Category Archives: puzzly event

Delving into the Lollapuzzoola 19 Puzzles!

Posted on by
Reply
lolla-logo

The nineteenth edition of Lollapuzzoola, as is tradition, arrived on a Saturday in August. Last Saturday, in fact. (I was not in attendance, but I did purchase the Solve at Home puzzle pack.)

I had a chance to sit down and try my hands at this year’s tournament puzzles, and I was certainly not disappointed.

This year’s theme was “Around the World.” Every puzzle had something to do with travel or geography, and the constructors were clearly inspired in all sorts of ways. Let’s take a look at what they came up with.

Warmup Puzzle A: Twinlets by Brian Cimmet

A traditional Cimmet Twinlets (Cimlets? CimTwins?) puzzle begins the day’s proceedings and boy, did he hit the ground running! He presented the solver with two identical grids and two sets of clues, and you have to figure out which grid each answer applies to.

This was complicated by the fact that EIGHT of the answers across both grids had the same clue: “European country.” But I started filling in answers to establish the first grid, then worked back and forth as the answers continued to populate and reveal which clues fit which grid.

I really dig Twin Crosswords or Twinlets puzzles, and Brian has a knack for putting just enough common letters in the same spaces in both grids to keep you guessing. (And for writing several long clues that never disappoint.) I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle.

Interesting grid entries included LOST ART, SILENT O, and O, CANADA, and my favorite clues were “Three-syllable berry that’s great for both health and crossword construction” for ACAI and the 39-Across pairing of “____ on the Roof” for FIDDLER and “The other 39-Across, for one” for MUSICAL.

Warmup Puzzle B: Up in the Air by Brooke Husic

With a grid layout that feels like a moth or butterfly in flight, Husic clearly had flying on the brain, and her travel-centric apt pair — JETLAGGED and FLIGHT DELAYED — stacked together nicely. (Heck, having a grid that was short in one direction and long in the other FELT like travel, the trip there and the trip home.)

Brooke is a master at maximizing smaller grids, and she paired fun grid fill with longer, trivia- and opinion-focused clues, many of which continued the travel theme. (Also, she shouted out the board game Sky Team, which is a blast.)

Interesting grid entries included ALT LIT and JINX, and my favorite clues were “…—…” for SOS and “Plucked bass?” for ANGLED. (Though I didn’t know that pets can ride on Amtrak if they’re under 20 pounds. I love learning things from puzzles!)

There was also a contest puzzle featuring locations from famous musicals, which definitely tested my theatrical knowledge.

I’m sure there was frantic Googling during the breaks between puzzles for solvers to complete this one before the Puzzle 5 deadline!

Puzzle #1: Screen Sharing by Ada Nicolle

Kicking off a day of tournament solving is a daunting challenge — balancing accessibility, difficulty, style, flavor, skill, and playfulness, all while ably representing that event’s energy or that year’s theme — and I’m always impressed by the constructors who tackle that challenge.

Fortunately, solvers and tournament organizers were in the capable hands of Ada Nicolle, who created a great opening puzzle. It was a smooth solving experience with engaging cluing and tons of personality (as one should expect from Nicolle).

The theme was impressive, featuring compound words or phrases where both parts of the answer could be placed in front of the word CHECK to form a common phrase (RAIN check and COAT check for RAINCOAT, for instance), ably showing off the PRE-CHECK promised by the revealer.

Interesting grid entries included NU METAL, HO-HOS, TONSIL, and BAGUETTE, and my favorite clues were “What it might take to ask out a crush” for COURAGE and “Wide-brimmed accessory for Carmen Sandiego” for HAT.

Puzzle #2: Wherever the Wind Takes You… by Carina da Rosa

This year, the ORCAS crowned Carina as an Emerging Constructor to watch, and I think she’s proven everyone who voted for her correct.

The eye-catching shape of a hot-air balloon grid was just the tip of the iceberg with this puzzle, as solvers would discover that one letter from each theme answer had floated up, up, and away from the main entry, appearing in a circle above as part of the balloon’s design. The capper was each letter spelling out HOT AIR.

This is beautiful design and execution, especially with a packed grid like this. The page itself was equally packed with longer clues which made it a little difficult to read and solve (a pattern that would continue with the next puzzle… or maybe I need to revisit my prescription with my eye doctor). Nonetheless, this was a highlight of the day.

Interesting grid entries included RAW OYSTER, UNSUNG, COLBERT, and ADROIT, and my favorite clues were “Place to park your butt?” for ASHTRAY, “Hoffman whose FBI file was 13,262 pages long” for ABBIE, and “Portuguese greeting formed by dropping one letter from a Spanish greeting” for OLA.

Puzzle #3: What to Know Before You Travel by Amie Walker

Intend your puns indeed, as Amie Walker has some doozies for you in this one! The clues take traditional travel terms (“Baggage claim,” “Carry-on item,” “Domestic carrier,” etc.) and deliver tongue-in-cheek responses as answers (I’VE GOT TRUST ISSUES, TEMPER TANTRUM, BABY STROLLER).

Packing seven answers into this grid was no small feat, but Walker managed to stack the grid with charming fill as well, offering the densest and most ambitious puzzle design of the day. My puzzly mind definitely appreciated this one, even if my eyes didn’t.

Interesting grid entries included BLITHERING, ICE CAVES, EGG CUP, and COBBLE, and my favorite clues were “Word ____ (you, maybe)” for NERD and “Enjoy a Manhattan tour, say?” for BARHOP.

Puzzle #4: Crossing the Line by Adam Wagner

Much like the dreaded Puzzle #5 at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Puzzle #4 at Lollapuzzoola is usually a super-heavyweight challenge, and this might be the toughest I can remember from any previous event.

It took me a LONG time to realize the trick of this one. The revealer DAY OFF pointed me towards some sort of time shift, but I kept staring at the entries that crossed the dotted line down the middle of the grid and coming up empty. Seven of the clues simply refused to match their entries, until I finally noticed that each of those seven clues started with same letter as a day of the week (“Mob target” for Monday, “Tutor coaches” for Tuesday, etc.)

And when you shift the first two letters of each clue back a day, the clues suddenly make sense. “Mob target” becomes “Sub target,” which makes total sense for DESTROYER.

Tough clues, TOUGH gimmick, but a well-constructed puzzle. Although I easily completed it within the 40 minutes allowed, I don’t know that I understood it during that 40 minutes.

Interesting grid entries included RUH-ROH, U-HAULS, SAMURAI, and FROYO, and my favorite clues were “Beat generation?” for PULSE, “Breakfast accompaniment?” for BED, and “Construction term that becomes a meteorological term if SO is added after the first letter” for IBAR.

Puzzle #5: Every Second Counts by Will Nediger

Nediger closed out the pre-championship puzzles with this grid that feels like one long, snaky journey from the upper left to the lower right, meandering like a river.

Solvers found a very cool theme waiting for them where the theme answer was one location, but another location was circled in alternating spaces within the theme answer, like ALGERIA (AGRA within ALGERIA). Will packed six of these pairings into the grid, plus the revealer ALTERNATE PLANS. (And I quite liked SIDE TRIP as sort of a bonus revealer.)

All in all, a very impressive bit of construction, research, and theme execution. A terrific closer before the big finale.

Interesting grid entries included IDEOGRAMS, PIPING HOT, TRIMARAN, CLARISSA, and Wario, and my favorite clues were “Like plants that produce little to no chlorophyll” for ALBINO and “Punishment from a Discord moderator” for BAN.

Puzzle #6: Championship Final by Trenton Charlson

As always, there were two sets of clues for the Finals puzzle, the Local and the more difficult Express clues. No matter which clues you were working with, you were in for an excellent tournament finale.

This grid had clean stacks of 8-letter entries and 9-letter entries in the corners, and some unforgiving crossings that really reminded me of how much skill and creativity it takes to construct a great themeless puzzle.

The cluing was surprisingly accessible for a championship final (across both the Local and Express clues), and I can imagine many of the solvers in attendance performing well on this solve.

I don’t know Charlson’s work, but I’ll definitely be looking for their byline in the future.

Interesting grid entries included JUMBO JET, SEE STARS, YTTRIUM, and DON QUIXOTE. Both the Local and Express sets of clues had some gems, so I’ll list them separately below:

Local clues:

  • “Farm animal follower” for EIEIO
  • “Festival celebrating the arrival of spring” for TET
  • “Starter starter?” for NON

Express clues:

  • “Agrarian refrain” for EIEIO
  • “Something a guitarist often has on hand?” for CALLUS
  • “One who dreams knightly?” for DON QUIXOTE
  • “Palms or pockets” for STEALS
  • “Start to sense” for NON
  • “9 to 5, e.g.” for ODDS

There was also a tiebreaker themeless midi by Laura Braunstein, which was an excellent, quick solve. The playful cluing and great flow made it an enjoyable interlude before the championship, and the apt pair of FIRST SIGHT and LAST RESORT really encapsulated the travel theme of the event nicely.

Interesting grid entries included WIGGLE ROOM and DARK HORSES, and my favorite clues were “Place for a pawdicure” for PET SPA and “General of the Resistance” for LEIA (put some respect on her name!).

There were ALSO two bonus puzzle suites — a variety one by Scott Weiss and a meta crossword one by Crossword Gentleman Doug Peterson — which I did not have an opportunity to solve before posting.

Another year, another parade of bangers from the Lollapuzzoola team. There were visually impressive grids, devious acts of cluing chicanery and cruciverbalism, and many many MANY trivia-loaded clues (a personal favorite of mine).

Every puzzle was well-constructed, smartly filled, and clued with love, personality, snark, and enthusiasm. It’s hard to precisely put a finger on what makes a crossword feel like a Lollapuzzoola puzzle — a unique blend of rock n’ roll and Tom Lehrer, maybe — but the LPZ spirit is alive (and often kicking) in each of these entries.

I can only imagine what they’ve got in store for us next year to mark the 20th edition of the tournament. Sadly, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

On the plus side, I’ve got puzzle suites to solve while I wait! Happy puzzling, everyone!

Did you tackle this year’s Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament, fellow puzzlers, either from home or live in person? Let me know in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you!

Lollapuzzoola 19 This Weekend (and More Tournaments Coming Soon!)

Posted on by
2

Just a quick post today to talk about a puzzly event this weekend, two more coming up, and a brand-new one announced for next year!

lolla-logo

Lollapuzzoola always happens on a Saturday in August, and this Saturday, August 15th IS that Saturday in August.

Trenton Charlson, Carina da Rosa, Will Nediger, Ada Nicolle, Adam Wagner, and Amie Walker have constructed puzzles for this year’s event, “Around the World.”

(And those aren’t the only names contributing this year! Laura Braunstein constructed the tiebreaker puzzle, Crossword Gentleman Doug Peterson constructed the crossword meta suite, and Scott Weiss constructed the variety puzzle meta suite.)

There’s still time to sign up to compete from home! Click here for more details.

If you’re missing out on Lollapuzzoola, don’t fret. There’s another NYC puzzly event next month!

The 2026 Bryant Park Crossword Tournament returns on Saturday, September 19, with singles and pairs division solving available!

Mike Shenk has constructed all three puzzles for the event and will be co-hosting with Amy Goldstein, who is genuinely one of the nicest people in puzzles.

Click here for all the details!

Registration is open (and is nearly full, so sign up ASAP) for this year’s edition of the Midwest Crossword Tournament! Mark down October 3rd, 2026 on the calendar.

Shannon Rapp and Sally Hoelscher are organizing the tournament, and Christina Iverson and Tracy Bennett are signed up as editors, so you know the tournament is in good hands!

Click here for more details. Oh, and MWXWT merch as well!

2026 has been jam-packed with puzzly fun, and 2027 is looking just as bright. A new tournament will be debuting in March!

The Rain City Crossword Tournament brings puzzly challenges to the Pacific Northwest, as Seattle can now claim its own destination tournament!

Registration opens in early Autumn (I’ll keep you posted!) but you can click here for more details as the inaugural event approaches.

Will you be participating in any of these events, either in person or from home, fellow puzzler? Are you excited for a new tournament to be hitting the West Coast? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Delving into the 2026 Boswords Summer Tournament Puzzles!

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I had a chance to sit down and test my cruciverbalist mettle with this year’s puzzles from the Boswords Summer Crossword Tournament.

I look forward to Boswords every year, so I had high expectations going in. To no one’s surprise, they managed to meet and occasionally exceed those lofty expectations!

Let’s put those puzzles under the PuzzCulture microscope and see what Boswords had in store for solvers this year!

Warmup Puzzles: Minis by Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb

Instead of practice puzzles or a midi, solvers warmed up for this year’s tournament with three mini crosswords from The Boston Globe.

They were a quick little series of icebreakers to knock the ring rust off of solvers, replete with homophones and Boston references, and the third of the trio was a delight. A C-shaped grid with a Coco Chanel quote in the cluing and SCENTS, SMELLY, and PERFUME as entries, this was a great little puzzle that really made the most of a tight grid.

Puzzle #1: Standing Trial by Emily Biegas & Sala Wanetick

The tournament proper kicked off with this 15×17 puzzle loaded with fun and accessible themed entries and a nice catch-all revealer with STATUS SYMBOLS (whether that status meant verified, engaged/married, action in progress, or importance on a team depended on the answer word).

A very breezy solve, this was the perfect intro puzzle for a day of competitive solving. I was immediately considering alternate ways to read clues and interpret wordplay after seeing the flexibility of STATUS SYMBOLS, which is a terrific mindset for tournament play.

(It was also interesting to note that this was my first of two Biegas/Wanetick puzzles of the day, as I later solved their Wednesday NYT puzzle the same night. This is a duo to keep your eyes on, solvers!)

Interesting grid entries included TOUGH LOVE, RAYA, REAL ID, and RIB MEAT, and my favorite clues were “Number of cards dealt in Go Fish” for SEVEN and “Hotel chain whose name anagrams to a naval force” for RAMADA.

Puzzle #2: Getting Off-Track by Chandi Deitmer

It’s rare that my favorite puzzle of the tournament appears so early in the proceedings, but this 15×14 puzzle was gamesome, tightly constructed, and a terrific solve, an absolute highlight for the day. The gimmick wasn’t flatly apparent at the start, but made total sense upon unraveling the first two themed entries. Balancing sharp and simple is a tricky task, and Deitmer absolutely nailed it here.

This puzzle had names of train systems — “L” for Chicago, “Metro” for Paris, etc. — added to the clue answers to fill in each themed space. (For example, SIDESHOW + Chicago’s L made SLIDESHOW.) The revealer TAKE THE TRAIN explained the themed clues neatly and was the cherry on top of the solve.

Interesting grid entries included LATE GREAT, WITCHCRAFT, and BRITA, and my favorite clues were “Where old minor-league teams called the ‘Spuds’ and ‘Russets’ played” for IDAHO and “Response to Brute force?” for ET TU.

Puzzle #3: Going Greener by Damon Gulczynski

This 19×16 grid has a lot going on — a chain of connected overlapping clues, symmetrical color-shaded entries, and a dollar sign dominating the grid’s black-square design — and all of it comes together neatly as Puzzle #3 begins ratcheting up the difficulty for competitors.

The solver goes on a journey from POVERTY to FORTUNE — a RAGS TO RICHES journey, as the revealer explains — with entry spaces growing greener as the solver follows the chain of connected clues. “Need” clues POVERTY, but then both “Need” and “It might be served by a sheriff” clue WARRANT. Each clue applies to the next entry in turn as we word-associate our way to greener pastures.

It’s a cool concept for a puzzle, one that I don’t think I’ve seen before, and coupled with a tight grid and interesting fill, it’s another strong showing for Boswords.

Interesting grid entries included CORONADO, FINAGLED, EASY WAY OUT, and IN-CROWD, and my favorite clues were “Measure of weight (not purity; that’s with a ‘K’!) for CARAT and “Father Keith Mars and daughter Veronica Mars, e.g., on TV” for PIS (nice fakeout with DUO there).

Puzzle #4: Pay Up by Joon Pahk

This 17×17 puzzle was the most devious of the day, presenting theme entries that seem unconnected, except for the country in parentheses listed after each clue. Realizing that the answers were too long for their given spaces, I started looking for the trick of each entry, and it was a good one.

That “Pay Up” in the title indicated that a unit of currency was not only lurking in each theme entry, but literally “up” from the horizontal answer, reading out in the crossing entry downward as a unit of currency, but upward as the missing letters from the answer. For instance, in PARTS UNKNOWN, WON read out in the crossing entry WONKA, but also served as the “NOW” missing from UNK-NOW-N. (The revealer, RAISING MONEY, also fit the pattern, with YEN reading down as part of MO-NEY.)

It’s a terrific bit of constructing. (And as a professional wrestling fan, seeing PARTS UNKNOWN in a grid was a treat.)

Interesting grid entries included NOPES OUT, OLE ELO, PYRITE, BOP-IT, and ORKNEY, and my favorite clues were “Something that’s beside the point?” in ONES COLUMN and “The planets, e.g.” for OCTAD.

Puzzle #5: Back Packs by Kathleen Duncan

The tournament concluded for most solvers with this 17×15 puzzle, a pleasant solve after the back-to-back challenge of Puzzles 3 and 4. It can be tough to stick the landing in a tournament setting like this, but Duncan deftly mixed strong construction and fill with playful cluing to wrap up the day in style.

Five groups (the BACK PACKS of the title) were concealed backwards in larger theme entries, like WERC (CREW) lurking in POWER COUPLE. But like I said earlier, the real highlight here was the engaging fill throughout the grid.

Interesting grid entries included KING TUT, MEDALISTS, GIGOLO, AD CREEP, CHOREO, CILLIAN, and MEMORANDA, and my favorite clues were “Disney dwarf number” for HEIGH-HO (my favorite clue of the day!) and “Overseers of camera dollies on film sets” for GRIPS.

Puzzle #6: Championship Themeless by Peter Wentz

As always, Boswords closed out with a themeless puzzle for the top solvers to live-solve, and this 15x grid was a suitable challenge. The stack of five 9-letter entries across the middle, plus the longer entries tying the grid together, offered loads of opportunities for good, uncommon vocabulary and solid fill.

There was also great cluing across both puzzles, with an emphasis on kid-lit references, a fun little micro-theme in the clues, particularly in the Sizzling set. (There were two sets of clues available for the championship themeless, the MILD and SIZZLING sets, depending on your preference.)

Interesting grid entries included EMERALD CITY, LATINO USA, EX PARTE, DRY AS DUST, FRENEMY, and MOP UP DUTY.

As for favorite clues, here’s a list:

MILD: “Lassie’s swimming hole” for LOCH
MILD: “Like a melon that ‘pings’ when thumped” for UNRIPE
SIZZLING: “Abbr. preceding Friday” for SGT
SIZZLING: “Obeys flickering lights at intermission, say” for HAS A SEAT
SIZZLING: “Worker focused on the present?” for ELF
SIZZLING: “Creator of the North-Going Zax” for SEUSS

(Plus another wrestling reference with the Iron Sheik getting a shout-out.)

120718_crossword_L

Consistency is king, and Boswords never falters.

Whether it’s their summer tournament, the Winter Wondersolve, or their seasonal themeless leagues, Boswords delivers. I’m a sucker for trivia-filled clues and Boswords constructors never skimp on the details. The grid fill is eye-catching, and the themes, whether deviously tricky or more immediately accessible, are memorable, never feeling overworked or too esoteric.

Maintaining this level of quality, solver-friendliness, and creativity is a tightrope walk… one the Boswords team navigates every single time. Their track record is impeccable.

And with so many exciting puzzly events on the calendar every year, I still think Boswords is the perfect tournament to introduce solvers to tournament-style puzzling.

I cannot wait to see what they cook up for us next year.

Did you attempt this year’s Boswords summer tournament puzzles, fellow solver? If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!

Upcoming Crossword Tournaments (Plus a Puzzle to Solve!)

Posted on by
Reply

Just a quick post today to remind you of TWO big crossword events coming soon!

Firstly, Boswords is just a few short weeks away, and they recently announced the constructors for this year’s tournament puzzles.

Chandi Deitmer, Kathleen Duncan, Peter Wentz, Joon Pahk, Damon Gulczynski, and the team of Emily Biegas & Sala Wanetick will be constructing this year. With a rogue’s gallery of top-flight constructors like this, the tournament is sure to be a great time!

Also Lollapuzzoola is coming!

Lollapuzzoola will be happening on a Saturday in August — Saturday, August 15th, in fact — and registration is now open!

This year’s event, Lollapuzzoola 19, has been titled “Around the World,” and promises all sorts of puzzly challenges:

Travel the globe with us through crosswords and games — the day includes tournament puzzles, warmup puzzles, a variety puzzle meta suite, a multi-crossword meta suite, and more!

Plus pizza!

There are two solo divisions for competitors: the Local Division (for newer solvers, more casual solvers, or those with less tournament experience) and the Express Division for “hardcore speed solvers with tournament experience.”

For those who solve with a buddy, the Pairs Division is always an option, and of course, the At-Home Division is available for players who can’t make it to NYC. (I’ll be solving from home for sure!)

A great summer of puzzles continues with two back-to-back highlights of the cruciverbalist calendar year.

And since we’re talking crosswords, I’ve got a 13x puzzle for you to solve today.

I tried something a little different this time around, but hopefully you enjoy! (Once you figure out the gimmick, it’ll probably be a pretty quick solve.)

[Click here to download a PDF of the puzzle!]

Will you be participating in either Boswords or Lollapuzzoola this year, fellow puzzler? Let me know in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!

Free RPG Day is Tomorrow!

Posted on by
Reply

Hello fellow puzzlers and gamers!

Just a quick post today to remind you that Free RPG Day is tomorrow, Saturday, June 27th!

Legitimately one of my favorite gaming-centric days of the year, Free RPG Day is all about building the RPG community. Game companies send freebies to local game shops and hobby shops all over!

And it literally helps everybody:

  • Local game shops get more foot traffic, hosting events and getting more eyes on all the products and services they offer.
  • Game companies introduce their games to new audiences, either through free adventures to try out (often being run in-house at those local hobby shops!) or through Quickstart versions of their games, giving a sample of what their game has to offer in a smaller, easily-digestible presentation.
  • Customers get freebies to expand their knowledge of the hobby, and often game shops run events and sales to capitalize on customer interest. Plus there’s always the chance of making new friends and discovering a new favorite game.

This year, loads of companies are taking part in the Free RPG Day festivities, although what’s available will vary from store to store.

You could find Quickstart versions for games like The Crooked Moon, Wizard Riders, Age of Vikings, Arkham Horror, Dungeons & Kittens, Vaesen, and Root, giving you a marvelous cross-section of different RPG worlds and play styles to choose from!

There could also be one-shot adventures for Cosmere RPG, Daggerheart, Everyday Heroes, Pirate Borg, Kobold Press, Marvel Multiverse RPG, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and more, offering a sample of adventure, horror, excitement, derring-do, and communal storytelling to try out!

You can visit the Free RPG Day website to find a participating store near you and to check out previews from all the companies taking part in the event.

And make sure to follow the #FreeRPGDay hashtag on Twitter and Bluesky, as lots of companies have discounts and freebies online as well!

Please keep your eyes peeled for this year’s edition of the Level 1 Anthology, offered by 9th Level Games. It’s a collection of new games by up-and-coming and established RPG creators, all centered around a particular theme. Last year’s edition was all about the end of the Wild West. This year’s edition is about Stand Up.

This project is close to my heart because I have a game featured in this year’s collection! (It’s called Pip, Pip, Cheerio: A Game of Last Words and Last Stands and it’s about remaining defiant, sometimes comedically so, in front of a firing squad.)

You can check out last year’s Level 1 Anthology free of charge on the 9th Level Games website (or purchase all five years of Level 1 for only $10)!

Will you be participating in any Free RPG Day festivities, fellow reader? Or are you a company participating in Free RPG Day?

Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

The Guardian Cryptic Crossword Treasure Hunt… Revealed!

Posted on by
Reply
cryptic

Cryptic crosswords have been getting a lot of attention this year.

Josh Wardle launched his Parseword daily puzzle, Barry Joseph has taken us on a fascinating journey into Stephen Sondheim’s love of puzzles and games (review coming soon!), and The Observer celebrated one hundred years of cryptic crossword puzzles back in March.

And just last week, The Guardian pulled back the curtain on a multi-year surprise for solvers that celebrated not only a milestone in longevity, but in creativity as well.

On May 6th, The Guardian published their 30,000th cryptic puzzle, which was set by one of the most celebrated voices in cryptic puzzles, Arachne. Crossword editor Alan Connor called the cryptic puzzle “a perfect little enigma.”

Now, that would have been milestone enough, but as it turns out, the setters of The Guardian had something much more elaborate in store for their loyal solvers: a treasure hunt spanning MANY cryptics.

They’d started two years beforehand.

Back in 2024, they began brainstorming something special for Cryptic #30,000.

A few months later, a series of entries began appearing in the bottom row of particular cryptics. Entries like WELL DONE, BRAVO, and HERE were intended to draw the eye of attentive puzzle fans. (This would prove helpful later for people searching back through the puzzle archives, once they’d learned about the treasure hunt.)

But the creative team were careful going forward, utilizing only chunks of words (ISOURF, INALCH, ALLENG) and not full entries. I can imagine the confusion for those keen-eyed solvers who were already on the trail when the pattern suddenly changed.

This continued throughout 2025 with solvers none the wiser.

The treasure hunt began in earnest when cryptic #30,000 was published.

In cryptic #30,000, Arachne included the phrases PERIMETER TODAY and QUICK CROSSWORD reading out in the grid. (The Quick Crossword accompanies the daily cryptic in The Guardian.) Solvers who then completed the Quick Crossword would then find the following message reading out clockwise on the perimeter of the grid:

LEADER I TAILORED BADLY

A cryptic clue was hidden in the perimeter letters!

This cryptic clue can be parsed with “Leader” as the definition, and “badly” indicating that “I tailored” needs to be rearranged. “I tailored” anagrams into EDITORIAL, pointing to the piece Alan Connor wrote that day in celebration of the 30,000th cryptic.

Arachne had also included the word ACROSTIC in Cryptic #30,000 as a subliminal hint to solvers for where to look in the editorial that day.

And if you read the first letter of each paragraph in Connor’s editorial, you get the message LAST THIRTY-FIVE PRIMES.

No, wait, wrong Prime…

Diabolical work. That was the pattern to follow in order to uncover which puzzles were part of their long-running secret message, indicating the actual cryptic puzzle numbers to search through, starting with #29581 and ending with #29989.

So what was the message? What was the final result of a year and a half of seeding and sneaking and devious wordplay?

29581 WELLDONE
29587 BRAVO
29599 HERE
29611 INCONCLUSION
29629 ISOURF
29633 INALCH
29641 ALLENG
29663 EAREYOU
29669 KEEPINGUPGREAT
29671 THEREWI
29683 LLBEAWON
29717 DERF
29723 ULPRIZ
29741 EBUTFIR
29753 STYOUM
29759 USTENT
29761 ERARAC
29789 ENOTAN
29803 ACTUALATHLETIC
29819 RACEOFC
29833 OURSETH
29837 ATWOULD
29851 BEWEIRD
29863 NOTTHAT
29867 ITSACER
29873 EBRALRA
29879 CEINTHE
29881 FORMOFA
29917 CROSSWORDPUZZLE
29921 ITSAGEN
29927 IUSPUBL
29947 ISHEDAT
29959 NOONBST
29983 TOMORROW
29989 GODSPEED

Well done, bravo, here in conclusion is our final challenge. Are you keeping up? Great, there will be a wonderful prize but first you must enter a race. Not an actual athletic race of course, that would be weird. Not that. It’s a cerebral race in the form of a crossword puzzle. It’s a Genius published at noon BST tomorrow. Godspeed!

Naturally, when the hour arrived, a Genius crossword appeared, set by the one and only Enigmatist, another beloved name in the field of cryptics.

Duncan over at Fifteen Squared did an amazing breakdown of not just the treasure hunt but the puzzle that awaited solvers at the end, and it is a mind-bending bit of puzzling.

To start, there were no answer length at the end of each clue, which is definitely a break with tradition when it comes to cryptic crosswords. And that’s for a good reason.

Solvers had to add a letter to many of the answers in order to form the words RECKON, DEDUCE, REASON, and IDEATE beyond the boundaries of the grid.

Yes, they had to think outside the box.

Many of the answers referred to luminaries in their various fields (EINSTEIN, ESCHER, LEONARDO, MANDELA, WATSON, CERVANTES, etc.), making the Genius crossword rather literal.

The first letter of every clue ALSO had something to hide. When you removed the names of two more geniuses reading out acrostic-style, BEETHOVEN and ARAUCARIA (yet another beloved cryptic setter), you get the message IT IS WHAT GENIUSES DO.

Which ties back to thinking outside the box.

Wow. What a puzzle.

So, did the puzzle live up to the hype after ALL of this amazing build-up?

I’ll give the last word to Redditor colinbeveridge, who shared this heartfelt response to the entire endeavor:

I’ve finally followed the rabbit-hole all the way to the bottom and… wow. Just blown away by the whole thing, to the point of tears at the final mic-drop.

It’s as if a dedicated team of clever people co-ordinated in secret for a year and a half to deliver something that felt like it was designed just for me (and possibly you, if you’re here). Gorgeous, beautiful work.

WELL DONE and BRAVO, Guardian editors and setters and contributors. What an amazing gift to offer your solvers.

Good luck topping this one when you get to the next 30,000 puzzle goal line!

Are you a cryptic solver, fellow puzzler? Would you have been unable to unravel The Guardian’s crafty clues and hidden hints? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.