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fauxkloreMoving on from the end of March into April, I took the train up to Stamford, CT on March 30th to go to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Because I had made my hotel reservation a little bit late, I couldn’t get the ACPT rate for the second night, so I actually had two separate reservations. Fortunately, the Stanford Marriott kept me in the same room, but I had to check out and check back in (at a higher cost) on Saturday. That was still easier than staying at the overflow hotel.
The attendance this year was a record high, with 774 competitors. That meant things were crowded and I know there were people there who I’d have liked to hang out with but never saw. Friday night activities started with a presentation on Anigrams, a new puzzle game by Adam Wagner, and a brief competition. That was followed by a talk by Mick Hodgkin, the puzzles editor at the Times of London, again followed by a competition. I went with the option that had the definition part of the clue highlighted, which did make the puzzle somewhat easier. Despite that, I didn’t quite finish the whole thing, but I did know a few things that the people around me didn’t. (Specifically, 15 Across was right in my bailiwick.) Then there was a choice of variety puzzles to do, which I have to admit I remember which two I did, nor do I remember what the other two I didn’t do were. (Well, one was probably a Split Decision, which is a puzzle type I’ve never really cared for.) I do remember that the Spiral (a puzzle type I do like) didn’t show up until later.
There was the traditional Friday night wine and cheese reception. Remember my mentioning that things were crowded? Well, there were too many people packed into a smallish area for my comfort, even with a mask on, so I didn’t stay long. The only particular conversation I remember was having was Francis Heaney asking me about next year’s total solar eclipse. (That wasn’t a random subject. I had given Francis and Lorinne eclipse glasses back in 2017.)
The actual competition started on Saturday morning. As I’ve done in the past, I will rot13 any spoilers. I’ll also note that I went to the overflow ballroom downstairs, which has better lighting and is a bit quieter. It still felt very crowded.
The first puzzle got handed out and it looked rather odd. I quickly realized exactly what the gimmick was. All of the answers were “BLANK.” But how to enter that in the grid? Fortunately, Will Shortz announced “April Fools” before I had to try to suss that out.
Puzzle #1 was by Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels. It was the sort of puzzle one can solve without even noticing the theme (though I did see what was going on). I solved in cleanly in 6 minutes. That’s not too shabby, but the top competitors solve it in 2 or 3 minutes, and I still don’t really understand how their paper doesn’t catch on fire from the friction of writing so fast.
Puzzle #2 was by Joel Fagliano. I understood the theme right off, but didn’t find it very satisfying. (See spoiler below.) I solved it cleanly in 14 minutes, which felt a bit slow.
I was happy to see that Puzzle #3 was constructed by Mike Shenk. His themes can be complex, but they are consistently strong. (See spoiler below.) It took me 17 minutes, with a little slow-down on a few non-theme answers. And there went my clean solve for the day. Even though I thought I checked over the grid 7 or 8 times, I still somehow managed to leave a square blank. Gack! Clever theme, anyway.
After the lunch break, we resumed with Puzzle #4, by Christine Iverson, which was straightforward. The theme answers were not particularly tricky and I solved it cleanly in 9 minutes.
And then there was the dreaded Puzzle #5. This year’s torturer was Sam Ezersky. I more or less grasped the theme, though I missed one aspect of it. (See spoiler below.) There was also a fair amount of fill I found difficult. I ended up leaving the northeast corner and the eastern part of the middle incomplete. It’s always a minor consolation to see how many other people are still in the room at the end.
Saturday finished off with Puzzle #6, which serves to restore people’s feelings of confidence. This was an enjoyable and fairly simple puzzle by Lynn Lempel. I was a bit slow on it, at 13 minutes.
The Saturday night activities included two trivia contests. The first was a True/False one that went on a bit longer than I’d have liked. The second one, by Stan Newman, was a team event. Christine, Ric, and I did reasonably well, but had a couple of answers we didn’t know, so we lost to the people who got everything (including a bonus answer) correct. Then came the presentation of the Merl Reagle MEmoRiaL award, which went to Rich Norris this year.
The competition ended (for most of us) with Puzzle #7 on Sunday morning. This one was by Robyn Weintraub and was reasonably straightforward. I solved it cleanly in 22 minutes, which is a little slower than I’d hoped for, but so be it.
There’s a talent show, which basically kills time until the scoring is complete and the finalists are determined. Prizes were given out and then the top 3 contestants in the C, B and A divisions competed on Puzzle #8, which was a very difficult one by Kameron Austin Collins. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know things like the first name of the first democratically elected prime minister of Hungary. Dan Feyer triumphed in the A finals over Paolo Pasco by seconds, with Tyler Hinman ending up third. (Jenn Lafleur won the B finals and Matthew Lufer the C finals. I should note that all three divisions use the same grid, but with different clues. All three sets of clues had the Hungarian prime minister in them.)
In the end, I finished 301st out of 774, which is the 61st percentile. So, pretty much middle of the pack. To compare, here's how I did every time I’ve competed:
2009 – 265 / 654 (55th percentile)
2012 – 241 / 594 (59th percentile)
2014 – 202 / 580 (65th percentile)
2016 – 171 / 576 (70th percentile)
2017 – 141 / 619 (77th percentile)
2018 – 254 / 674 (62nd percentile)
2019 – 220 / 741 (70th percentile)
2022 - 243 / 474 (49th percentile)
2023 - 301 / 774 (61st percentile)
At least I did better than last year. (I suspect that having gotten new glasses helped quite a lot, by the way.) And I did have a good time, though the crowds were a bit much.
For some other useless statistics, I finished 173rd out of 640 in the C through E division rankings, 55th out of 142 for contestants in their 60’s, and 59th out of 123 in the mid-Atlantic region. Essentially, I continue to be middle of the pack.
Note that I will miss next year’s tournament. It’s scheduled for April 5-7th and there’s a total solar eclipse on the 8th which I am planning to see.
Spoilers
Puzzle # 2: Rnpu bs gur gurzr nafjre vaibyirq n cnve bs anzrf. Zl vffhr vf gung V gubhtug gur jbeqcynl va znxvat gurz svg gur pyhrf jnf jrnx. Sbe rknzcyr, 12Q nfxrq sbe gur gjb ncg sevraqf gb "fcraq gvzr ng gur pnfvab," naq gur nafjre jnf PUVC NAQ BJRA. Oynu.
Puzzle #3: Gur gurzr nafjref vaibyirq ercynpvat yrggref va snzvyvne cuenfrf jvgu gurve rdhvinyrag va gur ANGB cubargvp nycunorg gb trg na nafre jvgu nccebcevngr jbeqcynl. N tbbq rknzcyr jnf 58N jurer gur pyhr "gbcf sbe svrel qnapvat" lvryqrq GNATB FUVEGF, n cynl ba g-fuvegf.
Ol gur jnl, Ynherapr Oybpx hfrq gur fnzr pbaprcg gb unir Oreavr Eubqraonee znxr hc gvgyrf sbe Fhr Tensgba abiryf, r.t. S vf sbe Fgbc.
Puzzle #5: Gur erirnyre (ng 75N) fnvq "SBBYF EHFU VA." V pbeerpgyl haqrefgbbq gung guvf zrnag gung n jbeq zrnavat "SBBY" fubhyq or nqqrq nf cneg bs rnpu nafjre. V qvqa'g ragveryl ernyvmr gung gur nqqrq jbeq pbhyq or naljurer va gur nafjre, fvapr zbfg bs gur svefg srj V fnj jrer nqqrq ng gur ortvaavat, r.t. 18N jnf pyhrq ng "pbjneqyl" jvgu gur nafjre "WREX PUVPXRA." Gung qvqa'g uryc zr trg gung 47N (pyhrq nf KKK) jnf "PUNFFVF" (v.r. PUVF, jvgu NFF nqqrq va gur zvqqyr.) Bhpu.
The attendance this year was a record high, with 774 competitors. That meant things were crowded and I know there were people there who I’d have liked to hang out with but never saw. Friday night activities started with a presentation on Anigrams, a new puzzle game by Adam Wagner, and a brief competition. That was followed by a talk by Mick Hodgkin, the puzzles editor at the Times of London, again followed by a competition. I went with the option that had the definition part of the clue highlighted, which did make the puzzle somewhat easier. Despite that, I didn’t quite finish the whole thing, but I did know a few things that the people around me didn’t. (Specifically, 15 Across was right in my bailiwick.) Then there was a choice of variety puzzles to do, which I have to admit I remember which two I did, nor do I remember what the other two I didn’t do were. (Well, one was probably a Split Decision, which is a puzzle type I’ve never really cared for.) I do remember that the Spiral (a puzzle type I do like) didn’t show up until later.
There was the traditional Friday night wine and cheese reception. Remember my mentioning that things were crowded? Well, there were too many people packed into a smallish area for my comfort, even with a mask on, so I didn’t stay long. The only particular conversation I remember was having was Francis Heaney asking me about next year’s total solar eclipse. (That wasn’t a random subject. I had given Francis and Lorinne eclipse glasses back in 2017.)
The actual competition started on Saturday morning. As I’ve done in the past, I will rot13 any spoilers. I’ll also note that I went to the overflow ballroom downstairs, which has better lighting and is a bit quieter. It still felt very crowded.
The first puzzle got handed out and it looked rather odd. I quickly realized exactly what the gimmick was. All of the answers were “BLANK.” But how to enter that in the grid? Fortunately, Will Shortz announced “April Fools” before I had to try to suss that out.
Puzzle #1 was by Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels. It was the sort of puzzle one can solve without even noticing the theme (though I did see what was going on). I solved in cleanly in 6 minutes. That’s not too shabby, but the top competitors solve it in 2 or 3 minutes, and I still don’t really understand how their paper doesn’t catch on fire from the friction of writing so fast.
Puzzle #2 was by Joel Fagliano. I understood the theme right off, but didn’t find it very satisfying. (See spoiler below.) I solved it cleanly in 14 minutes, which felt a bit slow.
I was happy to see that Puzzle #3 was constructed by Mike Shenk. His themes can be complex, but they are consistently strong. (See spoiler below.) It took me 17 minutes, with a little slow-down on a few non-theme answers. And there went my clean solve for the day. Even though I thought I checked over the grid 7 or 8 times, I still somehow managed to leave a square blank. Gack! Clever theme, anyway.
After the lunch break, we resumed with Puzzle #4, by Christine Iverson, which was straightforward. The theme answers were not particularly tricky and I solved it cleanly in 9 minutes.
And then there was the dreaded Puzzle #5. This year’s torturer was Sam Ezersky. I more or less grasped the theme, though I missed one aspect of it. (See spoiler below.) There was also a fair amount of fill I found difficult. I ended up leaving the northeast corner and the eastern part of the middle incomplete. It’s always a minor consolation to see how many other people are still in the room at the end.
Saturday finished off with Puzzle #6, which serves to restore people’s feelings of confidence. This was an enjoyable and fairly simple puzzle by Lynn Lempel. I was a bit slow on it, at 13 minutes.
The Saturday night activities included two trivia contests. The first was a True/False one that went on a bit longer than I’d have liked. The second one, by Stan Newman, was a team event. Christine, Ric, and I did reasonably well, but had a couple of answers we didn’t know, so we lost to the people who got everything (including a bonus answer) correct. Then came the presentation of the Merl Reagle MEmoRiaL award, which went to Rich Norris this year.
The competition ended (for most of us) with Puzzle #7 on Sunday morning. This one was by Robyn Weintraub and was reasonably straightforward. I solved it cleanly in 22 minutes, which is a little slower than I’d hoped for, but so be it.
There’s a talent show, which basically kills time until the scoring is complete and the finalists are determined. Prizes were given out and then the top 3 contestants in the C, B and A divisions competed on Puzzle #8, which was a very difficult one by Kameron Austin Collins. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know things like the first name of the first democratically elected prime minister of Hungary. Dan Feyer triumphed in the A finals over Paolo Pasco by seconds, with Tyler Hinman ending up third. (Jenn Lafleur won the B finals and Matthew Lufer the C finals. I should note that all three divisions use the same grid, but with different clues. All three sets of clues had the Hungarian prime minister in them.)
In the end, I finished 301st out of 774, which is the 61st percentile. So, pretty much middle of the pack. To compare, here's how I did every time I’ve competed:
2009 – 265 / 654 (55th percentile)
2012 – 241 / 594 (59th percentile)
2014 – 202 / 580 (65th percentile)
2016 – 171 / 576 (70th percentile)
2017 – 141 / 619 (77th percentile)
2018 – 254 / 674 (62nd percentile)
2019 – 220 / 741 (70th percentile)
2022 - 243 / 474 (49th percentile)
2023 - 301 / 774 (61st percentile)
At least I did better than last year. (I suspect that having gotten new glasses helped quite a lot, by the way.) And I did have a good time, though the crowds were a bit much.
For some other useless statistics, I finished 173rd out of 640 in the C through E division rankings, 55th out of 142 for contestants in their 60’s, and 59th out of 123 in the mid-Atlantic region. Essentially, I continue to be middle of the pack.
Note that I will miss next year’s tournament. It’s scheduled for April 5-7th and there’s a total solar eclipse on the 8th which I am planning to see.
Spoilers
Puzzle # 2: Rnpu bs gur gurzr nafjre vaibyirq n cnve bs anzrf. Zl vffhr vf gung V gubhtug gur jbeqcynl va znxvat gurz svg gur pyhrf jnf jrnx. Sbe rknzcyr, 12Q nfxrq sbe gur gjb ncg sevraqf gb "fcraq gvzr ng gur pnfvab," naq gur nafjre jnf PUVC NAQ BJRA. Oynu.
Puzzle #3: Gur gurzr nafjref vaibyirq ercynpvat yrggref va snzvyvne cuenfrf jvgu gurve rdhvinyrag va gur ANGB cubargvp nycunorg gb trg na nafre jvgu nccebcevngr jbeqcynl. N tbbq rknzcyr jnf 58N jurer gur pyhr "gbcf sbe svrel qnapvat" lvryqrq GNATB FUVEGF, n cynl ba g-fuvegf.
Ol gur jnl, Ynherapr Oybpx hfrq gur fnzr pbaprcg gb unir Oreavr Eubqraonee znxr hc gvgyrf sbe Fhr Tensgba abiryf, r.t. S vf sbe Fgbc.
Puzzle #5: Gur erirnyre (ng 75N) fnvq "SBBYF EHFU VA." V pbeerpgyl haqrefgbbq gung guvf zrnag gung n jbeq zrnavat "SBBY" fubhyq or nqqrq nf cneg bs rnpu nafjre. V qvqa'g ragveryl ernyvmr gung gur nqqrq jbeq pbhyq or naljurer va gur nafjre, fvapr zbfg bs gur svefg srj V fnj jrer nqqrq ng gur ortvaavat, r.t. 18N jnf pyhrq ng "pbjneqyl" jvgu gur nafjre "WREX PUVPXRA." Gung qvqa'g uryc zr trg gung 47N (pyhrq nf KKK) jnf "PUNFFVF" (v.r. PUVF, jvgu NFF nqqrq va gur zvqqyr.) Bhpu.
