Tag Archives: Lynn Lempel

The Results from the 14th ORCAS Awards!

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The ORCAS are the Oscars of the crossword community, dedicated to celebrating excellence in crosswords, and that was certainly the case during last night’s awards ceremony!

Clocking in at just under an hour, this was an event at breakneck speed, opening as all online award shows should: with technical difficulties.

David Kwong offered some anagram suggestions for other award shows and then passed the mic to Rich Proulx, whose bowtie game was ON POINT.

Rich’s intro was delightful, particularly when he shared that over $15,000 had been raised for the Trevor Project through the ORCAS puzzle packet!

With 97 people in attendance — including many nominees and puzzle luminaries in the chat — the first award was preceded by a tough trivia puzzle celebrating all of this year’s presenters:

After the solution was revealed, Ophira Eisenberg joined David in the hosting duties before inviting our first two guest presenters to handle BEST META CROSSWORD and BEST EASY CROSSWORD.

Aimee Lucido (author of Words Apart) read out the nominees for BEST META CROSSWORD.

I must confess that meta crosswords aren’t always my bag, but there’s no denying the skill and craftiness it takes to construct an effective meta. I ended up voting for “Blind Stitch” by Hanh Huynh because it felt like such a solidly constructed introduction to the concept of meta crosswords. It’s a great solve.

WINNER: Evan Birnholz for “Flying Colors”

“Queen of the Mondays” Lynn Lempel then read out the nominees for BEST EASY CROSSWORD.

Making easy crosswords is way tougher than it looks, and making easy crosswords that are still surprising and engaging is even harder. Despite that, this was a stacked category.

My vote went to Nate Cardin’s Untitled puzzle from the LA Times on February 25. Managing to find five phrases/compound words (OVERDRAFT, BODY WASH) where both parts could be followed by the word BOARD was an impressive feat of cruciverbalism.

WINNER: Jess Shulman for “Clear Up to Here?” (Lynn was the first presenter of the evening to do the “opening the envelope” gimmick for the winner.)

T Campbell and Laura Braunstein joined to present the next two categories.

Laura, one of the minds behind The Inkubator crossword, presented the EMERGING CONSTRUCTOR AWARD.

I sadly wasn’t familiar with all of the nominees in this category, so I had to go with someone whose puzzles I felt I’d had a good sampling of. My vote went to Carina da Rosa, whose work in Puzzmo and LilAVCX I’d enjoyed throughout the year.

And it turns out I wasn’t alone in my assessment!

WINNER: Carina da Rosa

T Campbell did a wonderful introduction about what separates BEST SUNDAY-SIZED CROSSWORD from the usual crossword fare before reading the nominees.

Despite the sheer ambition of “Just One Clue 2” and its crowd-sourced cluing, my vote came down to either the grid shape wordplay of Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen’s “Self-Starters” and the diabolic vocabulary in crosstina Aquafina and erik agard’s “themeless no. 36.”

I mean, we got SATAN WORSHIP and TWO CHEEKS OF THE SAME ASS, neither of which I’ve ever encountered in a grid. That being said, my deep affection for visual gimmicks in crosswords won out here.

WINNER: crosstina Aquafina and erik agard’s “themeless no. 36.”

Stella Zawistowski and Kim Vu were the next two guest presenters, with Stella handling BEST VARIETY CROSSWORD.

I love variety crosswords, because there are so many ways you can play with the traditional crossword formula to make something new and exciting. Rows Garden and Marching Bands puzzles are deviously designed masterpieces when constructed well, and this category showed off skill and cleverness in equal measure.

My vote went to a puzzle style I’d never seen before, as Ryan Faley’s “Nonplussed 4” combined across and down cluing with a non-traditional grid and a Rows Garden-style interior shape (pluses instead of blooms). I loved the construction and creativity, and the revealer was the cherry on top. Terrific stuff.

WINNER: joon pahk’s Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad

“joooooooooooooooooooooooooon” calls rang out both over the stream and in the chat to celebrate joon’s win.

Kim then read the nominees for BEST TOURNAMENT CROSSWORD.

Tournament puzzles are invariably bangers because they can push the difficulty AND creative envelopes, and this category was LOADED with heaps of cool ideas and challenges. (Last year’s Lollapuzzoola alone could have filled this entire category.)

The two puzzles that stuck with me the most were David Steinberg’s Westwords puzzle and Kareem Ayas’s Wild Discoveries puzzle from Lollapuzzoola. They were both wildly inventive, challenging, and above all else, memorable. This was the toughest choice of the entire ballot.

In the end, Kareem got my vote. And again, I wasn’t the only one impressed by his playful puzzling.

WINNER: Kareem Ayas for “Wild Discoveries”

A brief In Memoriam played next, offering tongue-in-cheek farewells to Deb Amlen (for ending her tenure with The New York Times), the Browser Crossword, and the free version of The New York Times Mini Crossword.

We then got a sincere send-off for influential creator and puzzle icon Mel Taub.

Our next two guest presenters were Peter Collins and Vic Fleming. They had a great little gimmick involving a swear jar and a virtual handover of $10 to celebrate the eventual winner of BEST CLUE (and my favorite of the nominated clues):

WINNER: [They might have “fuck you” money] for SWEAR JARS by Amie Walker and Amanda Rafkin, AVCX, April 18th

They next presented BEST THEMED CROSSWORD, which was another stacked category.

This category was a case of leading with your strongest contender, because Ada Nicolle blew me away with “Would You Let Me Finish” from Apple News+ on January 5th.

The grid is populated with longer entries that, when the last letters are removed, form the actual answers to the clues. So GOT THE ICK becomes GO-TH-IC, for example. It’s a great gimmick and a fun reveal when you get it.

WINNER: Untitled by Adam Wagner and Rebecca Goldstein

Rafael Musa, Ryan Fitzgerald, and Ben Gross then interrupted the proceedings for an interactive game with the audience. But first, they had a surprise award to hand out!

The Leviathan Award celebrates important contributions to the world of crosswords, so Ryan was blindsided by this award for creating the crossword software Ingrid. A video full of kind words from fellow constructors was played. It was heartwarming stuff.

Three instances of a puzzle game called Bracket City challenged the audience next. The goal was to unravel a series of crossword-style clues nested within each other, like so:

I doubt I was the first to solve this puzzle, but I was the first to post the solution in the chat: BLACK AND WHITE.

Work from the inside out with the brackets. [gun, as an engine] is REV, so you get [REVolving __] for DOOR, then [Friday with REVolving DOORbusters] for BLACK. [south of Spain] is SUR, so you get [flag raised in SURrender] for WHITE. BLACK AND WHITE is the final answer.

David and Ophira solved the first two puzzles live while the audience solved at home, and everyone was challenged to solve the third (and most complicated) bracket city puzzle in their free time. Can you unravel it?

David and Ophira continued the awards and presented the next category, BEST MIDI CROSSWORD.

As was the case with several categories, we were absolutely spoiled for choices when it came to midi crosswords. Crossword Gentleman Doug Peterson had a great one, we had ablaut reduplications from Alex Rossell Hayes, a tightly constructed foursome of BOOM-based entries from Amie Walker, and Peanuts grid art from franci dimitrovska.

But I had to go “By the Numbers” by Kaye Brown. The sheer ambition of a LOST-centric puzzle with character names reading across and aligning with the infamous numbers from the show. It’s a fantastic bit of constructing wizardry.

WINNER: Amie Walker for “Bangers”

Our next presenters were Brad Wilber and Mangesh Ghogre to handle the one-two punch of BEST CRYPTIC CROSSWORD and BEST VARIETY CRYPTIC CROSSWORD.

I have been on a quest to improve my cryptic crossword solving over the last few years, so the nominees in these two categories put me through my paces! The devious cluing was at its peak in the cryptics, and I think I spent more time on each cryptic than I did on any two or three of the puzzles in the other categories!

Amidst all the tough cluing and interesting vocabulary, it was Jamie Ding’s AVCX Cryptic and The Rackenfracker’s “High Definition” who got my votes this year.

WINNER, BEST CRYPTIC: PiGuyN for “pi guy cryptic 22”

WINNER, BEST VARIETY CRYPTIC: The Rackenfracker (JonMichael Rasmus & Sean Weitner) for “High Definition”

Our penultimate pair of guest presenters were Katie Grogg (looking glam!) and Jared Goudsmit. They presented the nominees and some great puns as well (and made a strong case for hosting next year’s awards).

The first award they presented was BEST CROSSWORD-RELATED MEDIA.

This is a new category for this year’s ORCAS, and as you can imagine, I was absolutely stoked to be included amidst a murderer’s row of excellent, insightful commentary on all things crosswords.

I quite selfishly voted for a PuzzCulture piece, as I was immensely proud of “The Curious Case of Richard Simon’s Aunt, Hedwig.” I didn’t expect to win, and was very content just for the opportunity for new eyes to find the blog.

WINNER: Adam Aaronson for “Square Theory”.

The chat was so chuffed for Adam, with several shouting out his post as eye-opening and game-changing. Congratulations Adam!

Katie and Jared then presented BEST CROSSWORD COMMENTARY.

I love the behind-the-curtain glimpses offered in columns like Rex Parker’s, Wordplay, and the LA Times Crossword Corner, many of whom have been commenting crosswords longer than some of the attendees have been making crosswords or solving them!

All of these nods are well-deserved — Deb and Malaika are brilliant, distinct voices in the crossworld — but it was “Malaika Handa and Stephen Lurie” by Renee Thomason that got my vote.

WINNER: Sally Hoelscher for “Terrors of the Deep”

Our final two awards were presented by Christina Iverson and the very dapper Andy Kravis. First up was BEST THEMELESS CROSSWORD.

This one was a three-horse race for me, with killer efforts by Paolo Pasco, guest host Christina, and Erik Agard, all chock-full of great vocabulary and ambitious crossings. I finally managed to narrow it to Erik’s August 18th New Yorker puzzle when it came to my vote, but really, any of these three would be worthy winners.

WINNER: Erik Agard’s August 18th New Yorker puzzle

Finally, it was time for CONSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR.

I genuinely have no idea how you even narrow down nominations for this category, because there are SO MANY talented constructors. My shortlist would be 30 people deep, easy!

Each of the puzzles included in the Trevor Project Puzzle Pack represented the nominees well, but it was Rafael Musa and Adam Wagner’s puzzles that stuck with me the most. I loved the gimmick in Adam’s “Endless Loop,” but in the end, I went with Rafael Musa. Each time I saw that name in the byline, I knew I was guaranteed a terrific solve.

WINNER: Adam Wagner

Adam was there to accept and gave a very sweet speech, celebrating the welcoming crossword community and the support of his wife and family. Amazingly, he only started constructing in 2019!

You can’t complain about an award show that only takes up an hour of your time, especially when Oscar and Emmy broadcasts can last into the wee hours. And the crossword community is full of quirky, likable folks, so anytime you can get a bunch of them in a room (virtual or otherwise) together, you’re guaranteed a good time.

I thought it was a little weird that the games got more time than some of the categories, but this was my first ORCAS. Maybe that’s how the show usually goes!

Congratulations to all the winners! There were so many amazing puzzles published last year, and it was a pleasure to get to solve so many mind-bending, entertaining, and lovingly crafted cruciverbalist creations.

It was cool to see 5 out of my 15 selections get the nod (and a few other winners in my honorable mentions). And I’m already taking notes to contribute nominees to next year’s ORCAS!

What did you think of the ORCAS, fellow puzzler? Did your favorites win? Was there a puzzle you loved that you wish had gotten more of a spotlight?

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

The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Returns This Weekend!

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Hello fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers!

Normally, this reminder post would go up on Friday, but since the deadline to register to participate in this year’s virtual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is noon tomorrow, we’re posting a day early.

Yes, the 43rd edition of the ACPT — jokingly referred to as the Nerd Olympics — has gone online this year (though some folks are still attending in person). But it’s not just the competition puzzles! Prizes, panels, and more are planned across the weekend.

A full slate of events has been scheduled for Friday through Sunday, including the Merl Reagle Award, puzzle workshops, trivia and games, and the live-solving finals, including commentary from Greg Pliska and Ophira Eisenberg!

But who is constructing this year’s puzzles, you ask? A fine question.

Constructors Sam Ezersky, Emily Carroll, Patrick Berry, Kevin Der, Lynn Lempel, Mike Shenk, Ruth Bloomfield Margolin, and Robyn Weintraub are all contributing puzzles to this year’s tournament.

You can click here to register and visit the ACPT website for full details!

Will you be competing, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

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Delving into the 2019 ACPT Puzzles!

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One of the highlights of the puzzle year is the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. The impressive, challenging, and well-constructed puzzles awaiting solvers there rank among the craftiest you’ll ever see.

So let’s put them under the microscope and see how I did!

Puzzle 1: And We’re Off! by Kathy Wienberg

The opening puzzle in this year’s tournament was a good smooth solve, easing solvers into the tournament experience. The theme of the word BATON being “passed” over a black square between longer entries was clever and accessible, easily cracked by tournament-puzzle standards, and the related phrases like FINISH LINE really sold the theme well.

Interesting grid entries included KOMBAT, ZAGAT, MAORI and AMOCO, and my favorite clues were “15 things in this puzzle” for ROWS and “Necessity for a farm team” for YOKE.

Puzzle 2: Following Orders by Joel Fagliano

Joel’s contribution to to the tournament was a fun reinterpretation of a song by The Doors, BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE, splitting up the theme entries so that the second part of the answer was a food. (Example: CAPRICORN becomes CAPRI CORN.) It was surprising to have two puzzles in a row that involved answers spanning black-square breaks between entries, but the revealer with The Doors added an extra touch to this one.

Interesting grid entries included UNHANDY, MY OH MY, SCHTICK, RICOH, and APOGEE, and my favorite clue was “Inspiring halftime speech, for a sports movie” for TROPE.

Puzzle 3: Added Time by Patrick Berry

The hook for Puzzle 3 was simple, but deftly executed, as the word AGE was added onto the end of established phrases like DOG POUND and CLASSIFIED AD to form new answers. But this was balanced by harder-than-expected fill, which definitely kept me guessing and ate up a great deal of the given time for solving.

Interesting grid entries included MAHLER, BIG DEAL, COLUMBO, MARS BAR, and MESMER, and my favorite clues were “Name-dropper abbr.” for ETAL and “Time or Money” for MAG.

[Image courtesy of How Stuff Works.]

Puzzle 4: It’s the Law by Jeff Stillman

My favorite puzzle from the tournament, Puzzle 4 employed a brilliantly visual gimmick where two circles represented an apple and a head, with a series of I’s (and one V) forming an arrow between them. With themed entries ISAAC NEWTON, ROBERT HOOKE, and GRAVITATION, you’ve got all the ingredients for a science-themed puzzle with a very fun twist.

Interesting grid entries included GO BAG, PC GAME, TUBULAR, and ARTOO, and my favorite clue was “One who gets asked a lot of questions” for SIRI.

Puzzle 5: Trade Names by Evan Birnholz

Puzzle 5 is infamously the most difficult of the tournament, and this year’s entry was no exception.

I figured out the gimmick pretty quick — themed entries in the same row would swap words that were also names, so the answers LANDMARK and GRANTING were actually LAND GRANT and MARKING — but the tough cluing and crafty fill entries made this a challenging solve. It was definitely the puzzle I struggled with the most. Puzzle 5, you’ve done it again.

Interesting grid entries included SPEEDO, ORVILLE, OFF NIGHT, and NOOGIE, and my favorite clue was “1986 #1 hit ‘On My Own,’ e.g., ironically” for DUET.

Puzzle 6: Playing the Field by Lynn Lempel

The first day of tournament puzzles wrapped up with this smooth, well-constructed closer loaded with delightful football puns. It was the perfect palate cleanser after the battle I had with Puzzle 5, and Lempel once again displayed her impressive skill mixing interesting fill words and balanced grid work to create puzzles with terrific flow. Blazing through this puzzle was a nice confidence boost after some tough earlier puzzles.

Interesting grid entries included CITIZENRY, ARAL SEA, MULAN, and DAUPHIN, and my favorite clues were “Adams who got the picture” for ANSEL and “Helpful feature of a crossword solver’s pencil?” for EXTRA POINT.

Puzzle 7: Politically Correct by Mike Shenk

Day Two of the tournament kicked off with this diabolical entry where the letters PC were added to established phrases to form new entries. (For example, LOW RANKING became PLOW CRANKING, which was clued as “Starting up a farm machine by hand?”)

The theme entries made sense, but weren’t immediately intuitive, so I found them tough to come up with, even though I cottoned onto the hook pretty quickly. Combine that with creative fill entries and you’ve got a well-constructed obstacle before the tournament’s final puzzle. Devious Mr. Shenk strikes again.

Interesting grid entries included ASADA, SCHIRRA, KIM NOVAK, CAT LADY, and MONADS, and my favorite clues were “Dial in your home, perhaps,” for SOAP, “Welcoming sign” for OPEN ARMS, “They’re just over two feet” for ANKLES, and “Volume setting?” for SHELF.

Puzzle 8: Troublemaker by Robyn Weintraub

The finals puzzle for the tournament boasts a different set of clues for each of the three divisions — A, B, and C — where the competitors solve the puzzle live on stage, and Weintraub constructed a puzzle with loads of intriguing entries and personality to spare. When the puzzle both apologizes to you (2 Down was I AM SO SORRY) and checks up on you while you’re solving (50 Across: HOW DID IT GO), you’re in for a unique puzzling experience.

Confession: I attempted the A-level clues, but I struggled with some of them. I did successfully solve the puzzle with a mix of A- and B-level clues.

Interesting grid entries included CHANDELIERS, ICAHN, IT GIRL, and IN RETROSPECT, and the B-clues were undoubtedly my favorite, boasting gems like “Joins a union?” for WEDS, “Darn it!” for HOLE, and “One with a talent for hitting low pitches” for BASS.

Overall, I think this year’s tournament puzzles were not as consistently hard as in previous years, though a lot of individual fill entries were fairly obscure. I did get stuck on several puzzles, frequently outwitted by cleverly misleading clues or my own inability to come up with what would later feel like obvious answers. But, as always, I relish the challenge of trying my hand at these puzzles, even if it’s not under tournament conditions.

The ingenious and creative constructors once again brought their A-game to the table with this year’s puzzles, and I never cease to be amazed at how fast and how clever so many of my fellow puzzle solvers are, blasting through these crosswords at unbelievable speeds.

ACPT, I’ll see you next year.

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ACPT 2019 Wrap-Up!

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The 42nd annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was this weekend, and puzzlers descended on the Stamford Marriott Hotel once again to put their puzzly skills to the test in what is lovingly known as “the Nerd Olympics.”

The tournament takes place over two days, with six puzzles to solve on Saturday, followed by one on Sunday. Then the top three finishers in the A, B, and C brackets solve the championship puzzle on whiteboards in front of the audience.

On Friday and Saturday night, there are often puzzle events, demonstrations, and panels by top puzzlers and figures in the puzzle world as well.

I made the journey down to Stamford myself Saturday morning, arriving with plenty of time to spare to prep our spot in the puzzle marketplace and say hello to friends and puzzly acquaintances. This year, I was joined at the Penny Dell Puzzles booth once again by my friend and partner-in-promotion Stacey Scarso.

The Penny Dell crew had a terrific setup as always, with a metric buttload of magazines to give away, including copies of The Crosswords Club and several flavors of Tournament Variety, Master’s Variety, and Dell Sunday Crosswords. They were also running a kickass promotion offering half-price on a year’s subscription to Crosswords Club, which is a great deal.

The Penny Dell Store also returned for the first time in a few years, as puzzle books (including a collection of Daily POP Crossword App puzzles!), tote bags, travel mugs, and coffee mugs were for sale. The Word Nerd mugs were a big hit!

PLUS we held a contest to win a bundle of PDP puzzle swag, including a mug, a tote bag, coffee fixin’s, and a bunch of puzzle magazines! All you had to do was solve a marvelous crossword variant puzzle cooked up by Eric Berlin.

And, yes, in their downtime between tournament puzzles, many competitors DO solve other puzzles.

At 9 AM, the tournament was two hours away, but the marketplace was up and running.

There were puzzle books galore from Will Shortz and Merl Reagle, ACPT shirts and cards from Elena Powell Abrahams, and a massive uber-crossword from T. William Campbell, which definitely caught the eye of some solvers:

As competitors readied themselves for the day’s solving, I had plenty of time to see friends of the blog like Crosswords Club editor Patti Varol, crossword gentleman Doug Peterson, constructor Joanne Sullivan, and Penny Press variety editor Keith Yarbrough!

Perhaps the best part of attending the tournament is getting to chat with so many members of the puzzle community in one place. There were 200 first-time attendees and enthusiastic rookies, mixing with current and former champions, and all sorts of puzzle enthusiasts of all ages.

There were long-time puzzle fans who have been competing at ACPT for years, if not decades, many of whom were decked out in puzzle shirts, puzzle scarves, puzzle ties, and other grid-heavy accoutrements.

One of the attendees even offered to buy the Crossword Puzzle Junkie shirt off my back! I assured him that that would work for him and literally no one else in attendance.

But I digress.

Many of the top constructors in the business were there, names like David Steinberg, Evan Birnholz, Joon Pahk, Erik Agard, Peter Gordon, and more, along with former champions and first-rate competitors like Dan Feyer, David Plotkin, Howard Barkin, Ellen Ripstein, and Stella Zawistowski.

Getting to connect faces and personalities with names I know from tournaments like the Indie 500 is a real treat, and so many of the people in the puzzle world are genuinely nice, funny individuals. Not only that, but I also got to meet several fellow trivia fiends from the Learned League community!

The two hours before showtime passed quickly, and soon, the marketplace emptied and the ballroom filled as competitors took their seats for Puzzle 1.

Attendance jumped again this year, which meant not only was the main ballroom absolutely jam-packed with competitors, but an overflow room was once again needed to accommodate the more-than-700 solvers in Stamford!

When Puzzle 1 arrived, most competitors found Kathy Wienberg’s puzzle to be quick and fair, on par with Monday NYT puzzles.

Although there was no sub-2-minute time like last year, the top solvers still blasted through this one.

Puzzle 2, constructed by prolific puzzler Joel Fagliano, surprised some solvers with a clever little trick at its core. This is consistent with the last few years, where Puzzle 2 has surprised the competitors. I think many solvers forget that, given how legendarily difficult Puzzle 5 is every year. It’s easy to forget other puzzles can offer quite a challenge along the way.

About this time, scores started trickling out for Puzzle 1, and many of the expected names were at the top: Feyer, Pahk, Plotkin, Zawistowski, Sanders, Kravis, Ryan… but two big names were missing.

Former 5-time champion (and perennial top contender) Tyler Hinman was not attending the tournament this year, and Erik Agard, last year’s champion, had a mistake in Puzzle 1, which would seriously hamper his efforts to repeat last year’s success.

Puzzle 3 was constructed by Patrick Berry, and served as a well-received, smooth-solving palate-cleanser before the lunch break.

          [Even empty, all the dividers make the room feel packed…]

Solvers scattered to the four winds in order to grab a bite to eat before returning by 2:30 for Puzzle 4, while the tournament officials were still hard at work tabulating scores:

After 3 puzzles, Dan Feyer was on top of the rankings, followed closely by Pahk, and then a three-way tie among Kravis, Plotkin, and Zawistowski for third.

But it was time to kick off the second half of the day with Puzzle 4.

Last year’s fourth puzzle had a visual element that tripped up some of the competitors, and this year’s Puzzle 4 (by constructor Jeff Stillman) was also harder than expected. The fill featured more obscurities than solvers anticipated, and several competitors commented on it on Twitter:

Oh, and by the way, thanks to his puzzly skills and blistering speed, Erik Agard had worked his way back up to 7th place after completing Puzzle 4. Amazing.

Finally, it was time for Puzzle 5. This year, constructor Evan Birnholz (not Birnholtz, as it was misprinted on his name tag) did the honors, and according to competitors, it was as challenging as expected, really putting the craftiness and keen wits of the solvers to the test.

Even the officials noticed:

After the diabolical Puzzle 5, it was Dan Feyer, Joon Pahk, David Plotkin, Stella Zawistowski, and… Erik Agard.

Competitors closed out the day with Puzzle 6, constructed by Lynn Lempel (she also contributed Puzzle 6 last year), and declared it both fun and fair. The competitors dispersed to rest their brains (or solve more puzzles). We packed up the Penny/Dell table and headed for home.

[The standings after Puzzle 6. Erik has worked his way back to 4th. Was a comeback story in store for Day 2?]

And although I wasn’t present for Sunday’s tournament finale, I continued to get updates from friends and fellow puzzlers.

Puzzle 7, constructed by Mike Shenk, was what you might expect from a constructor of his caliber: elegant fill, little crosswordese, and great fun.

But Shenk’s name being announced for Puzzle 7 also meant a puzzly milestone for the Finals:

Yes, Robyn Weintraub’s tournament constructing debut would be the final hurdle for the competitors! Fantastic news!

Dan Feyer remained at the top of the leaderboard, having maintained a great solving pace, followed closely by Joon Pahk and David Plotkin.

But it was not meant to be, and the final three came down to Dan Feyer (7-time champ, looking for a record-breaking 8th title), Joon Pahk and David Plotkin (two familiar names in the top ten).

[Image courtesy of Dave Mackey.]

The top three competitors for each live-solving division were:

  • A: Dan Feyer, Joon Pahk, David Plotkin
  • B: Matthew Gritzmacher, Brian Fodera, Arnold Reich
  • C: Brian Kulman, Lily Geller, Claire Rimkus

Lily Geller won the C division, and Brian Fodera won B. Congrats to the winners!

And, finally, it was time for the A Block.

You can watch the final puzzle being solved below, courtesy of Ben Zimmer:

Dan Feyer crushed the A clues in under 7 minutes. Joon Pahk was a strong runner-up at 9:05, and David Plotkin placed third with a very respectable showing of 11:13.

[Image courtesy of ACPT.]

As he had done all tournament, Dan solved with undeniable speed and precision, claiming his eighth tournament victory!

And it was a strong showing for many other familiar names! Doug Peterson placed 21st, David Steinberg placed 26th, Angela Halsted placed 94th, Vega Subramaniam cracked the top 100 with 98th, and Patti Varol placed 113th out of a field of 741 participants. (And even with one eye tied behind his back, Keith Yarbrough managed an impressive performance as well!)

There were also some wonderfully heartwarming stories to emerge from the tournament, like this multi-generational solving success story:

In the end, Jenna LaFleur (aka daughter) placed 33rd! Awesome job!

It’s always great fun to spend time with fellow puzzlers and wordplay enthusiasts, immersing myself in the puzzle community and enjoying all the charm and camaraderie that comes with it.

Of course, everyone should make sure to check their puzzle vaults when they get home:

We’ll see you next year!

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The ACPT Returns This Weekend!

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The 42nd edition of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is this weekend!

Puzzlers from all over are sharpening their pencils and their wits as they gear up for what is affectionately known as the Nerd Olympics, and we here at PuzzleNation wish all of the competitors the best of luck!

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Here’s hoping Puzzle #5 isn’t as diabolical as it has been in previous years!

There is a topnotch lineup of constructors to challenge this year’s competitors. Not only do we have Patrick Berry and Mike Shenk — perennial contributors to the tournament — but there will also be puzzles from ACPT stalwarts like Lynn Lempel and Joel Fagliano, as well as tournament puzzle debuts for Evan Birnholz, Robyn Weintraub, Jeff Stillman, and Kathy Wienberg! I can’t wait to see what they’ve concocted for this year’s tournament!

Good luck to everyone competing! And hey, if you need a pencil sharpener — or you’d like some terrific puzzly merch, contests, and a few freebies — we’ll be hanging out with our pals at the Penny Dell Puzzles table again this year! Be sure to stop by!

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Women of Letters: Doing Good with Crosswords!

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The puzzle community is awesome. I have chronicled numerous examples of this fact during my time writing this blog, and yet, I am endlessly stunned by the generosity and thoughtfulness embodied by so many puzzlers I know, as well as others I hope to meet in the future.

Today, I have the privilege of sharing another marvelous charitable puzzly project with my fellow PuzzleNationers.

Crossword constructor and friend of the blog Patti Varol, alongside constructors Angela Halsted and Amy Reynaldo, assembled a who’s who of top constructors for a project called Women of Letters.

The idea is as simple as it is marvelous.

If you donate to one of the worthy causes pictured below — including Girls Who Code, Sanctuary for Families, Girls Not Brides, Planned Parenthood, and others — you can send a copy of your charitable receipt to WomenofLettersCrosswords@gmail.com.

And in return, you’ll receive a PDF loaded with 18 pages of original puzzles by topnotch constructors like Robin Stears, Lynn Lempel, C.C. Burnikel, Laura Braunstein, Tracy Bennett, Andrea Carla Michaels, and more!

It’s a little extra incentive to do a bit of good in the world, plus it highlights the hard work and boundless creativity of women in the puzzle community. Kudos to everyone involved in this venture.

[You can click here for full details on Women of Letters.]

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!