Happy New Year! Here's Cryptic #7 for your puzzling enjoyment.
Ready to start another year of Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle! The first Rows Garden of Year 6 will be sent later tonight. Have you subscribed yet? If not, do so now - the 1-Year Bundle special is only valid through tonight.
Here's hoping for better things in 2019!
Aries Cryptic #7 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #7 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #7 - SOLUTION
Intro to Cryptics Guide - PDF
Monday, December 31, 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
Aries Cryptic #6
Back again for Cryptic #6! I'm particularly curious what the solver reaction will be to the clue for 17-Down in this puzzle. Did I throw a strike with this one, or is it more of a wild pitch? :)
Reminder that Subscriptions for Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle are open! The 10% off 1-Year Bundle special is still good through the end of the year. Aries Cryptic will remain free for 2019, with the same bi-weekly Monday posting schedule planned.
Happy solving!
Aries Cryptic #6 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #6 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #6 - SOLUTION
Intro to Cryptics Guide - PDF
Reminder that Subscriptions for Aries Rows Garden and Aries Freestyle are open! The 10% off 1-Year Bundle special is still good through the end of the year. Aries Cryptic will remain free for 2019, with the same bi-weekly Monday posting schedule planned.
Happy solving!
Aries Cryptic #6 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #6 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #6 - SOLUTION
Intro to Cryptics Guide - PDF
Monday, December 3, 2018
Aries Cryptic #5
Back again for Cryptic #5! There are a couple of clues I particularly like in this one, especially 1-Across. I happened upon the definitional part a while back and I've been waiting to make use of it; fortunately the wordplay part lent itself to a decent surface reading. Being a big Bob Dylan fan, the clue for 22-Across kinda wrote itself once I stared at the entry long enough.
Subscriptions are now open for Rows Gardens and Freestyles (weekly puzzles starting January 1st!). For more info and to subscribe, click here.
Also, cryptic fans ought to be aware of Patrick Berry's latest installment of The Crypt - I'm currently solving the puzzles, slowly but steadily, savoring every bit of cryptic goodness. Get it while it's hot! And the first two Crypts if you haven't already.
Happy solving!
Cryptic #5 - PUZ
Cryptic #5 - PDF
Cryptic #5 - Solution
Intro to Cryptics - PDF
Subscriptions are now open for Rows Gardens and Freestyles (weekly puzzles starting January 1st!). For more info and to subscribe, click here.
Also, cryptic fans ought to be aware of Patrick Berry's latest installment of The Crypt - I'm currently solving the puzzles, slowly but steadily, savoring every bit of cryptic goodness. Get it while it's hot! And the first two Crypts if you haven't already.
Happy solving!
Cryptic #5 - PUZ
Cryptic #5 - PDF
Cryptic #5 - Solution
Intro to Cryptics - PDF
Monday, November 19, 2018
Aries Cryptic #4
Thanks for the feedback regarding "Slasher Film"! Back to a standard block cryptic this week, 13x13 in size. Hope you enjoy!
ICYMI - last week I released my latest crossword EP, called STRETCH. It's a collection of eight oversized themeless puzzles featuring stretched-out rectangular grids. For more info and to purchase, click here.
Cryptic #4 - PUZ
Cryptic #4 - PDF
Cryptic #4 - Solution
Intro to Cryptics - PDF
ICYMI - last week I released my latest crossword EP, called STRETCH. It's a collection of eight oversized themeless puzzles featuring stretched-out rectangular grids. For more info and to purchase, click here.
Cryptic #4 - PUZ
Cryptic #4 - PDF
Cryptic #4 - Solution
Intro to Cryptics - PDF
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
STRETCH - A Crossword EP
It's my pleasure to announce the release of STRETCH, a crossword EP! This collection is comprised of eight oversized freestyles all featuring rectangular grids. With grids ranging from 15x19 to 23x15 and between, these crosswords are designed to be a fun challenge - if you've been enjoying Aries Freestyle so far this year, these puzzles are clued at a similarly challenging difficulty level.
STRETCH is on sale for just $5! For more details and to purchase, click here.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Aries Cryptic #3
Back again with the first variety Aries Cryptic, titled "Slasher Film." This puzzle is PDF-only, and is offered in two versions: one with full enumerations, and one with no Down enumerations, which is a more challenging version. If you're an experienced cryptic solver like myself, I'd recommend solving the harder version. If you're newer to cryptics, or especially if you're new to variety cryptics, I'd recommend solving with the full enumerations. Hope you enjoy!
Aries Cryptic #3 - Harder version (no Down enumerations) - PDF
Aries Cryptic #3 - Full enumerations - PDF
Aries Cryptic #3 - Solution - PDF
Intro to Cryptics - PDF
P.S. Thanks for the feedback regarding the split six-letter answer in last week's grid. I'll avoid splitting them in the future; ultimately I just think it will be easier (and will save future confusion) to use three-letter entries in cryptics. I'll keep those to a minimum - zero ideally, and two at most in a grid.
Aries Cryptic #3 - Harder version (no Down enumerations) - PDF
Aries Cryptic #3 - Full enumerations - PDF
Aries Cryptic #3 - Solution - PDF
Intro to Cryptics - PDF
P.S. Thanks for the feedback regarding the split six-letter answer in last week's grid. I'll avoid splitting them in the future; ultimately I just think it will be easier (and will save future confusion) to use three-letter entries in cryptics. I'll keep those to a minimum - zero ideally, and two at most in a grid.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Aries Cryptic #2
Thanks for the comments regarding the first puzzle! Let's keep it going with Cryptic #2, which is a 13x13 puzzle.
Aries Cryptic #2 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #2 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #2 - Solution
Introduction to Cryptic Crosswords - PDF
A note about 9-Across/17-Across in today's puzzle: Treat these two three-letter grid entries as one 6-letter entry, broken up into three-letter chunks. For cryptics, I prefer cluing one 6-letter entry to two 3-letter entries, with the caveat being that both three letter chunks are valid words unrelated to the full 6-letter entry. I'm curious what solvers think of this. Is it too confusing or inelegant? Would cluing two separate three-letter entries be preferable to this approach? I just don't like using 3-letter entries in a block cryptic, but I would be okay with them if solvers overwhelmingly preferred them. Feedback is greatly appreciated, as it will help future gridding endeavors.
Happy solving!
Aries Cryptic #2 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #2 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #2 - Solution
Introduction to Cryptic Crosswords - PDF
A note about 9-Across/17-Across in today's puzzle: Treat these two three-letter grid entries as one 6-letter entry, broken up into three-letter chunks. For cryptics, I prefer cluing one 6-letter entry to two 3-letter entries, with the caveat being that both three letter chunks are valid words unrelated to the full 6-letter entry. I'm curious what solvers think of this. Is it too confusing or inelegant? Would cluing two separate three-letter entries be preferable to this approach? I just don't like using 3-letter entries in a block cryptic, but I would be okay with them if solvers overwhelmingly preferred them. Feedback is greatly appreciated, as it will help future gridding endeavors.
Happy solving!
Monday, October 8, 2018
Introducing Aries Cryptic
I'm very excited to announce the launch of a new crossword series, Aries Cryptic! Every other Monday, I'll be posting a free cryptic right here at this site. Most of these will be standard block cryptics, often 11x11 or 13x13, but I also plan on featuring the occasional variety cryptic and Puns & Anagrams, which is a spiritual cousin of the cryptic crossword.
Cryptics can seem like impossible at first glance if you aren't familiar with the cluing conventions that define cryptic crosswords. If you are new to cryptics or struggling to make sense of everything, I've prepared an introductory guide that explains the basics of cryptics:
Introduction to Cryptic Crosswords (PDF)
And here is Cryptic #1, which is an 11x11 grid. The solution page contains explanations of each answer, which is helpful for newer cryptic solvers to better understand how each answer works.
Aries Cryptic #1 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #1 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #1 - Solution
Feedback is very much encouraged, and be sure to tell your cryptically-inclined puzzle friends about the new service. Cryptics have notoriously struggled to gain a large audience in the U.S., and I'd love it if these puzzles turned some solvers into cryptic fans. Above all, I want these puzzles to be fun, challenging, and different - let me know how well I do in that regard.
Happy solving!
-Andrew
Cryptics can seem like impossible at first glance if you aren't familiar with the cluing conventions that define cryptic crosswords. If you are new to cryptics or struggling to make sense of everything, I've prepared an introductory guide that explains the basics of cryptics:
Introduction to Cryptic Crosswords (PDF)
And here is Cryptic #1, which is an 11x11 grid. The solution page contains explanations of each answer, which is helpful for newer cryptic solvers to better understand how each answer works.
Aries Cryptic #1 - PUZ
Aries Cryptic #1 - PDF
Aries Cryptic #1 - Solution
Feedback is very much encouraged, and be sure to tell your cryptically-inclined puzzle friends about the new service. Cryptics have notoriously struggled to gain a large audience in the U.S., and I'd love it if these puzzles turned some solvers into cryptic fans. Above all, I want these puzzles to be fun, challenging, and different - let me know how well I do in that regard.
Happy solving!
-Andrew
Monday, June 4, 2018
OFFICIAL RELEASE: Maverick Crosswords, and June charity drive!
I am proud to announce the official release of Maverick Crosswords! This book is a compilation of 72 puzzles originally published through Aries Xword, which was an email-delivered puzzle service that ran from 2014 to 2017. Edited by Peter Gordon of Sterling Publishing, this spiral-bound book features an equal split of Easy, Medium, and Hard puzzles, mostly themed puzzles but also including a few meta puzzles and freestyles.
The book is available in bookstores nationwide or online through Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
Also, 50% of all purchases and 100% of all tip jar contributions made during June 2018 will be donated to charity! This includes 2018 Subscriptions, Rows Garden Archive and FIVE purchases, as well as items for sale in the Store page such as The Stagger Sessions, a Crossword EP (now discounted at $8). This year, I'll be donating to the American Red Cross. Thanks to all who have subscribed and donated in the past!
The book is available in bookstores nationwide or online through Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
Also, 50% of all purchases and 100% of all tip jar contributions made during June 2018 will be donated to charity! This includes 2018 Subscriptions, Rows Garden Archive and FIVE purchases, as well as items for sale in the Store page such as The Stagger Sessions, a Crossword EP (now discounted at $8). This year, I'll be donating to the American Red Cross. Thanks to all who have subscribed and donated in the past!
Monday, May 7, 2018
Announcing FIVE - A Rows Garden EP
I'm very excited to announce FIVE, a Rows Garden EP. This is a collection of five original Rows Gardens written by yours truly to celebrate the fifth year of Aries Rows Garden. All of the puzzles (including one themed Rows Garden with a meta element) feature a unique twist on the number five. And it's available for just $5!
For more details and to purchase, click here.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
ACPT Recap
I had the great pleasure of traveling to Stamford, Connecticut this year to attend the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. It was my fifth time competing at the ACPT, but my first since 2012, and my first time in Stamford, as my previous four tournaments were held during the Brooklyn Era. I was looking forward to seeing fellow puzzle friends and meeting many more, and to solve some fun puzzles, both during the tournament, and all of the auxiliary puzzle events going on in the hotel. The games in the hotel lobby alone are usually worth attending the tournament, and this year was no exception.
My performance in the actual tournament really wasn't something I prioritized. I've never considered myself a serious speed solver, and I've certainly never "trained" for a crossword tournament. My only goal was to solve all seven puzzles clean, a feat that had alluded me in each of my previous four tournaments. Usually they were dumb, careless mistakes that were made because I prioritized speed over accuracy (except for that ARM/AIM kerfuffle from years ago - I'm still not over that one). The approach of taking the extra care to ensure accuracy, even sacrificing speed bonuses to do so, had done me quite well in last year's Indie 500, my last tournament before this year's ACPT. There I thought I was going deliberately slow - reading every clue, double-checking the grid, etc. - and I wound up 15th overall, mainly on the strength of the 100% clean solving performance. I figured this approach was as good as any other for the ACPT.
My cross-country trip to the tournament went off without any hitches, and I settled into my hotel room on Friday afternoon to watch my beloved St. Cloud State Huskies hockey team once again crap out in the NCAA Tournament, this time in particularly spectacular fashion as the top seed in the country losing to a service academy. Ah, the joys of Minnesota sports. But from then on I had a blast. Lunch with top-flight solver and Aries test-solver extraordinaire David Plotkin; "Celebrity" and "Only Connect" games galore; chatting with fellow Queer Qrosswords constructors like Jenna LaFleur and Tracy Bennett and Finn Vigeland; chatting with fellow full-time puzzle writers and editors like Patti Varol and Brendan Quigley and Evan Birnholz and Sam Ezersky; meeting and chatting with Aries subscribers such as Ken Crowell, Marie desJardins, Arnold Reich, and Jesse Lansner, who would turn out to be B division solving rivals as the weekend progressed.
As for the tournament, my game plan was working well through the first three puzzles. Puzzle 1 was a breeze, and I didn't have time to appreciate the theme while solving, but I did have time to check it over thoroughly. Puzzles 2 and 3 also fell quickly; in both puzzles I had left a square blank that I did catch in my post-solve scan of the grid, so again I was rewarded by taking the extra time to check. In one of these grids (I can't remember which) I had an opportunity to turn in the grid at a time close to the minute mark (if you're unaware, time bonuses at the ACPT are based on full minutes, so turning in a puzzle with 59 seconds remaining in a minute would net you the same time bonus as if you turned it in with one second remaining in the minute). Had I done so, I would have likely missed that blank square, and ended any serious chance of a finals appearance right there.
Puzzle 4 seemed to emerge as the talk of the tournament, and I can see why. I had finished this puzzle and checked it over once, and then still took an additional minute afterwards to confirm that I had sussed the theme out correctly. I was confident in my submitted answer, and it was my interpretation that was initially deemed correct in an announcement from Will Shortz prior to Puzzle 5. The audible groans across the room upon Will's announcement confirmed my hunch that this would create a bit of a controversy.
I want to keep the recap spoiler-free, so what I'll say is this: I think the puzzle is a terrific newspaper puzzle, but an awful tournament puzzle, and the retroactive decision on Sunday morning to give some solvers credit (based on if the judges could "interpret" if the solver fully grasped the theme) is proof that the puzzle is not a good tournament puzzle. I will stress that I believe the theme is clever and certainly the puzzle has a right to exist, but in a tournament setting, the puzzles need to have an unambiguous solution. The door was left open in this case to have multiple correct interpretations of the theme; to me, that's a failure of the puzzle. A failure that would have been a fun talker on the blogs had it run on a Thursday in the Times, for instance; in a tournament setting in which some people (not me, but still) spend a lot of time practicing and expenses to attend, I think it crosses the line into unfair territory. I was glad to hear that the judges overturned the rulings in some cases on Sunday, but at that point it was simply illustrative of the problems that puzzle created. I spoke to one solver Saturday night who was in the "I misinterpreted the theme" camp, and he mentioned the toll it took for him on the rest of the puzzles - he made careless mistakes on Puzzles 5 and 6 because his mind was still preoccupied with the Puzzle 4 fiasco. To be clear - I don't think anyone's trip was ruined or anything by that puzzle, and I still consider it to be a quality puzzle, I just disagree with its usage at a tournament.
So then Puzzle 5 happens. Now, I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I look forward to Puzzle 5. Rather than succumbing to Puzzle 5's demonic reputation, I see it as my biggest opportunity to make headway in the tournament. Most of the puzzles in the tournament are merely speed tests (and as a side note: perhaps this is easy for the 20th-overall me to say this, but I felt the puzzles this year were across the board the easiest among the five ACPTs that I have attended, and easiest by a large degree. This isn't a complaint, just an observation). Puzzle 5, on the other hand, is intended to be the trickiest, and I've always done well on Puzzle 5. I don't believe I've made an error on any Puzzle 5 that I've solved, in fact. I'll be one of the first dozen or two out of the room usually, so I look forward to 5. This year's 5 was pretty great, and while I don't think I flew through it, I got the theme relatively early and solved at a consistent pace throughout. One of the things I do in tournaments is circle the clue numbers of clues that don't make 100% sense as I'm solving. If my spidey sense goes off and I'm unsure of something, I just circle the clue numbers and make sure to focus on those entries when I'm checking the grid after I'm done. This was one puzzle were there were a lot of circled clue numbers! But everything checked out, and Puzzle 5 did for me what it usually does: it gave me a nice bump in the standings.
Puzzle 6 was another speed race, and I frankly don't remember what the theme even was. All I remember was the puzzle contained the diciest entry for me all tournament (rot-13'd: [TEVBGF]. All the crossings were solid, though, and I confirmed the answer with other solvers afterwards. When the scores after 6 were posted, I was third place in the B's, trailing only Ken and Marie, and tied with Jesse, though I owned the tiebreaker at that point. Arnold was within striking distance, and so was Jeff Davidson, a phenomenal computer solver (I'm aware of sub-one minute solving times on Monday Newsdays from Jeff). Jeff had only an outside shot at this point because of his mistake on Puzzle 4. It would have taken a super-human Puzzle 7 performance from Jeff and/or mistakes by multiple solvers ahead of him for Jeff to make the finals. But if anyone could make up time on Puzzle 7, it was Jeff, and as a night owl the early Sunday time for Puzzle 7 was not going to be the ideal solving setting for me. I took comfort in knowing that, at that point, it would have to take a near-miracle for Jeff to complete the comeback.
Like my game plan throughout the tournament, I went into Puzzle 7 just wanting to be clean, and that I was. I thought Patrick Berry's puzzle was the best of the weekend (shocking, I know); a tried-and-true letter addition theme flawlessly executed. There's something to be said of the classic crossword theme done this well - I'd take it over a unique-but-complex envelope-pusher any day of the week, and especially Sunday at the ACPT, apparently. The grid-spanning 21-letter entry induced an actual chuckle from me while solving, which is the crossword equivalent of a show-stopping punchline from your favorite comedian. Even seemingly more "workmanlike" theme entries (rot-13'd: [OYNAQPYNZC]) get a fantastic, minimalist clue: [Boring tool?] Ah, such a wonderful puzzle, singularly worth the price of admission - I almost regret having to solve it so quickly!
Jesse reported to me right after the puzzle that he had made an error on one of the theme entries, which meant that as long as I was clean, I was likely in the finals. Arnold finished a minute behind me, I believe, so he wasn't able to make up the time difference. As it turned out, I probably should have been sweating more during Puzzle 7, because Jeff Davidson got a favorable re-ruling on his Puzzle 4, thus negating his errors and vaunting him up the B standings (CORRECTION: It was Puzzle 3, not Puzzle 4, that Jeff got a re-ruling - see his comments below. -AJR). At the final tally, I edged out Jeff by a mere five points for third place in Bs. He did make up that time by absolutely destroying Puzzle 7; had I played it extra safe and taken one more minute on Puzzle 7 (or any puzzle, for that matter), Jeff would have completed the comeback. I'm glad that I was completely oblivious to all of this until I first checked the final standings at the Newark airport hours later, as any additional pressure I would have put on myself may have caused me to make one of those dumb errors I had made at past tournaments. I had never been in the position where I was in the top 3 before Puzzle 7, so if I ever was going to solve with nerves, it was that day. But, it all turned out well in the end, and Puzzle 8 writer Sam Ezersky gave me the unofficial word in the lobby that I had survived the cut and made the B finals. I openly hoped to Sam that he had seeded his final puzzle with a Pink Floyd reference (we're both huge fans); even if not, I'm usually on Sam's wavelength on a themeless, so I was feeling confident if I did make the stage that I could do fairly well in the final. Sure enough, Will announced the finalists, and I was indeed third, about to face off against Ken and Marie on the big boards.
At this point, I'm playing with house money, essentially; I didn't expect to make the finals of any division, certainly didn't expect to win anything. But now that I've made the finals, I suddenly get an odd adrenaline rush that I haven't felt in a while. If there's a competition going on, I'm going to compete, and I'm a competitive person by nature. The B and A finalists were led down to the basement while the C finals commenced, and I was talking strategy with the other finalists. I had big board experience in the past at the Minnesota Crossword Tournament, and had bombed miserably during both of those finals. Solving on a giant board while standing up, holding the clues in one hand and writing with a marker in the other is a very unnatural thing to do, and I never got the hang of it during the Minnesota tournaments. But I'm glad I had that experience of solving that way before this ACPT performance, as the awkwardness only reduces after you solve in those situations.
Ken and Marie both had time advantages over me, so I started ten seconds behind when the B final began. As I flipped over my clue page, I looked at the first 5-10 clues in the top left and was stumped. Couldn't get anything. Now of course I'm panicking a little, and the ugly memories of those Minnesota tournament finals came flooding back: Oh no, is it happening again? Out of frustration I moved to the top right corner, where I got the 11-Across answer, and from that point on, I felt like everything clicked. Made steady progress through the right half of the grid, then the southwest, before heading back to that initial top left corner which had thoroughly stumped me off the bat. Right around this time I saw out of my peripheral vision that Marie (solving in the center) had finished. If she was clean, she had won. But I've seen errors on the big board before, so I kept chugging along, and eventually the last corner fell, I'd say about a minute after Marie had finished; Ken was still solving when I had completed. In the end, all three of us solved cleanly, so the order of finish was the final order: Marie taking the title, yours truly in second, and Ken in third.
I didn't have a lot of time to soak in the weekend while still in Stamford; I had a rental car to drive to Newark and then a couple of flights to catch. Everything went off without a hitch until United decided to putz around on the tarmac at SFO, and somehow I missed my connection back to Oregon (also a United flight). Zero weather, mechanical issues, gate issues...no apology, for that matter, or even an acknowledgment of any mistake....long story short, it'll be the last time I fly United. But I play it spontaneous and decide to lemonade my way out of a lemon situation. I'd never been in San Francisco before - never stepped foot in California, for that matter. United's incompetence spanned many levels - uncoordinated shuttle buses and worthless food vouchers were the least of the inconveniences they hurled at me Sunday night - but there are far worse places to be marooned for twenty-four hours, and as it turned out I essentially parlayed my $150 prize for 2nd place in the B division into a day trip to Carmel and the Monterey Coast, after the expenses it cost me to get there. Sitting on Pebble Beach watching the sun go down on the Pacific was a pretty good way to wrap up the long weekend. Prett-tay, prett-tay good.
A review of the ACPT wouldn't be complete without mentioning the big winner, and Erik Agard's performance this year was truly one to behold. I had the pleasure of watching Dan Feyer's first four titles in person, and I doubted if I would ever see someone more dominant than Dan in his prime. Tiger-on-a-Sunday dominant. Well, I can safely say that Erik's performance was the most convincing finals stage appearance in the tournaments that I've attended, and talking with more long-time ACPT veterans, that may have been the most impressive tournament in ACPT history. My B finals appearance earned me a promotion into the A division; watching Erik utterly obliterate his fellow stagemates - no slouches themselves, Messrs. Feyer and Plotkin, verily - gives me little reason to think I'll ever see the stage again until I phase back into a B after seven tournaments. But that's nitpicking - it's a treat enough to watch such high-end talent on display. I for one am interested to see what appears to be an elite collection of high-end A talent duking it out for the next several ACPTs. Legends like Dan and Tyler Hinman (4th overall this year) are still prime threats, and then you've got solvers like Francis Heaney and Joon and Stella not making the stage for the sole reason that this field is so stacked. Anne Ellison sat out this year's tournament, for crying out loud. We are witnessing a great era in speed solving to be sure.
That's it I guess - 'til next year! One last thing - I co-hosted a college hockey podcast for the last few years, and on the last episode I discussed the ACPT for a couple of minutes at the end. The majority of the podcast is college hockey-related, and I realize the Venn diagram overlap of "Crosswords" and "College Hockey" is razor-thin, but if you're curious to hear me talk about a bit of my ACPT experience, the crossword chatter starts around the 1:04:30 mark at the link below.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4hmzh-8e31ff.
-Andrew
P.S. Here's the B Finals video. Ken on the left, Marie in the center, and yours truly on the right. Thanks to Matt Ginsberg for recording, and to Jeff Davidson for alerting me to the video.
The crowd for the finals. That's a lotta crossword people. (Photo: Don Christensen) |
My performance in the actual tournament really wasn't something I prioritized. I've never considered myself a serious speed solver, and I've certainly never "trained" for a crossword tournament. My only goal was to solve all seven puzzles clean, a feat that had alluded me in each of my previous four tournaments. Usually they were dumb, careless mistakes that were made because I prioritized speed over accuracy (except for that ARM/AIM kerfuffle from years ago - I'm still not over that one). The approach of taking the extra care to ensure accuracy, even sacrificing speed bonuses to do so, had done me quite well in last year's Indie 500, my last tournament before this year's ACPT. There I thought I was going deliberately slow - reading every clue, double-checking the grid, etc. - and I wound up 15th overall, mainly on the strength of the 100% clean solving performance. I figured this approach was as good as any other for the ACPT.
My cross-country trip to the tournament went off without any hitches, and I settled into my hotel room on Friday afternoon to watch my beloved St. Cloud State Huskies hockey team once again crap out in the NCAA Tournament, this time in particularly spectacular fashion as the top seed in the country losing to a service academy. Ah, the joys of Minnesota sports. But from then on I had a blast. Lunch with top-flight solver and Aries test-solver extraordinaire David Plotkin; "Celebrity" and "Only Connect" games galore; chatting with fellow Queer Qrosswords constructors like Jenna LaFleur and Tracy Bennett and Finn Vigeland; chatting with fellow full-time puzzle writers and editors like Patti Varol and Brendan Quigley and Evan Birnholz and Sam Ezersky; meeting and chatting with Aries subscribers such as Ken Crowell, Marie desJardins, Arnold Reich, and Jesse Lansner, who would turn out to be B division solving rivals as the weekend progressed.
As for the tournament, my game plan was working well through the first three puzzles. Puzzle 1 was a breeze, and I didn't have time to appreciate the theme while solving, but I did have time to check it over thoroughly. Puzzles 2 and 3 also fell quickly; in both puzzles I had left a square blank that I did catch in my post-solve scan of the grid, so again I was rewarded by taking the extra time to check. In one of these grids (I can't remember which) I had an opportunity to turn in the grid at a time close to the minute mark (if you're unaware, time bonuses at the ACPT are based on full minutes, so turning in a puzzle with 59 seconds remaining in a minute would net you the same time bonus as if you turned it in with one second remaining in the minute). Had I done so, I would have likely missed that blank square, and ended any serious chance of a finals appearance right there.
Puzzle 4 seemed to emerge as the talk of the tournament, and I can see why. I had finished this puzzle and checked it over once, and then still took an additional minute afterwards to confirm that I had sussed the theme out correctly. I was confident in my submitted answer, and it was my interpretation that was initially deemed correct in an announcement from Will Shortz prior to Puzzle 5. The audible groans across the room upon Will's announcement confirmed my hunch that this would create a bit of a controversy.
I want to keep the recap spoiler-free, so what I'll say is this: I think the puzzle is a terrific newspaper puzzle, but an awful tournament puzzle, and the retroactive decision on Sunday morning to give some solvers credit (based on if the judges could "interpret" if the solver fully grasped the theme) is proof that the puzzle is not a good tournament puzzle. I will stress that I believe the theme is clever and certainly the puzzle has a right to exist, but in a tournament setting, the puzzles need to have an unambiguous solution. The door was left open in this case to have multiple correct interpretations of the theme; to me, that's a failure of the puzzle. A failure that would have been a fun talker on the blogs had it run on a Thursday in the Times, for instance; in a tournament setting in which some people (not me, but still) spend a lot of time practicing and expenses to attend, I think it crosses the line into unfair territory. I was glad to hear that the judges overturned the rulings in some cases on Sunday, but at that point it was simply illustrative of the problems that puzzle created. I spoke to one solver Saturday night who was in the "I misinterpreted the theme" camp, and he mentioned the toll it took for him on the rest of the puzzles - he made careless mistakes on Puzzles 5 and 6 because his mind was still preoccupied with the Puzzle 4 fiasco. To be clear - I don't think anyone's trip was ruined or anything by that puzzle, and I still consider it to be a quality puzzle, I just disagree with its usage at a tournament.
Is this thing on? The tape player ran out of batteries. (No, really!) (Photo: Don Christensen) |
So then Puzzle 5 happens. Now, I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I look forward to Puzzle 5. Rather than succumbing to Puzzle 5's demonic reputation, I see it as my biggest opportunity to make headway in the tournament. Most of the puzzles in the tournament are merely speed tests (and as a side note: perhaps this is easy for the 20th-overall me to say this, but I felt the puzzles this year were across the board the easiest among the five ACPTs that I have attended, and easiest by a large degree. This isn't a complaint, just an observation). Puzzle 5, on the other hand, is intended to be the trickiest, and I've always done well on Puzzle 5. I don't believe I've made an error on any Puzzle 5 that I've solved, in fact. I'll be one of the first dozen or two out of the room usually, so I look forward to 5. This year's 5 was pretty great, and while I don't think I flew through it, I got the theme relatively early and solved at a consistent pace throughout. One of the things I do in tournaments is circle the clue numbers of clues that don't make 100% sense as I'm solving. If my spidey sense goes off and I'm unsure of something, I just circle the clue numbers and make sure to focus on those entries when I'm checking the grid after I'm done. This was one puzzle were there were a lot of circled clue numbers! But everything checked out, and Puzzle 5 did for me what it usually does: it gave me a nice bump in the standings.
Puzzle 6 was another speed race, and I frankly don't remember what the theme even was. All I remember was the puzzle contained the diciest entry for me all tournament (rot-13'd: [TEVBGF]. All the crossings were solid, though, and I confirmed the answer with other solvers afterwards. When the scores after 6 were posted, I was third place in the B's, trailing only Ken and Marie, and tied with Jesse, though I owned the tiebreaker at that point. Arnold was within striking distance, and so was Jeff Davidson, a phenomenal computer solver (I'm aware of sub-one minute solving times on Monday Newsdays from Jeff). Jeff had only an outside shot at this point because of his mistake on Puzzle 4. It would have taken a super-human Puzzle 7 performance from Jeff and/or mistakes by multiple solvers ahead of him for Jeff to make the finals. But if anyone could make up time on Puzzle 7, it was Jeff, and as a night owl the early Sunday time for Puzzle 7 was not going to be the ideal solving setting for me. I took comfort in knowing that, at that point, it would have to take a near-miracle for Jeff to complete the comeback.
Like my game plan throughout the tournament, I went into Puzzle 7 just wanting to be clean, and that I was. I thought Patrick Berry's puzzle was the best of the weekend (shocking, I know); a tried-and-true letter addition theme flawlessly executed. There's something to be said of the classic crossword theme done this well - I'd take it over a unique-but-complex envelope-pusher any day of the week, and especially Sunday at the ACPT, apparently. The grid-spanning 21-letter entry induced an actual chuckle from me while solving, which is the crossword equivalent of a show-stopping punchline from your favorite comedian. Even seemingly more "workmanlike" theme entries (rot-13'd: [OYNAQPYNZC]) get a fantastic, minimalist clue: [Boring tool?] Ah, such a wonderful puzzle, singularly worth the price of admission - I almost regret having to solve it so quickly!
Jesse reported to me right after the puzzle that he had made an error on one of the theme entries, which meant that as long as I was clean, I was likely in the finals. Arnold finished a minute behind me, I believe, so he wasn't able to make up the time difference. As it turned out, I probably should have been sweating more during Puzzle 7, because Jeff Davidson got a favorable re-ruling on his Puzzle 4, thus negating his errors and vaunting him up the B standings (CORRECTION: It was Puzzle 3, not Puzzle 4, that Jeff got a re-ruling - see his comments below. -AJR). At the final tally, I edged out Jeff by a mere five points for third place in Bs. He did make up that time by absolutely destroying Puzzle 7; had I played it extra safe and taken one more minute on Puzzle 7 (or any puzzle, for that matter), Jeff would have completed the comeback. I'm glad that I was completely oblivious to all of this until I first checked the final standings at the Newark airport hours later, as any additional pressure I would have put on myself may have caused me to make one of those dumb errors I had made at past tournaments. I had never been in the position where I was in the top 3 before Puzzle 7, so if I ever was going to solve with nerves, it was that day. But, it all turned out well in the end, and Puzzle 8 writer Sam Ezersky gave me the unofficial word in the lobby that I had survived the cut and made the B finals. I openly hoped to Sam that he had seeded his final puzzle with a Pink Floyd reference (we're both huge fans); even if not, I'm usually on Sam's wavelength on a themeless, so I was feeling confident if I did make the stage that I could do fairly well in the final. Sure enough, Will announced the finalists, and I was indeed third, about to face off against Ken and Marie on the big boards.
The look of intensity. Not quite Pete Rose-intense, but close. (Photo: Don Christensen) |
At this point, I'm playing with house money, essentially; I didn't expect to make the finals of any division, certainly didn't expect to win anything. But now that I've made the finals, I suddenly get an odd adrenaline rush that I haven't felt in a while. If there's a competition going on, I'm going to compete, and I'm a competitive person by nature. The B and A finalists were led down to the basement while the C finals commenced, and I was talking strategy with the other finalists. I had big board experience in the past at the Minnesota Crossword Tournament, and had bombed miserably during both of those finals. Solving on a giant board while standing up, holding the clues in one hand and writing with a marker in the other is a very unnatural thing to do, and I never got the hang of it during the Minnesota tournaments. But I'm glad I had that experience of solving that way before this ACPT performance, as the awkwardness only reduces after you solve in those situations.
Ken and Marie both had time advantages over me, so I started ten seconds behind when the B final began. As I flipped over my clue page, I looked at the first 5-10 clues in the top left and was stumped. Couldn't get anything. Now of course I'm panicking a little, and the ugly memories of those Minnesota tournament finals came flooding back: Oh no, is it happening again? Out of frustration I moved to the top right corner, where I got the 11-Across answer, and from that point on, I felt like everything clicked. Made steady progress through the right half of the grid, then the southwest, before heading back to that initial top left corner which had thoroughly stumped me off the bat. Right around this time I saw out of my peripheral vision that Marie (solving in the center) had finished. If she was clean, she had won. But I've seen errors on the big board before, so I kept chugging along, and eventually the last corner fell, I'd say about a minute after Marie had finished; Ken was still solving when I had completed. In the end, all three of us solved cleanly, so the order of finish was the final order: Marie taking the title, yours truly in second, and Ken in third.
Area man (left) and 2018 ACPT "B" Division 2nd Place Finisher Andrew J. Ries (right). (Photo: Don Christensen) |
I didn't have a lot of time to soak in the weekend while still in Stamford; I had a rental car to drive to Newark and then a couple of flights to catch. Everything went off without a hitch until United decided to putz around on the tarmac at SFO, and somehow I missed my connection back to Oregon (also a United flight). Zero weather, mechanical issues, gate issues...no apology, for that matter, or even an acknowledgment of any mistake....long story short, it'll be the last time I fly United. But I play it spontaneous and decide to lemonade my way out of a lemon situation. I'd never been in San Francisco before - never stepped foot in California, for that matter. United's incompetence spanned many levels - uncoordinated shuttle buses and worthless food vouchers were the least of the inconveniences they hurled at me Sunday night - but there are far worse places to be marooned for twenty-four hours, and as it turned out I essentially parlayed my $150 prize for 2nd place in the B division into a day trip to Carmel and the Monterey Coast, after the expenses it cost me to get there. Sitting on Pebble Beach watching the sun go down on the Pacific was a pretty good way to wrap up the long weekend. Prett-tay, prett-tay good.
A review of the ACPT wouldn't be complete without mentioning the big winner, and Erik Agard's performance this year was truly one to behold. I had the pleasure of watching Dan Feyer's first four titles in person, and I doubted if I would ever see someone more dominant than Dan in his prime. Tiger-on-a-Sunday dominant. Well, I can safely say that Erik's performance was the most convincing finals stage appearance in the tournaments that I've attended, and talking with more long-time ACPT veterans, that may have been the most impressive tournament in ACPT history. My B finals appearance earned me a promotion into the A division; watching Erik utterly obliterate his fellow stagemates - no slouches themselves, Messrs. Feyer and Plotkin, verily - gives me little reason to think I'll ever see the stage again until I phase back into a B after seven tournaments. But that's nitpicking - it's a treat enough to watch such high-end talent on display. I for one am interested to see what appears to be an elite collection of high-end A talent duking it out for the next several ACPTs. Legends like Dan and Tyler Hinman (4th overall this year) are still prime threats, and then you've got solvers like Francis Heaney and Joon and Stella not making the stage for the sole reason that this field is so stacked. Anne Ellison sat out this year's tournament, for crying out loud. We are witnessing a great era in speed solving to be sure.
That's it I guess - 'til next year! One last thing - I co-hosted a college hockey podcast for the last few years, and on the last episode I discussed the ACPT for a couple of minutes at the end. The majority of the podcast is college hockey-related, and I realize the Venn diagram overlap of "Crosswords" and "College Hockey" is razor-thin, but if you're curious to hear me talk about a bit of my ACPT experience, the crossword chatter starts around the 1:04:30 mark at the link below.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4hmzh-8e31ff.
-Andrew
P.S. Here's the B Finals video. Ken on the left, Marie in the center, and yours truly on the right. Thanks to Matt Ginsberg for recording, and to Jeff Davidson for alerting me to the video.
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