, briefly
16D
One way to win a chess boxing match, briefly
18D
Chess safety play
19D
___ one (foooooorree!)
20D
Norwegian chess grandmaster Carlsen
21D
Special types of online chess tournaments where players accumulate points with an hour or two
23D
“Zip your lip!”
25D
Poetic foot
27D
Verne captain or cute fish
28D
Old flames
29D
Something you definitely don’t want after a ONS (or ever for that matter)