American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Don Christensen Dan Feyer, the New Champion!

Congratulations! Dan Feyer Howard Barkin Anne Erdmann Tyler Hinman Trip Payne Kiran Kedlaya Stella Zawistowski Francis Heaney Al Sanders Ellen Ripstein See Full Results B division Joon Pahk Katie Hamill Ron Sweet Full B Division Results C division Louis Lana David Plotkin Barry Haldiman Full C Division Results See left panel for all results. Rankings updated 3/15/10

Capsule History

“Double Trouble” by Eric Berlin

Highlights of the weekend included a new hourlong Sunday morning variety show, “Crossworders Got Talent,” featuring music, dance, games, and comedy performed by contestants and officials. The Friday and Saturday night games included “Double Trouble” by Eric Berlin; “Listmania!” by Greg Pliska, Joshua Kosman, and Ken Stern; and “Who Are You?,” a musical quiz by Michael Littman and Marie desJardins, with piano accompaniment by Jon Delfin. Magnus Palm, the editor-in-chief of Sweden’s Bonnier Korsord magazines, led a “Swedish Call My Bluff.” The awards lunch was discontinued. Patrick Creadon, the director of “Wordplay,” presented the prizes. Dan Feyer won the tournament. Five-time winner Tyler Hinman, 25, finished fourth, out of the playoffs, but took the Junior trophy one more time.

Will Shortz

Capsule history of all previous years.

Videos

• Ready, Set, Solve: A Crossword Puzzle Showdown, Time Magazine
• YouTube Videos (over 20!)
• Nancy Shack's videos (on her website):
  Note: Nancy Shack's videos are also available on our YouTube page (at a lower quality, however)
  
  
  • The Finals: C Finals | B Finals | A Finals
  • "Crossworders Got Talent": Lorinne Lampert | Parnell Hall | Amanda Yesnowitz
    Vic Fleming | Merl Reagle | Bruce Wrighte | Diane Firstman

Have you posted videos online? Let Us Know!

Podcasts

• Ryan Hecht and Brian Cimmet: ACPT — Here we come! (2/16) | The 2010 ACPT (2/24)
• Talk of the Nation: The Challenge (2/23) | Neal Conan interviews Mike Shenk (2/25)

Know of a podcast we missed? Let Us Know!

Pictures from the Tournament

• Don Christensen: Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Judges
• Katherine Bryant's Flickr
• Lorinne Lampert's Flickr
• Bob And Dave Mackey's pics
• Sharen McKay's Flickr
• Nancy Shack's Photobucket

Have you posted pictures online? Let Us Know!

Blogosphere

• Ben Bass: The 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
• Ross Beresford An Englishman Solves...: Feb. 21 | Feb. 22 | Feb. 24
• Eric Berlin: Crosswords everywhere!
• John M. Cunningham: Dispatch from the ACPT
• Sandy Davenport: Brooklyn, again
• Andrew Feist: 2/9 | 2/22 The Words | 2/22 The Numbers | 2/24
• Dan Feyer: Not a Blog
• Francis Heaney: Battlefield Update from the Crossword Wars
• Ryan Hecht and Brian Cimmet: Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords
• Tyler Hinman: Six nix
• Jim Horne: Wordplay Blog — NYTimes.com
• Jeffrey Krasnick (on Diary of a Crossword Fiend): ACPT Wrapup (random thoughts)
• Bob and Dave Mackey: Feb. 20 | Happy Sunday Morning From Brooklyn
• Erin McKean: 2010 Crossword Dress
• Patrick Merrell: ACPT Vignettes
• Rich Mintz's Crossword Dispatches: Start | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | Puzzle 5
• Mark Murphy: Murphy's Craw | Back from Brooklyn, Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
• Rex Parker: L.A. Crossword Confidential or Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle
• Brendan Emmett Quigley: ACPT wrap-up part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
• Brendan Emmett Quigley (for Ben Zimmer): Saturday Report | Dan Feyer Wins!
• Amy Reynaldo: Diary of a Crossword Fiend
• Richard Romano: Print Across and Down
• Nancy Ross: back to Brooklyn for the ACPT
• Dan Singer: National Crossword Championship
• Ben Tausig: Word Crowd, with audio clips!

Did you blog the tournament? Let Us Know!

In the News

• Dept. of Hoopla: Solvers Michael Schulman, New Yorker [March 15, 2010]
• Hillsborough crossword solver comes within a few syllables of winning national tournament Pamela Sroka-Holzmann, myCentralJersey.com [March 2, 2010]
• A New King of Crossword J.G., Brooklyn Eagle [February 24, 2010]
• Tiger of the Week: Dan Feyer '99 Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly [February 24, 2010]
• Puzzle players cross the bridge for annual tournament Tony Cella, YourNabe.com [February 24, 2010]
• Hometown hero fills in the blanks Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle [February 23, 2010]
• Our Geek of the Week: Meet Dan Feyer, 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Champ Allie Townsend, Techland (Time / CNN) [February 22, 2010]
• Interview with Will Shortz Brendan Emmett Quigley, Can I Have a Word With You? [February 17, 2010]
• Interview with Tyler Hinman Brendan Emmett Quigley, Can I Have a Word With You? [February 15, 2010]
• ACPT Questions and Reckless Answers Andrew Feist, blog: I'm Still Alive (as of the last post) [January 6, 2010]

Have you read a newspaper article about the tournament? Send us the URL!

Solving Perfection

The following 57 contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.

Howard Barkin, David Bleich, Katherine Bryant, Patty Buethe, Paul Coulter, Tom Daily, Mark Dixon, Anne Erdmann, Dan Feyer, Howard Friedman, Peter Gordon, Katie Hamill, Randolph Harris, Brent Hartzell, Francis Heaney, Tyler Hinman, Susan Hoffman, Doug Hoylman, Jeff Janus, Will Johnston, Bruce Kahn, Richard Kalustian, Kiran Kedlaya, Joshua Kosman, Elaine Lippman, Frank Longo, Dave Mackey, Robert Mackey, Eric Maddy, James Mangold, Matthew Matera, Phoebe McBee, Daniel Okrent, Scott Orman, Jan O'Sullivan, Joon Pahk, Trip Payne, Carol Perone, Doug Peterson, Greg Pliska, David Plotkin, Arnold Reich, Amy Reynaldo, Ellen Ripstein, Richard Romano, Al Sanders, Suzanne Saunders, Rocky Schwarz, Tom Shakow, Dan Singer, Ken Stern, Ron Sweet, Steve Tice, Dave Tuller, Jennifer Turney, Kevin Wald, Stella Zawistowski

Officials — 2010