Playfair

[Ripper]

Hello
Can anyone help me with 'playfair'?
I've got most of the letters, but have no idea how to find the keyword
Any help appreciated!

[NazNomad]

Sure .. firstly, what's Playfair? What letters do you have? What does the keyword represent?

[bellabee]

put in a search for quinapalus playfair breaker - the words 'playfair breaker' are underlined - click on this and follow the instructions.

[Ripper]

Here is a description of Playfair:
The Playfair cipher uses a 5 by 5 table containing a key word or phrase. Memorization of the keyword and 4 simple rules was all that was required to create the 5 by 5 table and use the cipher.

To generate the key table, one would first fill in the spaces in the table with the letters of the keyword (dropping any duplicate letters), then fill the remaining spaces with the rest of the letters of the alphabet in order (putting both "I" and "J" in the same space). The key can be written in the top rows of the table, from left to right, or in some other pattern, such as a spiral beginning in the upper-left-hand corner and ending in the center. The keyword together with the conventions for filling in the 5 by 5 table constitute the cipher key.

To encrypt a message, one would break the message into digraphs (groups of 2 letters) such that, for example, "HelloWorld" becomes "HE LL OW OR LD", and map them out on the key table. The two letters of the digraph are considered as the opposite corners of a rectangle in the key table. Note the relative position of the corners of this rectangle. Then apply the following 4 rules, in order, to each pair of letters in the plaintext:

That makes it sound complicated!
Basically I have some words and their cipher:
SALMON = TM??NB
CANARY = HP??QG
SHRIMP = TF???Y
VIOLET = YD??HR
I know the cipher for the key word is 2 words GCKWRF GRNTRHST

Well you did ask!
Seriously though if you can help it'd be appreciated!

[Ripper]

Thanks bellabee
I tried using the quinapalus playfair breaker but had no luck!
I'm pretty sure the keyword is some sort of colour
Help..........................!

[bellabee]

i'm not surprised you are struggling with this ripper - dropped duplicates is bad enough but the fact that the the entry might be non-standard ['some other pattern such as a spiral...'??????] must make this nigh on impossible to crack in the usual way, surely there must be some other clue here to help you to deduce the keyword?

[Ripper]

Hello bellabee
The only other clue I have is that an alternative name for the keyword GCKWRF GRNTRHST is: (this is not in code)
_ _ NT _ N _ I _L _ RO _ _
I don't even know if this is one or more words and the only answer I can come up with is Pentonville Road, but Googling doesn't throw up any alternatives to that!
Time to pull my hair out methinks!!!

[bellabee]

this could be a wild goose chase but pentonville road is a site on the london/england monopoly board and there are absolutely loads of alternatives for this site [the light blue one next to the jail corner] for the myriad versions of the game around the world.

[bellabee]

ripper - went back to the playfair breaker and [strangely] your 4 clues, salmon/canary/shrimp/violet all code for a straightforward 5x5 square using 'pygmalion' as the codeword - then if you code gckwrf also using the same square derived from 'pygmalion' you get 'peruse' and the second word grntrhst is very nearly 'websters' - could there be a mistake with the second coded word?

[Ripper]

Hi bellabee
I'm pretty sure I've got things right, but I'll have another look later.
Canary is: Tin with openers for Ambrisia rice - yummy
so I think it's right
Voilet is : Some vegetable oil sprinkled on meat regulary
Salmon is: Reduced salt on pheasant halved
Shrimp is: Tops for steakhouse's horseradish with prime cut cooked
I HATE playfair
but, thanks for helping!

[bellabee]

ripper - all of those answers are ok and code to pygmalion just fine - 1st line =pygma 2nd line = lionb 3rd line= cdefh 4th line =kqrst 5th line = uvwxz / then your coded 2 word phrase gckwrf = 'peruse' for the first word and [almost] grntrhst = 'websters' for the second, so could the first and last pairs be wrong? i only ask because this suggests that the message is 'peruse websters' [the on-line dictionary]. maybe look up pygmalion in there or pentonville road [or even monopoly] - good luck with it.

[bellabee]

to be clear - i have my doubts about the gr and the st of the second coded word grntrhst, could you have transcribed it wrongly? - anyway, i too hate playfair so i'm glad i haven't come across this particular crossword. again - best of luck!

[Ripper]

Thanks again bellabee
I'll let you know if I have any luck

[bellabee]

ripper - you were right it is a colour - if you google centennial brown you also get pygmalion [which i assume is the alternative name for this particular shade of dark brown] - so pentonville road was a red herring after all.