Monthly Archives: December 2025

The 2025 GCHQ Christmas Challenge Launches Tomorrow!

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One government agency in England celebrates Christmas a little bit differently than most.

The GCHQ — or Government Communications Headquarters — provides security and intelligence services for the British government. Back when they were known as GC&CS — Government Code and Cypher School — they were responsible for funding Bletchley Park and its successes cracking the German “Enigma” code during World War II.

And now, they provide one of the coolest and puzzliest challenges of the year, designed for solvers aged eleven to eighteen to test their skills, hoping to inspire the next generation of puzzle solvers.

Yes, it’s time once again for the GCHQ Christmas card.

GCHQ card
A look at 2021’s GCHQ Christmas Card.

We provided detailed breakdowns of their Christmas cards in 2016 and 2021, and if you’d like a sample of the GCHQ Christmas Challenge, they have an archive of puzzles from three previous years ready for you to solve!

The 2025 edition of the GCHQ Christmas Challenge launches tomorrow, Wednesday December 10th for the general public. (Schools were able to register for early access to the puzzles, complete with lesson-planning materials, which is very cool.)

Here’s what the GCHQ has to say about the event:

At GCHQ, we love creating puzzles and breaking codes. That’s why every year we create the GCHQ Christmas Challenge, a series of fiendish brainteasers and puzzles, designed by our very own team of codebreakers. It encourages children aged 11-18 to think laterally and work as a team, as well as showcasing some of the skills they might need to become a spy.

The puzzles are not designed to be solved alone, and each student will bring something different to the challenge. At GCHQ, we believe the right mix of minds enables us to solve seemingly impossible problems.

I’ve always been impressed with what festive puzzly efforts GCHQ brings each year, and I can’t wait to see what the 2025 edition has in store for solvers.

So, fellow puzzlers, do you accept this year’s Christmas Challenge? Let us know in the comments section below!

Crossword News Roundup: ACPT and Puzzmo’s Open Submission Week

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We’ve got two quick updates for you today from the world of crosswords. And both of them involve opportunities for you to get out there and show off your cruciverbalist talents!

acptlogo

The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is moving in 2027!

On Monday night’s Boswords broadcast, Will Shortz joined Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb to announce some changes for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

In 2026, the ACPT will be held at the Stamford Marriott, possibly for the last time.

No, worry not, the ACPT is still going strong. So strong, in fact, that it will be moving to Philadelphia for the 2027 tournament! The new space will be able to accommodate up to 1,250 solvers.

It’s a sad moment for Stamford, but not entirely unexpected. Attendance has been pushing the Marriott’s limits for years, and registration for this year’s tournament closed more than a month early because of high demand.

It’s also not the first time Stamford has said goodbye to the tournament. From 2008 until its return in 2015, the ACPT was held outside Stamford.

You can check out the full announcement here:

Overall, I think this is a great move for the tournament. There’s greater opportunity to attend the tournament, plus a ballroom space fit for voracious solvers of all ages.

I can’t wait to see what 2016 and 2017 bring for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Remember that registration opens on January 1st for former contestants and on January 8th for rookies!

Reminder: Puzzmo Open Submission Week is Fast Approaching!

From the mecca of in-person crossword solving to one of its most ambitious and welcoming online platforms, we move from one impactful puzzly institution to another that has very quickly made its mark on the world of puzzles.

Puzzmo is holding their next Crossword Open Submission Week from December 29th to January 5th, 2026, with new and established constructors all welcome to submit their puzzly creations.

Themed and themeless puzzles are welcome, as long as they fit Puzzmo’s specs, and the Puzzmo team has created an impressively thorough document to assist aspiring constructors with their efforts. Grid specs, examples of previously published puzzles, and more await anyone hoping to see their work pop up on Puzzmo.

It’s a very cool opportunity to test your puzzly mettle in a creative space known for strong crossword fundamentals as well as playfulness with language and themes (particularly their signature “apt pairs”).

I would highly recommend checking out Puzzmo, whether you’re planning to submit puzzles or not. The minis, midis, and big crosswords are all great fun to solve, and new constructors are bound to learn a thing or two from the terrific names on Puzzmo’s roster of puzzlesmiths.

Will you be attending next year’s ACPT or submitting to this year’s Puzzmo Open Submission Week? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

Happy puzzling!

Problem-Solving Wolves a Problem in British Columbia?

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If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve no doubt noticed that one of our favorite topics is puzzle-solving animals. In the past, we’ve discussed examples of puzzle solving in cats, dogs, crows, cockatoos, octopuses, bees, pigs, and squirrels.

It’s possible we’ll be adding another mammal to the list today, given reports coming out of British Columbia about wolves interfering with crab traps.

Allow me to explain.

European green crabs are an invasive species in both British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest of the US, and locals have been setting up baited traps to capture them.

But in one particular area — the Haíɫzaqv Nation of British Columbia — they noticed traps broken into and damaged by a mysterious thief, who had been making off with the bait intended for those crabs. This happened not only to traps closer to the surface, but to deeply submerged traps as well.

This had been going on since 2023, so naturally, they set up remote cameras to finally solve the mystery and identify the culprit.

You can imagine their surprise when the cameras revealed a wolf swimming out of the water with a crab trap in tow!

The wolf then manipulated the trap until it could get the bait from the bait cup. The entire operation took only three minutes! That’s Ocean’s Eleven-style efficiency.

Now, is this just a matter of wolves observing humans and replicating the action?

Did the wolves observe the traps at low tide and come back for them at high tide, remembering their positions even while submerged?

Is this as simple as wolves being like dogs and loving nothing more than yanking on a rope toy and seeing what happens?

Or is this deduction, where a wolf sees a rope connected to a buoy and deduces there is something to be found underwater connected to that rope?

The researchers say there are at least two different wolves they’ve observed puzzling the bait out of these traps. Is this something one wolf taught another, or are all wolves capable of this level of tool use and puzzly thinking?

At the very least, this is a potential sign of the sort of problem-solving thinking we regularly see from crows and octopuses.

So it’s entirely possible that we’ll need to make some room on the puzzle-solving animal podium for these clever canids.

Only time will tell.