MADness—the Blog

It was crosswords week at MAD About Movies (here and here), and to close it out properly I should give you the run-down on results from the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held this weekend in Brooklyn.

Dan Feyer, still the champ

Congratulations to Dan Feyer, the returning champ who successfully defended his title.  (Conveniently, I have a pic of his from last year’s tournament, above.  He is, understandably, still smiling.)  The competition among super-speedy solvers is especially fierce.  Sometimes a minute or two, or less, is all that separates the top times during a series of puzzles, and one bad guess can derail any hopes for a title.  To make it onstage for the finals is a feat in itself.  To win, and to defend the championship against five-time winner Tyler Hinman (2005-2009) and Anne Erdmann, onstage at the finals for the second year in a row, is a big deal.  Great job, Dan, and congrats to all the finalists.

Here are this year’s champs for the three top divisions:

A – Dan Feyer
B – David Plotkin
C – Jeffrey Dubner

Congrats!  A lot more info, including pics and links, at the ACPT site.

Will Shortz congratulates Dan Feyer on winning the 2011 ACPT

Someone at Visual Thesaurus* has kindly uploaded the finals video to YouTube so we call can see.  Check it out below, and keep in mind that the finals puzzle is an open-grid themeless, and the solvers have the toughest of three sets of clues.  In other words, solving the puzzle—period—is hard.  In under seven minutes—fuggedaboutit!

[*=Ben Zimmer]

ACPT – “A” Division Finals – 2011
Part 1 of 2

From left to right on the boards:  Anne Erdmann, Dan Feyer, Tyler Hinman. 

ACPT – “A” Division Finals – 2011
Part 2 of 2

Master of ceremonies:  Will Shortz.