American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Don Christensen Dan Feyer Wins Again!

Congratulations! Dan Feyer Tyler Hinman Anne Erdmann Francis Heaney Trip Payne Ellen Ripstein Howard Barkin Dave Tuller Jon Delfin Kiran Kedlaya See Results by Rank B division David Plotkin Ken Stern Richard Kalustian Full B Division Results C division Jeffrey Dubner James Lehr Andrew Snyder Full C Division Results See left panel for all results.

Capsule History

Don Christensen

“Life Is Shortz”

A U.S. vs. U.K. cryptic crossword contest, featuring one puzzle made in each country, was held on Friday night. Britain’s Mark Goodliffe won, finishing first on both puzzles. Other weekend highlights were a crossword magic performance by David Kwong, a team puzzle extravaganza based on TV’s “Amazing Race” by Greg Pliska and John Chaneski, and a crossword play, “Life Is Shortz,” written and directed by Lee Marcus. BIC and Penny Publications sponsored the tournament for the first time. Cartoonist Roz Chast presented the prizes. Dan Feyer won for the second year in a row.

Will Shortz

Capsule history of all previous years.

Pictures from the Tournament

• Don Christensen: Friday Night | Saturday | Sunday | Sunday Playoffs
• Nancy Shack's Photos

Blogs

If you blogged the tournament, Let us know and we'll add a link!

• ACPT Tweets
• Deb Amlen (Wordplay): Off to the Races | Wrap-Up
• Simon Anthony (Pieman): The US Crossword Championship, from the British perspective
• Ben Bass: Before | After
• Ross Beresford (An Englishman Solves American Crosswords): Crossword Man Speaks!
• Anne Erdmann (on Facebook): ACPT 2011
• Dan Feyer (Not a Blog): ACPT 2011: Bi-Winning!
• Angela Halsted (LA Crossword Confidential): ACPT Wrap-Up
• Tyler Hinman: That Puzzle Guy's Blog | Summary
• Dave and Robert Mackey (Puzzle Brothers): Dawn of a New Day | Two-Timin' Dan
• Victor Mather (NYT City Room): Puzzling Across and Down
• Patrick Merrell: 2011 ACPT Vignettes
• Mark Murphy: Words, words and more words | Saturday | Sunday
• Brendan Emmett Quigley: ACPT recap
• Andrew Ries (Aries Puzzles): ACPT Wrap-Up
• Nancy Ross: ACPT 2011
• Ryan and Brian do Crosswords: Preview #1 | Preview of ACPT: Final Podcast
• Dan Singer: National Crossword Tournament
• Ben Zimmer (Visual Thesaurus): Friday | CBS radio appearance | Saturday | Sunday

YouTube Videos

• AARP's Inside E Street
• The 3 Playoffs, Talent Show, Roz Chast, "Life Is Shortz" play, Ross Beresford, and Magician David R. Kwong (thanks to Nancy Shack)
• "This Could Be My Year" (2011) by Parnell Hall. His annual song-summary of the tournament, including clips of Mimi Raphael and the Will Shortz play.
• The A Playoffs, posted by Ben Zimmer (Thanks, Ben!)

In the News

• Roz Chast on Crossword Puzzles Robert Mankoff, The New Yorker [March 23, 2011]
• They’re No Squares: Crossword Contenders Battle at Marriott Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle [March 21, 2011]
• Across and Down, and Onward to Victory Victor Mather, The New York Times [March 18, 2011]
• 34th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Comes to Brooklyn Jesse Schmitt, Yahoo! [March 18, 2011]

More stuff

• Friday Night's U.S. vs. U.K. Crossword Showdown, winners and Ross Beresford's presentation, with video
• Roz Chast's Humorous Remarks, transcript and video
• Short biographies and pictures of this year's puzzlemakers

Solving Perfection

The following 34 contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.

Peter Braxton, Patty Buethe, Jon Delfin, Joe Dipinto, Anne Erdmann, Dan Feyer, Amy Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Francis Heaney, Tyler Hinman, Susan Hoffman, Will Irving, Will Johnston, Bruce Kahn, Richard Kalustian, Joshua Kosman, Elaine Lippman, Frank Longo, Matt Matera, Marc Maximov, Rich Norris, Emily O'Neill, Trip Payne, David Plotkin, Arnold Reich, Ellen Ripstein, Richard Romano, Dan Sadoff, Andrew Snyder, Ken Stern, Roberta Strauss, Dave Tuller, Robert White, John Wilson.

Constructors and Officials — 2011