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Delving into the 2026 Boswords Winter Wondersolve Puzzles!

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Tuesday night was my first chance to sit down and try my hand at the puzzles from this year’s Winter Wondersolve event. Given the talent involved amongst the organizers and constructors — as well as the always-reliable puzzles featured in previous Boswords-hosted events — I had high expectations, and I was not disappointed.

So let’s put those puzzles under the microscope and see what’s what!

Warm-Up: Opening Kickoff by John Lieb

Perennial Boswords warm-up puzzle master Mr. Lieb delivers a terrific puzzle to knock any ring rust off of solvers with this 16×11 football-shaped grid.

With both teams competing in this year’s Super Bowl (as well as one team’s coach) in the grid, the theme is on point and the smart construction makes this puzzle so accessible. It’s a first-class starter for a day of solving.

My favorite clue was the double use of “Like a haunted house” for both SCARY and EERIE, especially since they were in mirrored spots in the grid.

Puzzle #1: French Twist by Pao Roy

The tournament proper launched with this 15x grid that relied on pronunciation as much as wordplay, adding an “eh” sound to established phrases, like PURE NONSENSE becoming PUREE NONSENSE or SNAIL MAIL becoming SNAIL MELEE.

I appreciate a puzzle that takes you out of the traditional solving experience, so the fact that I had to say each theme entry aloud to get the most out of the solve was great fun. Add in the tight construction and you’ve got a strong opener on your hands.

Interesting grid entries included THE FONZ, HARISSA, TUMBLR, and DEEP CUTS, and my favorite clue was “Only Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee to win a National Book Award (for her memoir “Just Kids”)” for PATTI SMITH. I learned something in this puzzle!

Puzzle #2: Pandora’s Box by Wendy L. Brandes

Puzzle #2 was only a half-step or so tougher than Puzzle #1, remaining very solver friendly while still peppered with some great vocabulary.

This 16×17 grid had a marvelous visual element, with some of the bad things contained in Pandora’s Box literally escaping from their rows and longer entries, so CIVIC ENGAGEMENT only read CIVNGAGEMENT, as the rest of VICE was spelled out in the circled letters above.

With HOPE remaining in the box in the final themed entry, this puzzle’s beautifully visual style nicely encapsulated the classic myth. My favorite puzzle of the day!

Interesting grid entries included STRIATED, ENRON, USER FEES, and AMATEURISH, and my favorite clue was “Name contained in a wedding registry?” for GREG.

Puzzle #3: Skipping a Grade by Adam Aaronson (or dm ronson, perhaps?)

The most devious puzzle of the day belongs to Adam Aaronson, as this 16×17 grid featured theme entries where all of the As have been removed from phrases, turning BLACKSABBATH into BLCKSBBTH. With six theme entries plus the revealer STRAIGHT A’S, this grid was packed!

And it’s hard to deny the absolute insanity of writing FLLLLLLLL for “Refrain in a Christmas carol.” An unforgettable puzzly moment, to be sure.

Interesting grid entries included BEAN BAG CHAIR, RIZZLER, I’LL SUE, and CULT HIT, and my favorite clue was “India is in its alphabet, but not in it” for NATO.

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Puzzle #4: Themeless by Amanda Rafkin and Amie Walker

The tournament concludes with the toughest puzzle of the day, a 15x themeless grid with an S-shaped grid pattern that created a genuine flow while solving.

Two sets of clues were offered for the final puzzle — FLURRY clues on the easier side (approximately a NYT Wednesday level) and BLIZZARD clues on the tougher side of the spectrum (approximately a NYT weekend level) — but both offered their fair share of challenges for solvers of all skill levels.

I have gained a new appreciation for themeless puzzles over the last few years (in no small part thanks to Boswords’s seasonal themeless leagues), and this one was a highlight, for sure. Great long entries, fun fill, and really smart construction made the final challenge of the day a very satisfying solve.

Interesting grid entries included WHITE LIE, STRAY CAT, SCRAP PAPER, TARGETED AD, and THERE THERE. Both the easier and tougher sets of clues had some gems, so I’ll list them separately below:

FLURRY clues:

  • “Brass fastener, as in a kid’s model skeleton” for BRAD (love the specificity!)
  • “Ball culture affirmative” for YAS
  • ‘”You can totally pull off a Mariah Carey song at karaoke tonight,’ probably” for WHITE LIE
  • “Wool whose name becomes a country if you change one letter” for ANGORA

BLIZZARD clues:

  • “Draft pick?” for SCRAP PAPER
  • “Twosome in ‘Waiting for Godot'” for ACTS
  • “Whopper Jr.?” for WHITE LIE
  • “It might be right up your alley” for STRAY CAT

This year’s tournament felt like the perfect introduction to tournament-style solving and puzzles for a newbie competitor, and the wide array of themes, cluing, and grid entry vocabulary kept me engaged throughout the entire solve.

The cluing this year was topnotch, and I laughed out loud several times at the clever linguistic trickery on display.

Boswords events aren’t about difficulty, they’re about the joy of crossword solving and wordplay and all the delights that come with filling in these black-and-white grids, and this year’s Winter Wondersolve was no exception.

It’s the right mix of challenge and creativity for solvers accustomed to NYT-style solving, and I think the constructors and organizers did one heck of a job putting together the event. A hearty tip-of-the-hat to the hardworking puzzlers for pulling this all off!

I can’t wait to see what they cook up for us next.

And speaking of, the Boswords 2026 Spring Themeless League is coming soon! A weekly tournament that happens every Monday night from 9-10 pm Eastern in March and April (with a bonus livestream hangout!), the Spring Themeless League is the kind of community puzzly joy that is always welcome.

Registration for the event opens Saturday, February 15th, and they’ve already announced a killer’s row of constructors (in addition to the spot for the winner of their open submission contest).

This year’s line-up includes Kareem Ayas, Michael Berg, Malaika Handa, Katie Hoody, Rafael Musa, Jess Shulman, Byron Walden, and Stella Zawistowski.

Check out the Boswords website for full details!

Thanks for solving with me today. Did you tackle the challenge of the Winter Wondersolve, or will you be participating in this year’s Spring Themeless League? Let me know in the comments section below, I’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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A Women’s March for Crosswords

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For years now, we’ve been discussing the gender gap in crossword construction and representation of women in published outlets. Heck, in 2018, we even shared detailed statistics on the percentage of women published by major outlets, thanks to the research of Patti Varol and Erik Agard.

Since then, we’ve seen projects like The Inkubator and Women of Letters highlighting female constructors, and there’s been a concentrated effort in the puzzle community (if not the major outlets) to support, foster, and cultivate more minority voices in crosswords.

And this month in particular has seen three different projects dedicated to female constructors come to fruition. Although many voices have been involved in these efforts, a huge chunk of the credit definitely belongs to constructor Rebecca Falcon, who pushed for outlets to publish only female constructors for an entire month.

The goal? A Women’s March.

The Wall Street Journal sought to meet Falcon’s request, but they didn’t have enough submitted puzzles to do so. They did do a week of female-constructed puzzles, though, including the traditional Friday contest puzzle with a meta solution, constructed by Joanne Sullivan.

Users of The New York Times Crossword app can also enjoy the fruits of these creative labors, as a Women’s History Month pack of 20 puzzles is available through both the App Store and Google Play as an in-app purchase! This project, accomplished in partnership with The Inkubator, features puzzles by Rebecca Falcon, Joanne Sullivan, Stella Zawistowski, Wendy L. Brandes, Rachel Fabi, Juliana Tringali, Annemarie Brethauer, Martha Jones, Wyna Liu, and Mary Lou Guizzo.

And it should come as no surprise that the ambitious and well-connected David Steinberg, editor of the Universal Crossword, succeeded in amassing the talent necessary for a full Women’s March.

As David said in the FB post announcing the project:

Each of the 36 Universal Crosswords this month has been constructed by a different woman or pair of women, and—to my knowledge—10 of the puzzles will be their constructors’ world debuts! Some of the puzzles’ themes are easy, some are a bit tricky, and a few are unlike anything I’ve seen in all my years of editing. One thing I noticed across all the March puzzles, though, was a refreshing woman-centric voice, both in the clues and grids.

Women’s March will continue into April for a few days, since so many women submitted excellent puzzles that the original 36 slots I’d allocated weren’t enough. As I see it, this event is not so much a Women’s March as the beginning of a Universal Crossword Women’s Movement, and I hope the puzzles this month inspire more women to construct for Universal as well as for other markets.

Andrew McMeels Universal put together a graphic celebrating all of the women involved in the project:

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It’s so cool to see so many deserving constructors represented, not to mention all of the newcomers to the puzzle community! Here’s hoping that Women’s March is the start of equal puzzle representation across the board. That would be something truly special.

Are you aware of any other crossword outlets participating in Women’s March, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers? Let us know in the comments section! We’d love to hear from you AND spread the word!

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