From March 11-13, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was held in Stamford, Connecticut. RPI student Tyler Hinman ’06 emerged victorious over his older and more experienced competitors in the tournament, earned the title, the trophy, $4000 in prize money, and became the youngest champion the tournament has ever had. The tournament attracted people from all walks of life—professional crossword makers, students, lawyers, teachers, young professionals in various fields, and many others.
According to Hinman, each year, about 500 amateur, professional, and generally interested cruciverbalists show up at the tournament to compete in one of the five divisions designated A through E, five more divisions separated by age group, and eleven geographical breakdowns. Hinman and his fellow competitors had to face seven puzzles of varying difficulty on Saturday and a clincher puzzle on Sunday morning for the final. The puzzles were specially made for the tournament, and competitors’ performance was judged by both speed and accuracy.
Hinman began doing crossword puzzles when he was in ninth grade and bored in a school study hall. He said that long practice as well as the accumulation of all manner of general knowledge led him to begin doing puzzles for speed to save some time, as he tends to do about seven puzzles each day.
One of the more challenging puzzles presented was a 15x15 grid on a whiteboard that competitors had to fill in while wearing headphones to drown out the announcer and spectators.
His first puzzle was published by Will Shortz of The New York Times, when Hinman was 15, and four more puzzles later on. Shortz, famous for his Times crossword puzzles, is very much a part of the cruciverbalists community that gathered in Stamford, not so much for a simple competition but as a vibrant and enjoyable convention of sorts.
As for the attendees, Hinman found them to be “an interesting bunch of people to compete with and meet during the weekend.” In addition to solving all kinds of crossword and other puzzles, he enjoys making his own on a regular basis as part of his freelance work in creating crossword puzzles—The New York Times pays $350 for a Sunday puzzle. After the competition and some spring break, Hinman returned to his fraternity at RPI—where he admitted he hasn’t found any crossword aficionados as yet.
