The Winter Wondersolve has come and gone, but the team at Boswords is already looking ahead to their 2026 Spring Themeless League.
The Spring Themeless League spreads out a tournament-style solving experience over nine weeks, with one themeless crossword per week. Each puzzle is scored based on your answer accuracy (incorrect letters, empty squares, etc.) and how quickly you complete the grid.
While each week’s puzzle only has one solution, there are three sets of clues, each representing a different difficulty level for solvers. Smooth is the least challenging, Choppy is the middle ground, and Stormy is the most challenging. (When solvers register to participate, they choose the difficulty level that suits them best.)
And the Boswords team has announced that they’ll be accepting Open Submissions for one of those themeless puzzles.
They’re looking for an unclued themeless grid (size 15x or 15×16), and it’s only open to constructors who have never had a themeless crossword published in the New York Times (prior to 1/24/26). Constructors who have constructed for a previous Boswords event are also ineligible.
Click here for full details and guidelines for your submission!
Send your grid by Sunday, February 22nd, and you should hear by March 1st if your grid has been chosen.
What an awesome opportunity for up-and-coming cruciverbalists to show off their constructing talents!
While we’re talking about crosswords, let me also take this time to again shout out the ORCAS collaboration with the Trevor Project.
Just donate to the Trevor Project from the special link, and you’ll receive a puzzle pack featuring 76 ORCA-nominated puzzles from 44 outlets, plus five original puzzles from the Constructor of the Year nominees. I solved my way through the entire pack, and it was an absolute joy.
Please give if you can, it’s a wonderful cause. For information on how to make a donation and receive the puzzle pack, email: theorcaawards@gmail.com.
Oh, and the ORCAS ballot for this year’s nominees is now public, so be sure to get your votes in for all those marvelous puzzles and constructors.
(Oh, and PuzzCulture is nominated as well — Best Crossword-Related Media — and the competition is stiff. So much great crossword commentary and content available online!)
Crossword fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and months!
Boswords Winter Wondersolve was on Sunday (I’ll be delving into the tournament puzzles on Thursday), this coming Saturday is the Westport Library Crossword Tournament, and we’ve got the ORCAS livestream on Monday, February 23rd.
Not only that, but the Boswords Spring Themeless League starts in March, plus we’ve got the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and Crossword Con in April! (And somewhere in there, Westwords will announce when registration is open for their June event.)
Are you looking forward to any puzzly events coming up, or will you be submitting to the Boswords Spring Themeless League open submission contest? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.
PuzzCulture 