Tag Archives: tournament

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!

Delving into the Lollapuzzoola 18 Puzzles!

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The eighteenth edition of Lollapuzzoola, as is tradition, arrived on a Saturday in August. (I was not in attendance, but I did purchase the Solve at Home puzzle pack.) I finally had a chance to sit down and try my hands at this year’s tournament puzzles, and I was certainly not disappointed.

Lollapuzzoola continues to push the envelope with inventive themes and unique spins on how to bring crosswords to life. (Never forget competitors MEOWING for milk at Lollapuzzoola 10!)

This year’s theme was “We Put the Zoo in Lollapuzzoola.” Every puzzle had something to do with animals and animal-based wordplay, 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

This puzzle felt more like hitting the ground running than warming up, but it definitely got the creative juices flowing. The solver is presented 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 several of the clues were the same for multiple entries. For example, the clue to 1 Across for both grids was “Mythical equine beast.” Naturally, the only thing to do is start writing in one grid and let the answers populate and push you toward the next entry.

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 one exceptionally long clue that never disappoints.)

Beginning and concluding the acrosses with mythical beasts was a great hook, and I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle.

Interesting grid entries included our mythical beasts (SIMURGH, what a shout!), JANE DONE, ME THREE, and INTEGER, and my favorite clues were “Oscar Cimmet, to Brian Cimmet” for SON and “Amazing song or British sausage” for BANGER.

Warmup Puzzle B: Meet Cute by Brooke Husic

An apt pair — HELLO KITTY and BYE BYE BIRDIE — ties together this themeless midi, although the meet cute of the title is slightly less cute with the crossing entry COULD GET IT. (While I was solving, I thought the other long down entry was a similarly saucy ARE YOU DOWN, before it turned out to be ARE YOU DONE, heh.)

Brooke is a pro at making the most of a tight grid, and this puzzle was clean and loaded with great trivia in its cluing, particularly for entries solvers have seen loads of times, like ORS or UNO. Breathing new life into crossword classics can be tough, but Brooke always goes the extra mile.

Interesting grid entries included SSRIS, CLUSTER, and ARE YOU DONE, and my favorite clues were “Last number shouted before “Feliz ano nuevo!” for UNO, “Group of stars, computers, or consonants” for CLUSTER, and “Percussive string instrument technique heard in funk music” for SLAP BASS.

Puzzle #1: Commanding Leads by Hannah Slovut-Einertson

I think creating a proper puzzle #1 is one of the toughest tasks in crosswords. It has to be challenging enough to engage the solver, but accessible enough to ease them into a full day of competition. It has to represent the spirit of the event and pique interest in the puzzles to come.

That’s a lot, but Hannah delivers a solid starting puzzle with a fun theme: entries that start with commands to a pet, like DOWN, STAY, or ROLLOVER. (I also appreciated the dog-centric cluing peppered throughout the puzzle. That’s dedication to the gimmick!)

I definitely need to look up more of Hannah’s puzzles going forward.

Interesting grid entries included STEM CELLS, TEWA, T-SHOT, and ITHACA, and my favorite clues were “Alvin and the Chipmunks or Josie and the Pussycats” for TRIO and “Latter member of a rhyming candy duo” for IKE.

Wait, wrong one…

Puzzle #2: Cave Dwellers by Mark Valdez

This puzzle combined a great visual element — lots of black squares and a squat, wide design to evoke the setting in the title — and paired it with a smart gimmick for the themed entries.

We’ve unknowingly ventured into a puzzly cave with bats hanging upside down from the ceiling… so all of the themed entries reading down start with TAB instead of BAT. Diabolical!

Mark crammed LOADS of these hidden bats into the cave, making for an impressive feat of puzzle construction.

Interesting grid entries included SO SUE ME, AM DIAL, and PAWNEE, and my favorite clues were “Tower on the sea” for TUG and “Short king?” for TUT.

Yes, all your favorite animals like helicopter and hat…

Puzzle #3: Balloon Animals by Kate Hawkins

Size matters in this 19x stormer, where animal names not only appear in multiple entries, but each letter fills a 2×2 set of boxes! I was definitely confused on several of the down entries, since I knew the answers, but they didn’t fit. When it finally clicked for me, it was very satisfying to write those huge letters across the grid.

I’ve seen rebuses and shared letters and repeated letters, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen ballooned letters before. I can only imagine the a-ha moment happening in real time during the tournament!

Interesting grid entries included RAW SCORE, TESLA COILS, AND SCENE, and ARCHIVAL, and my favorite clues were “Curry popular in the Bay Area” for STEPH, “Bedizen with lace or ribbon” for TRIM, and “Took the wrong way?” for STOLE.

Puzzle #4: Shady Characters by Brooke Husic

Brooke is one of the most inventive constructors in puzzles, and this 15x is no exception. Every clue that includes the word “red” required the solver to use the opposite of that word in the clue instead. For instance, “Hatred” clued the grid entry KINDNESS (a one-for-one swap) while “Spotted Serengeti predator” clued the grid entry GIRAFFE (swapping only “predator” and not the entire clue).

This was bolstered by the instruction in 63A (“what you should do, appropriately, when you see red”) for the revealer CALL BULL. Which is just lovely wordplay, hitting both the misleading cluing gimmick and referencing the classic concept of waving red to a bull.

This one was tough but quite clever, definitely the puzzle I struggled with most. (I was having flashbacks to a similarly devious #4 puzzle from Brooke in the 2021 edition of Lollapuzzoola.)

Interesting grid entries included GASOLINA, IN SEASON, CRITTERS, and PREFECT, and my favorite clues were “Useful paper for a trip” for LSD TAB and “Matter of record?” for VINYL.

Good job folks, we did it. We found my new favorite stock photo…

Puzzle #5: Wild Discoveries by Kareem Ayas

This 21x two-page delight managed to fit two hidden answers (spelled out with circles), another scattered throughout the grid, an anagram, a rebus, and an answer beyond the grid itself, all tied together by the revealer SCAVENGER HUNT, tying together the animals and the puzzle gimmick perfectly.

This was SO MUCH FUN. The creativity is off the charts. Kareem had lots of clues that referenced the main gimmick, providing hints to our six crafty scavengers, and really making the puzzle feel unified and thoughtfully assembled.

Interesting grid entries included CARRYON, EXECRABLE, VOYAGER, and UV LAMP, and my favorite clues were “Glue bottle bull whose mate is Elsie” for ELMER and “Imitates nested spoons with a partner or pet” for SNUGGLES.

Puzzle #6: Championship Final by Malaika Handa

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 fill was SMOOTH, offering a lot of strong vocabulary, interesting crossings, and devious cluing. Everything you could hope for, highlighting the strengths and possibilities of a smartly constructed themeless puzzle.

I had the privilege of interviewing Malaika years ago for the blog, and I’m overjoyed to see her continue going from strength to strength in constructing.

Interesting grid entries included SAYSO, TRIPSITTER, KOREAN TACO, and RAT CZAR. Both the Local and Express sets of clues had some gems, so I’ll list them separately below:

Local clues:

  • “Game whose box depicts someone covering their mouth” for TABOO
  • “It might help you treasure your chest” for TOP SURGERY
  • “Lead-in to tail or trial” for MOCK

Express clues:

  • “Possessive that becomes another possessive if you add a letter” for OUR
  • “Fictional Russian aristocrat portrayed by Garbo, Leigh, and Knightley” for KARENINA
  • “Way of getting something off one’s chest” for TOP SURGERY
  • “Body found deep in a forest, perhaps” for LAKE (SO DARK, I LOVE IT)
  • “Board present at a corporate event?” for CHARCUTERIE
  • “Target of much paper coverage” for ROCK

There was also a tiebreaker themeless midi by Sid Sivakumar. It was a quick and satisfying solve, offering the apt pair of TALKS TURKEY and CRIES WOLF (though I enjoyed the grid-spanning down entries more, STICK FIGURE and SO FAR SO GOOD).

My favorite clues were “Well-supported gp.” for OPEC and “Coin on which a star indicates it was minted in Hyderabad” for RUPEE.

I’m sure I sound like a broken record at this point, but that’s because there are only so many ways to talk about how GOOD things are. (It’s way easier to complain about the bad than to find ways to celebrate the good.)

The puzzles at Lollapuzzoola always impress, and this year was easily my favorite edition of the tournament so far. Every puzzle had a strong theme, good fill, and topnotch cluing. So many of the themes were creative, playful, and eye-opening in how they played with the solver’s expectations.

There are so many great puzzle tournaments each year, and constructors sweat over these brilliant grids for our enjoyment. But Lollapuzzoola truly remains its own unique flavor of puzzles, embracing imaginative themes and clever execution like none other.

I cannot wait to see what they’re cooking up for next year.

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!

Crosswords as a Spectator Sport?

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Summer is always a fun time for crossword fans who enjoy a good tournament.

Westwords wrapped up a few weeks ago, as did the first World Cryptic Crossword Championship in London. Boswords is less than a week away, Lollapuzzoola is coming up in August, and the 7th Bryant Park Crossword Tournament not long after in September!

And while discussing the Scripps National Spelling Bee with a friend recently, they asked me, as a puzzle guy, if I thought that crosswords could ever become a spectator sport like that.

While crossword tournaments aren’t currently televised, I happily informed him that crosswords are pretty much already a spectator sport.

Every year, people at the ACPT not only enjoy watching the live-solved final puzzle, but they get commentary from Greg Pliska and Ophira Eisenberg!

Tournament finals are often live-solved in front of their fellow competitors, adding some drama and showmanship to these wonderful puzzly events.

We’re even getting behind-the-scenes videos on the tournaments now, like this one for Westwords:

But in terms of crosswords as a spectator sport, the World Cryptic Crossword Championship took things a step further.

The final round of the tournament wasn’t a live-solved puzzle, it was a single cryptic-style clue. No crossing letters or grid for context. Just the clue, and the competitor only had ten seconds to solve it before the next competitor took their shot.

I’ve never had to solve a puzzle in front of an audience like all the tournament finalists, but I can imagine it’s nerve-wracking. But giving someone a cryptic-style clue with NO context letters and ten seconds to solve it in front of an audience?

Good lord, thank you for the new anxiety nightmare fuel, WCCC.

That being said, it was an entertaining watch, and another step forward for crosswords as a spectator sport:

What do you think, fellow puzzler? Will we be seeing the ACPT or another puzzle tournament on an ESPN sister channel soon? Or perhaps as an Olympic event?

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

Boswords, Westwords, MoMath, and Free RPG Day: A Big Week for Puzzles and Games!

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There’s so much going on this week in the intertwined worlds of puzzles and games to get into, so let’s skip the intro and get to the good stuff!

Boswords Summer Tournament registration is open!

Sunday July 27th marks the latest edition of the Boswords crossword puzzle tournament, and that’s only six weeks away! Thankfully, registration is now open to reserve your spot in this year’s event.

You can participate either in-person or online (as an individual or in pairs) and test your mettle in 5 themed puzzles and a themeless championship puzzle constructed by a marvelous lineup of cruciverbalists: Ross Trudeau, Chandi Deitmer, Hemant Mehta, John Harrington, Mary Tobler, and Quiara Vasquez!

Go to boswords.org for details, to register, or to sample content from previous Boswords events!

Westwords this weekend!

Boswords may be six weeks in the future, but the second annual Westwords Crossword Tournament is happening this Sunday, June 22nd!

This event is also being held both in-person and online, with four themed puzzles and two themeless/freestyle puzzles to challenge solvers. The list of constructors for this year’s event is quite impressive: Amie Walker, Caitlin Reid, David Steinberg, Kevin Christian, Nate Cardin, and Willa Angel Chen Miller!

Go to westwordsbestwords.com for full details and get in on the fun!

One Up Event at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath)

If you’re looking for a family friendly puzzly event to check out, MoMath has you covered on Friday, June 20th.

They’ve invited puzzler Rodolfo Kurchan to share the story behind the latest puzzle taking the world by storm, the logic puzzle One Up!

You can learn solving tricks, learn the origins of this puzzle, and spend some quality puzzling time with friends and family.

Go to momath.org/family-fridays for more details!

Free RPG Day

Last, but certainly not least, Free RPG Day is this Saturday, June 21st.

The concept behind Free RPG Day is simple. All over the world (but mostly in the United States), local game shops, hobby shops, and other outlets team up with RPG publishers to distribute new, fresh, and most importantly, free material for all sorts of different roleplaying games, systems, and settings.

Explore the world of roleplaying games at your friendly local game shop and pick up some game quickstarts and free swag along the way!

Will you be participating in any of these puzzle- and game-fueled activities this weekend, fellow puzzler? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

The World Cryptic Crossword Championship Is Almost Here!

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Are you a fan of cryptic crosswords and looking for a challenge that suits your skill set and tricky puzzle of choice?

Then you should consider testing your puzzly mettle in this year’s World Cryptic Crossword Championship!

Debuting on the weekend of June 28th and 29th, the WCCC is composed of two events: an individual online championship on the 28th (which is open to any and all competitors) and a World Cup-style offline team championship format on the 29th.

The individual championship involves two cryptic grids, each of which must be solved within 30 minutes. Click here to register!

But please be aware that you’re competing in IST — Indian Standard Time — so you’ll have to adjust your schedule accordingly to have a chance at the cash prize for the top three solvers!

The World Cup Final is being held in person in London on the 29th, and consists of two rounds. The first puzzle will whittle down the field of competitors to the four top contestants from four different countries, who will then compete onstage to solve the final puzzle.

Some of the World Cup competitors have been invited for their past puzzly achievements, but there is an offline preliminary for anyone seeking to try their hand (and can be in London on the day in question to compete).

This looks like my scribblings while solving a cryptic… minus the wedding ring, that is.

I’m definitely not the fastest cryptic crossword solver, so I’m not sure I’ll try my hand at this competition… this year. But if it returns next year, I might just shoot my shot.

Cryptic crossword solving involves many of the same skills as American-style crosswords, but there’s also the wordplay element that makes it quite a different experience for those unaccustomed to that puzzly style.

For a good primer on getting into cryptic crosswords, check out this breakdown of cryptic-style cluing from our friends at Penny Dell Puzzles.

Will you be trying your hand at competitive cryptic crossword solving, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments section below, we’d love to hear from you!

The 2021 Boswords Fall Themeless League: Looking Back

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After two months of challenging, engaging, and thoroughly enjoyable weekly solving, the Boswords 2021 Fall Themeless League came to a close last week.

If you’re unfamiliar, the Boswords 2021 Fall Themeless League spreads out a tournament-style solving experience over nine weeks, 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 had one solution, there were three sets of clues, each representing a different difficulty level for solvers. Smooth was the least challenging, Choppy was the middle ground, and Stormy was the most challenging. (When solvers registered to participate, they chose the difficulty level that suited them best.)

Hundreds of solvers signed up for the challenge of two months of themeless puzzle solving and a bit of friendly competition, and now that it’s over, I’d like to share a few thoughts about my experience in the League.

With the previous two Themeless League events under my belt, I had a good sense of what to expect both from the puzzles and from myself.

Although I rarely solve online — and I solve themed crosswords far more often than themeless crosswords — I now have a good base to build on.

Unfortunately, I accidentally signed up for the wrong difficulty level this time around. The previous two seasons, I’d opted for the middle ground, Choppy. I signed up for Stormy by mistake, and didn’t realize my error until I logged in and prepared to solve the season’s first puzzle.

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As you might expect, being freed from the shackles of themed puzzle building allows constructors to really flex their creative muscle, indulging all sorts of curious and unexpected vocabulary as they cross long entries and employ fewer black squares in these impressive grids.

And since I’d mistakenly opted for the toughest level of cluing, I also saw the decidedly clever and devious side of each constructor as I navigated tricky wordplay and more challenging clue content.

The first puzzle of the season immediately showed me what I’d gotten myself into. I didn’t know the number of operas Beethoven had written, or who spoke what ended up being a Madonna quote, or what Mohsin Hamid’s “Exit West” was about.

I hit nearly half an hour with my solving time, which I think was a ten-minute increase from my performance in the previous League’s debut puzzle.

Although I would have better performances later in the season — my time averaged out to 24:48 across eight puzzles — that was definitely a shot right across the bow of my confidence.

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I could have contacted the organizers and asked to be moved over to Choppy. I’m sure they would have accommodated me; the Boswords team is terrific.

But instead, I decided to throw myself into the deep end and stick with Stormy and see how it went.

As I expected, it was quite a challenge. But I trusted my instincts more — filling in more guesses at the start, rather than letting them sit empty until crossing words offered confirmation — and overall, I enjoyed the experience. Sure, I was a little disheartened at how my season started, but knowing that I was competing — however slowly — at the steepest level available pushed me to keep going.

I’ve never been the fastest solver to begin with — doesn’t matter if it’s pencil and paper or on a computer — and I rarely time myself when I solve in my free time. But I kept setting different goals each week. If I had half the grid filled by a certain time, I’d set a time to beat based on that. I didn’t always succeed, but more often than not, I kept my time below whatever goals I’d set.

(Still, I dare not look at the times of the top performers, lest I despair once more. Heh.)

In the end, my individual rank was 220 (out of 303 Stormy solvers), and my overall rank was 251 (out of the 871 individual solvers). Not too shabby. A staggering 1253 people participated in this season’s event,

As for the puzzles themselves, they were solid. The vocabulary — particularly the longer entries — was incredibly creative and unexpected. And the constructors were fantastic.

Each brought their own style and flavor to the competition, and it was great to see well-established names like Byron Walden, Evan Birnholz, Kameron Austin Collins, and the dynamite duo of Doug Peterson and Angela Olson Halsted mixed with newer names to the field like Mollie Cowger and Quiara Vasquez.

All in all, I enjoyed the Fall Themeless League. (Although I was more comfortable with the solving interface and I had a better handle on themeless solving, given that this was my third go-around, I still felt like a rookie tackling the Stormy-level clues.)

I think when the Spring Themeless League rolls around, I’ll try Stormy again. Now that I have a baseline to compare it to, I’d like to see how I can improve.

And with the promise of future Boswords-hosted events in 2022 like the Winter Wondersolve event on February 6th and the Spring Themeless League, it’s nice to have exciting puzzle events to look forward to in the near future.

They’ve already announced the teams for each! The Winter Wondersolve will be constructed by Kate Chin Park, Christina Iverson, Adesina Koiki, and Matthew Stock.

The Spring Themeless League will be handled by Adam Aaronson, Wendy L. Brandes, Katja Brinck, Julian Lim, Frank Longo, the team of Sophia Maymudes & Kyra Wilson, Ada Nicolle, Robyn Weintraub, and one constructor to be named later.

(Yup, a mystery constructor. They’re actually selecting them based on an open submission process, the details of which will be announced tomorrow, Wednesday 12/8! How cool is that?)

Kudos to everyone who helped bring this marvelous project together, and kudos to everyone who participated. It was tough, but also a great deal of fun.

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