Crossword puzzle enthusiasts have applied the perfect 10-letter answer for these days of social distancing — not QUARANTINE but TOURNAMENT, as in an online, multiplayer weekend competition.
About 900 would-be wordsmiths competed Saturday in the Crossword Tournament From Your Couch, a Facebook live-streamed event that organizer Finn Vigeland called “the largest crossword puzzle ever organized.”
A band of puzzlers put the contest together after the 2020 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which was to have been held this weekend in Stamford, Connecticut, was postponed until September amid other measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
Unlike the annual tournament, which includes cash prizes of up to $5,000, Saturday’s online event was free to enter and offered no awards, save for bragging rights. It also depended on participants not cheating.
“It’s an honor’s system,” said livestream commentator Ryan Hecht, cohost of the Fill Me In podcast. “You can’t Google answers.”
With its own website, online crosswords and Facebook page, the Crossword Tournament From Your Couch presented timed puzzles with clues such as “poet who wrote ’Metamorphoses’ [four letters]” (Answer: OVID) and “something to prove [eight letters]” (Answer: THEOREMS).
“You’re going to be graded on speed and accuracy — just like in life,” Mr. Hecht said at the outset of the contest, drawing laughter across the digital space.
The competition attracted scores of spectators and participants, but the daily newspaper crossword puzzle tends to be a solitary enjoyment — a challenging diversion that could help pass the time amid self-quarantines and stay-at-home orders.
Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, said the newspaper will soon introduce more pages into a weekend edition of puzzles.
“We are living in the golden age of puzzles now,” Mr. Shortz told The Washington Times for his home in Pleasantville, New York. “So many occupations involve the mind … and people who use their brains for their living like to use their brains in a recreational way in their spare time.”
It’s tough to track just how many people are turning to crossword puzzles during this pandemic, but Mr. Shortz says he wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick in interest.
In Saturday’s event, puzzle-player Tyler Hinman won the big contest; he took full charge of his bragging rights, tweeting: “2020 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion! (Subject to change in five and a half months.)”
“It was really fun,” said Dr. Mary Milroy, a retired surgeon by phone from her home west of Yankton, South Dakota.
“It was challenging, but not impossible,” said Dr. Milroy, who encouraged anyone willing to better their scores to improve their puzzle-solving skills by using the local newspaper’s crossword and an eight-letter word for repeated attempts — PRACTICE.
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