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The Week in Puzzles and Games (November 2nd)

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There’s a lot going on in the intertwined worlds of puzzles and games, so let’s skip the intro and get to it.

The End of The Independent Crossword

Despite the outcry of support and messages and kind words about The Independent‘s daily cryptic crossword, there is no sign that The Independent will be reversing their decision. Which sadly means that the 31st was the final crossword.

It’s a loss for solvers, setters, and the puzzle community in general, but there have been some lovely posts and tributes in honor of The Independent crossword’s legacy, so I want to share a few here.

I think bluesky user Jalata covered everyone’s feelings with this post.

Setter Methuselah shared this cryptic in honor of the setters of The Independent.

Setter Phi posted about the intertwined history of The Independent and his puzzles. You should absolutely make time to read this piece.

And setter Bard shared this terrific picture from the York Sloggers & Betters event this year, featuring two dozen setters! What a lovely way to send off this influential outlet.

Farewell, Independent‘s daily cryptic crossword. You will be missed.

David Kwong’s The Puzzle Room Returns for Season 2!

If you enjoy interactive puzzle-solving and magic tricks, The Puzzle Room on Netflix is right up your alley.

David Kwong — crossword constructor, magician, and all-around expert in baffling people with both words and visuals — has already dazzled audiences with 26 episodes of this show, and it turns out they’re already filming Season 2!

David shared some of his thoughts and a bit of behind the scenes detail on his mailing list. Here’s a snippet:

Every episode is a real labor of love. Leading up to each shoot day, the producers and I research our guests and build out the interviews. Producer (and resident genius) Dave Shukan, whom I call the Puzzle Wizard Behind the Curtain, oversees the puzzles and games.

For me, though, the most challenging part of the show is the weekly magic trick. John Stessel, Chris Chelko, and I set out to create original, TV-friendly magic: effects that haven’t been done before and that hold up on camera (and, ideally, against exposure online, though nothing is truly safe anymore). Coming up with new magic on such a tight turnaround keeps me on my toes, and you’ll often find me testing tricks on unsuspecting folks at my local cafe or at the Magic Castle.

I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen so far from The Puzzle Room, so congratulations to them on the upcoming season 2!

Puzzmo’s Jubilee Continues!

What a celebration it has been so far! Four new games have been launched: (not) solitaire, Draw 2 Solitaire, FlipFlop Solitaire, and FreeCell.

Plus they’ve made an All Games page (so all their puzzle game options are available) and a customizable Playlist feature so you can make sure only your favorite puzzles are waiting for you daily, no scrolling or sifting required.

The Puzzmonauts have plenty to celebrate and keep themselves busy with, and I suspect the team at Puzzmo isn’t done with the surprises yet before the year is out.

No Westwords Tournament in 2027

There’s loads of exciting crossword tournament news for 2027, including the debut of two new tournaments, the Rain City Crossword Tournament and the Canadian Crossword Open.

But sadly, yesterday it was announced that the team behind the Westwords tournament will not be hosting a Westwords event in 2027.

Although this is disappointing news, we wish all the best to the incredible team that has shepherded Westwords for the last three years, and we hope 2027 is kind to all of them.

The team also shared one of the best resources for tournament solvers, this awesome spreadsheet, for those looking to engage in some tournament solving fun next year.

Two Puzzle Game Sites to Try Out!

One of the coolest things about running PuzzCulture is getting to learn about new puzzles and creators in the puzzle space. Several enterprising constructors have reached out to me recently, and I’m pleased to help spread the word about their puzzly endeavors.

The first is Word Burger from Joyella Studios.

Word Burger is a daily vocabulary challenge where you come up with as many words that start with one particular letter and end with another particular letter. Those letters are the buns, and you need to fill the burger with words!

For example, the top bun could be U and the bottom bun E, and you need to type everything from UPDATE to UNITE.

There’s a 60-second version and a Slow Cook version if you want to take your time.

You can try it out on the Word Burger website, and it’s also available for iPhone and Android!

My other recommendation for you today is Movie Horse.

In this movie trivia game, everyone starts with the same movie, and you have to name an actor from that movie. The game then picks another movie featuring that actor, and you name another actor.

On and on it goes, until you’ve either completed ten links or you’ve exhausted your five misses (either through clicking pass or guessing wrong) and you’ve spelled MOVIE (like spelling HORSE in basketball).

I’ve mentioned playing something similar to this with friends for years now, but I love seeing it gameified like this. You can test your skills against friends, and even see some of the most obscure connections made by other players through the Movie Horse Instagram.

It’s cool to see how many different pathways to success players can take, based on their movie and actor choices.

Click here to try it out for yourself!

To close out today’s post, let’s enjoy something puzzly and seasonal with Cool Patch Pumpkins in Dixon, California.

Launched in 2003, the Cool Patch Pumpkins corn maze revitalized the Cooley brothers pumpkin business, attracting loads of new eyes.

They’ve even been honored twice by the Guinness Book of World Records, including in 2007 for “World’s Largest Temporary Corn Maze.” (Gotta love the specificity there.)

It supposedly takes between 90 minutes and 2 hours to complete the maze, which spans dozens of acres!

Check out their website here for more details.

Did I miss any puzzly news or fun board game stories from the last few weeks? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

The Week in Puzzles and Games

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There’s a lot going on in the intertwined worlds of puzzles and games, so let’s skip the intro and get to the good stuff!

Happy Birthday Puzzmo!

After celebrating 1,000 days of Puzzmo back in July, this puzzle app has another milestone to celebrate tomorrow.

There has been a countdown running on the app for a while now, and it’s counting down to the three-year anniversary of Puzzmo!

I don’t know what they have in store on Tuesday, but considering how much care and attention goes into each day’s puzzles and games, I’m sure they’ve got something up their sleeves.

Club Drosselmeyer Tickets Are On Sale Now!

I did a full post about all the Club Drosselmeyer events last week before tickets went live, but a little reminder never hurts.

Their flagship “Interactive Nutcracker in Swingtime” Club Drosselmeyer event has performances set for December 4th, 5th, & 6th AND December 10th, 11th, 12th, & 13th.

As the organizers themselves say, “Prepare yourself for another season of magic and mayhem, romance and revelry, champagne and sugarplums.”

Click here to grab tickets and get more information about everything Club Drosselmeyer has to offer!

MyCrossword’s Forum Now Open!

It’s always worth celebrating when a new public space opens up for chatting about puzzles.

MyCrossword is a website allowing cryptic crossword solvers and setters to share their work and sample puzzles. It is a hub of creative expression and puzzly fun.

And they’ve just opened their new forum feature to further encourage community and communication.

Raider at MyCrossword has written a welcoming post, and I hope the forums soon fill up with excited solvers and engaging discourse about the world of cryptics.

Click here to check out MyCrossword and their forum!

(Oh, and thank you to Tom at MyCrossword for providing the feature image for this part of the post.)

Two Puzzle Game Sites to Try Out!

One of the coolest things about running PuzzCulture is getting to learn about new puzzles and creators in the puzzle space. Several enterprising constructors have reached out to me recently, and I’m pleased to help spread the word about their puzzly endeavors.

The first is Andres Echenique’s crossword-inspired deduction puzzle, CrossEights Daily.

This free daily puzzle challenges solvers to figure out the eight crossing 8-letter words, four across and four down.

You can get hints Wheel of Fortune-style and place certain letters in order to help you figure out the words.

But since only some of the letters are overlapping, it’s up to you to puzzle out starting and ending letters (which can be difficult if you’re not if you need an -ED, -ER, or -ES).

There’s a running leaderboard for speed and efficiency of solving, and I found the combination of deduction and letter-picking luck really fun.

Click here to try it out!

CrossEights Daily is a relative newcomer to the puzzle world, so I thought for my other recommendation today, I’d discuss a puzzle website that has been around since 2006!

Yes, LiveSudoku.com has been sharing free Sudoku puzzles for two decades now, allowing for head-to-head play worldwide, printable booklets, and solving assistance.

I spoke to Maya at LiveSudoku and learned some very cool facts about the site.

The site has more than 10,000 daily players, and there are 14 different languages available for players (including Turkish and Greek, which were just added this summer).

The community aspect of this site really appeals to me, and I’m happy to help spread the word to other Sudoku fans in the audience.

Click here to check out the site and their forums for liveplay.

Florida’s “Crossword Bandit” Busted After Peculiar Crime Spree

Let’s wrap up today’s post with some truly ridiculous criminality.

Have you heard about the “Crossword Bandit”?

Ronald Wladich, a prolific dine-and-dasher in Southwest Florida, left a calling card for some of his crimes by leaving a crossword puzzle book behind instead of paying his tab.

(You know, it’s never a good sign when a thief patterns himself after the Wet Bandits from Home Alone.)

A total of five restaurants reported being part of this cruciverbalist crime spree, which is part of how he got caught.

Restaurant employees began trading stories about this crossword-loving crook and they recognized a familiar blue sweatshirt, drink order, and of course, a love of puzzles.

He was also charged with DUI for riding his bicycle into a Wendy’s parking lot while intoxicated.

No one has yet reported on what crossword books were preferred by this thief. (Why don’t people ask the truly important questions!)

Did I miss any puzzly news or fun board game stories from the last few weeks? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

Puzzmo Looking for New Puzzle Games (Plus a Puzzle to Solve!)

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Puzzmo is one of the best puzzle game apps out there. Their puzzles are terrific, their games are as diverse as they are engaging, and if you’re not using the app, you’re missing out.

And they just put out a request for puzzle game submissions to add to their dynamite lineup:

We’re thinking about having a handful of games from members of our community appear on Puzzmo later this year. We’re always working towards Puzzmo being the place for thoughtful puzzles, so this project is us trying to connect our platform and community with interesting new games that otherwise don’t have a perfect place to be noticed and played on the internet.

So any game designers out there, if you’ve got a puzzle game that you think is ready for the world to see, be sure to click this link and check out what they’re looking for!

But be timely about it, the window for submissions only lasts until October 2nd!

And speaking of puzzles, I’ve got one for you to solve today.

I didn’t have time to finish this one last weekend, so sadly, it’s not as timely as I’d like.

One of my favorite character actors, Gerrit Graham, passed away recently, and I wanted to do a little tribute puzzle to him. Rather than a usual crossword grid, I thought I’d use a cryptic-style grid, so I could put more themed entries in the puzzle than a traditional crossword would allow.

Even with this looser format and fewer crossings, I still couldn’t fit in all the film and TV references I wanted to. I had to leave out the films Used Cars, The Little Mermaid, and Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (which sucks, but he’s GREAT in), as well as noteworthy appearances on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, Tales from the Crypt, Sledge Hammer!, The Tick, and Babylon 5. (He also wrote teleplays for The Twilight Zone!)

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

Happy puzzling, everyone, and good luck to everyone who submits to Puzzmo’s open submission for new puzzle games!

The Peculiar, Particular Art of Palindromic Puzzling!

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Palindrome, written as an ambigram.

I’m a sucker for wordplay. I’m sure that comes as no surprise to you, gentle reader. You’re probably a fan of wordplay as well.

Two of my favorite forms of wordplay are the palindrome and the semordnilap.

For the uninitiated, palindromes are words, phrases, or sentences that can be read the same both backwards and forwards. KAYAK, RACECAR, etc.

A semordnilap (literally “palindromes” backwards) is a word or phrase that reads as one thing forwards and another thing backwards. STRESSED and DESSERTS, for instance.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who solved my Thisaway or Thataway crossword I shared a few weeks ago that I’ve had palindromes and semordnilaps on the brain.

My goal was to make every across entry above the center a palindrome (except for the entry PALINDROMES) and every across entry below the center a semordnilap (except for the entry SEMORDNILAP).

After trying several different layout and ideas, I finally got the puzzle to a place where I was happy with it. And now that it’s been shared with solvers, I’ve been wondering if anyone else had tackled the combination of palindromes / semordnilaps, and crosswords.

Thankfully, Xwordinfo made the searching for them easy.

I found this Joe Krozel puzzle from December 23rd, 2008, where the entire puzzle can be rotated 180 degrees and read out the same.

It’s an entire puzzle of semordnilaps!

Alex Eaton-Salners executed a similar idea on April 9th, 2019, creating a puzzle where every across entry is a semordnilap, cluing both the word reading forwards and the word reading backwards.

Leo Tsai managed the same trick as Krozel in a Puzzmo mini on May 20th of this year, offering two mini grids that reflect each other. (Solving this puzzle while constructing one in a similar vane was encouraging!)

On June 6th, 2023, Daniel Jaret’s crossword appeared in the New York Times, and executed the same trick managed by Joe Krozel 15 years earlier! Once again, the entire puzzle could be rotated 180 degrees.

He also managed to place two palindromes at the very center of the puzzle, RACECAR crossing STETS, which is a terrific extra touch.

That’s more puzzles than I expected when I started hunting for palindromic crosswords!

Of course, crosswords aren’t the only puzzles where you can see palindromes and semordnilaps.

Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have several puzzles where words overlap and read backwards and forwards. Right of Way and Crozzle both come to mind.

But the best example in their puzzly library is undoubtedly Bull’s-Eye Spiral.

Bull’s-Eye Spiral challenges solvers to use the clues provided to create a chain of answer words that can be read both forwards and backwards.

Unlike a single semordnilap like STOP and POTS where one word can be reversed into a different word, the answers in Bull’s-Eye Spiral overlap, allowing the backwards words to bleed into the forwards words, creating a massive spiraling chain of words that’s actually two chains of words where the only common breaks are at the beginning and the end.

I’ve never tried to construct a Bull’s-Eye Spiral, though it does seem like a fun challenge to put on my ever-growing to-do / wish list.

I did, however, manage to construct a Framework puzzle years ago with only palindromes as answer words.

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

It was challenging to construct, not because of the limited wordlist, but because all the common letter crossings made it difficult to ensure there was only one way to complete the grid. (No alternate solutions here!)

Happy solving!

Musician, parodist, and wordsmith “Weird Al” Yankovic once said that “the writing of a brilliant palindrome is a small miracle, and that, I think, deserves to be honored more than a lot of the stupid and inconsequential things we often celebrate in our culture.”

Do you agree with him? Are you a fan of palindromes and semordnilaps, in puzzles or otherwise? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Crossword News Roundup: Tournaments, Classes, Videos, and New Puzzles!

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The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was this past weekend, and once again, it was a highlight of the puzzly year! Congratulations to new champ Erik Agard and everyone who competed for Stamford’s last hurrah hosting the event.

If you want to watch the live-solved finale, you can check it out here:

While ACPT has come and gone, more tournament fun is on the way! Registration is now open for both Lollapuzzoola and the Midwest Crossword Tournament.

lolla-logo

Saturday, August 15 will be the Saturday in August for this year’s Lollapuzzoola 19.

New York City will again host the event, which features divisions for Express solvers (speed solvers), Local solvers, and Pairs solvers!

You can check out our thoughts on last year’s tournament puzzles here!

Saturday, October 3 marks the next edition of the Midwest Crossword Tournament.

The University of Illinois Chicago Student Center East will host this year’s event, which features divisions for Individual and Pairs solvers at two difficulty levels: Chicago Fire for the experienced solvers and Minnesota Nice for newer solvers. And you’re welcome to participate online as well!

Not only that, but they’re seeking a constructor from the Midwest or with ties to the Midwest to construct a themeless puzzle for this year’s event. What an opportunity!

And if you’re looking to get a better sense of MWXWT in a nutshell, I’ll be delving into last year’s tournament puzzles next week!

If you missed out on this year’s Crossword Con panels, they’ve been posted online for you to enjoy. Please make some time for them, they’re a glimpse into the present AND future of puzzles.

And while we’re discussing Puzzmo-centric events, they’re selling a Puzzmo Plus subscription for just $39.99. Click here to more details!

In other puzzle news, The Boston Globe has launched their own PuzzleMania-style publication in honor of the 130th Boston Marathon.

The Puzzle Marathon is only $8 and features 26 puzzles crafted by topnotch constructors from the Boston area.

It’s too late to get it in time for the Boston Marathon, but there’s still plenty of time for some mental athletics!

We’ve also got a few updates from the world of crossword constructors!

Veteran constructor Robin Stears has just launched her Patreon!

Robin is one of the most prolific cruciverbalists working today, with puzzles ranging from super-easy to deviously difficult. There’s literally something for everybody under Robin’s umbrella.

Be sure to check it out!

Constructor and author Eric Berlin has launched his new crossword variant, Patchwork.

This grid puzzle has entries reading across AND entries reading out in various patches that fit into the grid. So you have two overlapping chances to fill out each grid!

You can try out the puzzle for yourself here. Give it a try!

Finally, have you considered taking a class on the history and construction of crosswords?

Well, Natan Last has got you covered!

This four-session course runs throughout May at Union Hall in Brooklyn, NY, and costs $150 for all four sessions.

His book Across the Universe is a treasure trove of information about crosswords, so I have no doubt this course will be worth every penny!

Click here for more information and tickets!

Any crossword news we missed this week? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

End-of-Year Crossword News Roundup: Globe and Mail, Upcoming Xwd Events, and Crossword Love!

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We’ve got all sorts of crossword-related news, updates, and stories for you today! Buckle up, and let’s talk xwds!

The Globe and Mail’s Annual Giant Holiday Crossword

Every year, constructor Fraser Simpson creates a giant holiday crossword for Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. He has been doing so since 2003, so for many Canadian crossword and cryptic fans, this is a decades-long holiday tradition!

Not only is it enormous, but it’s visually striking, as he uses a cryptic-style grid, but American-style crossword cluing.

With 628 clues and entries, this puzzly behemoth will no doubt tax even the hardiest crossword enthusiasts!

And The Globe and Mail is offering a behind-the-scenes look at their constructing process, including an introduction to cluing styles for new solvers!

While it won’t be anything new to crossword enthusiasts or established constructors, it’s still cool that they’re willing to pull back the curtain on one of their biggest promotions of the year. Demystifying crosswords just means more people get to enjoy the puzzles we love so much. And that’s a very good thing.

ACPT, Boswords Winter Wondersolve, and Puzzmo’s Open Submission Week

Just a quick reminder of all the puzzly opportunities awaiting you at the end of this year and the start of 2026!

#1: 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.

#2: Registration for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament opens on January 1st for former contestants and on January 8th for rookies!

With the tournament changing venues for the 2027 tournament, this is the last time to experience the ACPT in Stamford’s familiar locale.

#3: The Boswords Winter Wondersolve is coming Sunday afternoon, February 1st (and registration opens Friday, January 2nd)!

This online only, four-puzzle tournament (3 themed puzzles and 1 themeless) kicks off another year of puzzly events from the Boswords team, and there’s plenty to enjoy.

They’ve already announced the team of constructors lined up for this year’s Winter Wondersolve: Adam Aaronson, Wendy L. Brandes, Pao Roy, and the team of Amanda Rafkin & Amie Walker!

Boswords never disappoints, so be sure to sign up early for this one!

Crossword Compatibility

Please allow me to wrap up this crossword-centric post with a fun story I spotted on Reddit.

Making a crossword for your partner is a wonderful gift, and I’m sure the significant others of many puzzlers have either commissioned a special crossword or taken the leap and constructed one themselves!

So it was delightful to read a story where BOTH partners had the same idea.

Yup, each of them had constructed a crossword for the other in secret, revealing their linguistic efforts at the same time.

How can you not love a story like that?

Even better is the top comment on Reddit, where this anecdote first appeared: “Your shared disregard for symmetry tells me you were meant for each other.”

Clearly it’s a match made in puzzle heaven.

What are you looking forward to in the world of puzzles for 2026, fellow solvers? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.