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Something pretty magical happened yesterday.
As many of you know, I was hoping to make my first attendance at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), but I and about 650 other hopefuls found out on March 11th that it had been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic and the attendant state of emergency declared in the event's host state of Connecticut. Disappointing, but necessary -- in the days since then, much of the field has lived under mandatory or government-imposed social distancing measures. That didn't stop an intrepid team of puzzlers from proposing, constructing, coding up, and hosting Crossword Tournament From Your Couch! In just nine days, a team put together a mini-tournament to occur online in lieu of the now-impossible in-person gathering. And it was a smashing success, with over 1,600 people logged on to take part (many in their first competitive crossword event ever). I was excited to see several personal friends of mine take part at my encouragement, and even more excited to see new bonds of community forming on Facebook Live as the event went on.
The tournament live-stream had a pretty long discussion of hard themeless puzzles toward the end, with finals puzzle constructor (and "ZOLAESQUE" legend) Byron Walden. As it happens, I'm coming to enjoy themeless puzzles more as a constructor and solver... So here's another one, courtesy of me! Why let the couch-solving end now? This one should be about the same difficulty as an NYT Friday or Saturday. Download as PDF Download as .puz Enjoy!
Hello again, all. Wishing you good health in these epidemiologically frightening times. Do what it takes to stay safe, and follow the advice of experts as it pertains to you and your situation!
I had so much fun putting together the last Themeless puzzle that I decided to do not one, but two more! You get Themeless 2 this week, and Themeless 3 next week. Both puzzles should resemble an NYT Friday or Saturday in difficulty, though entries may be more in line with my vanity interests than a typical newspaper puzzle. Download as pdf Download as .puz Happy solving! Sorry for the hiatus all -- for Various Reasons, constructing and posting new puzzles hasn't been happening for a few weeks. I am still at it, though -- should have new puzzles up on Sunday the 8th and Sunday the 15th, with a third one up around the end of the month or the beginning of next month.
-Matt
There are A Lot of Things Going On these days. I'm still reeling from the series finale of The Good Place. Tonight is the Super Bowl, with all of its porcine, integumentary stakes for fans of the San Francisco 49ers and/or the Kansas City Chiefs. And politics, of course, continues to politic. How about a puzzle to take your mind off of whatever feelings you may or may not be having?
Another 13x13 this time; other than the slightly smaller size, it's a standard themed crossword this time, vowels and all. Download as pdf Download as puz
Nd nw fr smthng cmpltl dffrnt...
Download as pdf Download as puz Download solution (includes vowel-inclusive answer key) This is a "vwllss" puzzle -- while the clues look normal, you have to write in your entries with all their vowels removed. For example, if the clue is [Tyrannosaurus rex and Stegosaurus, for two examples] and you have five squares to fill, the correct response might be DNSRS (for "dinosaurs"). As a courtesy, no entry contains the letter 'Y' anywhere in it, either as a consonant or a vowel. As an additional courtesy to those who are new to this variety puzzle format, I've also indicated whether the expected answer is multiple words long (and how many words it is, if so) or if it is hyphenated. Inspiration for this puzzle comes from Frank Longo's (or should I say "Frnk Lng's") vwllss puzzles for Fireball Crosswords. Enjoy!
Happy New Year! It sure is off to a start, isn't it... Regardless of how this week has treated you, Puzzle 8 is here for you and ready for solving. Hopefully its release on January 6, 2020 still falls within the scope of "on or around January 5, 2020."
Thanks to Will Nediger of the ever-excellent Bewilderingly Puzzles for his advice on bringing this puzzle to fruition. If you like what you're seeing on my site, I owe a lot of it to Will's example, so go take a look at his! Download as pdf Download as .puz Next puzzle will be out in about two weeks. A new puzzle every other week, at the start of the week, seems like the most tenable long-term release schedule for the foreseeable future; will keep you posted if that changes. Till then! P.S. Who else is excited for the Jeopardy: Greatest of All Time special event? Starts tomorrow, with hourlong episodes, at 8-9 pm E.S.T. on ABC (that's after the regular show, at least for fellow East Coasters).
So the shortest day of the year has come and gone. For those of you who commemorated the Winter Solstice somehow, I hope it was a meaningful and restful day for you. And if not, I hope you get some time this winter to enjoy the latest puzzle! It's of a slightly unusual size (14 x 17).
Download as pdf Download as .puz (for solving in Across Lite) Thanks to Will Nediger, Matt Gritzmacher, and David Plotkin for their helpful test-solving commentary. Taking a break for the holidays next week. Puzzle 8 should be up on or around January 5, 2020.
Sometimes the title says it all. This puzzle is themeless, so there won't be a select group of long entries with some commonality to them. (In fact, there won't be any "long" entries at all -- every entry here is 7 letters or fewer.) And it is hard! Expect it to be much more difficult than the ones you've seen so far, with more vague and tricksy clues, and more uncommon answers even when clues are straightforward.
If you're familiar with Fireball Crosswords or the Saturday Stumper, this is my attempt at that difficulty stratum, though I probably undershot a bit. If not, let's say it should be no easier than a standard New York Times Saturday puzzle, and ideally will be noticeably more challenging than those. Take it a little bit at a time. Don't be afraid to fill in a guess if you're not sure, and don't be afraid to erase (if on paper) or backspace if a good guess doesn't pan out. With that out of the way: Download as pdf Download as .puz (for Across Lite) Note: After today, I will be on puzzle-posting hiatus for next week and the week following next. Expect Puzzle 7 to drop on or around Sunday, December 22. Apologies for the delay. It's no secret that I hope to get a puzzle published in a major publication soon. It's also no secret that most outlets keep their published crosswords to a specific set of sizes; for the most part, "weekday" puzzles are 15x15 in size, and "weekend/Sunday" puzzles are a more imposing 21x21. It's not a rule of the universe that a crossword puzzle must be one of those sizes, though -- and as I start making efforts towards submitting newspaper-size puzzles for publication, it's good to use this personal website as a platform for puzzles of non-traditional shapes and sizes. Because why not? Free your mind, and the grids will follow. To that end, here's a puzzle at the non-standard size of 17x17. A little bigger than usual, so you can savor it more on your journey to wherever you're celebrating Thanksgiving (or at home, if you aren't going out of town or aren't celebrating). Enjoy! Download as .pdf Download as .puz (for solving in Across Lite)
Hello again, all! A few updates:
And now for what you're actually all here for: Puzzle 4, "Making the Cut," is now available! As of now (edit: at the time of original posting), this puzzle DOES NOT have a solve-in-browser applet. I can't really talk about why, so I'll just say I am looking into fixing this in the coming weeks, and you can expect it back for future puzzles. (Edit: Now fixed!) For the time being: Download as .pdf Download as .puz (for solving in Across Lite) Happy solving! UPDATE: this puzzle now DOES have a solve-in-browser applet. Thanks to Sudheendra Hangal of AmuseLabs for working through the tech issue with me. Enjoy! |
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