Past exam of the topology course of the University of Oxford / 2014 / 3 / b / ii

Apply the first extraction move to the two outer occurrences of $x$, then cyclically rotate the word to expose the two occurrences of $y^{-1}$:In the third line the repeated letter for the move is $y^{-1}$, and the intervening string is $z^{-1}{z}^{-1}$, whose inverse is $zz$. Rename $y^{-1}$ as a new edge label. The final word has the standard form $aabbcc$.

Each same-direction repeated pair represents a projective-plane summand, so the classification theorem for surfaces identifies this word with the connected sum of three real projective planes:Thus the surface has crosscap number three. As a check, the original identifications make all six polygon vertices equivalent, leaving one vertex, three edges and one face. Its Euler characteristic is $1-3+1=-1=2-3$, consistent with that crosscap count.