Al Sanders Takes Lollapuzzoola 6 Express Title

The image most people have in their brains of Al Sanders is the overconfident man who raises his hand to indicate "done" at the 2005 ACPT, only to realize he's left two squares blank in 1-Across, throwing his headset to the ground in frustration. We've all seen that movie before. (Except maybe for Oscar Cimmet.)

Yesterday, the ACPT perennial flew in from Colorado to participate in Lollapuzzoola 6 in New York City, and wound up besting another cross-country commuter, Trip Payne, and Francis Heaney in the onstage finals of the "Express Division", roughly equivalent to A- and B- class ACPT contestants.

Jonathan Brown wound up the winner of the "Local Division", defeating Erin Milligan and Angela Halsted (who was found to be the tournament's sole 6-time participant and the analogue to Jay Kasofsky at the ACPT). The extremely tough finals puzzle was constructed by Joon Pahk, who was unable to attend to defend his title from last year.

The tournament was under the capable supervision of co-creator Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer, who replaced co-creator Ryan Hecht a few years ago, and over the six years of its existence it has steadily attracted more top solvers around the country, including fourth place finisher Amy Reynaldo, the aforementioned Payne and Sanders, and Katie Hamill from Boston among others. This year's tournament set a record with over 150 solvers, including past ACPT winners Jon Delfin and Ellen Ripstein. The judges included the likes of Dan Feyer and Anne Erdmann.

In keeping with the tournament's irreverent streak, prize trophies featured figurines from such unrelated disciplines as karate and gymnastics (but were engraved for the first time) as well as leftover ACPT trophies. Clever word games helped fill the time and there was a metapuzzle that was related to the five crosswords solved by everyone.

More tournament information and pictures may be found at http://www.bemoresmarter.com.

ACPT Returning To Stamford?

After the ACPT's contract with the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott expires with the 2014 tournament, Will Shortz is seriously considering a return to the tournament's original home, the Stamford (CT) Marriott.

We encourage you to leave your comments on that page, so much so that we've disabled comments for this post. Bob has yet to weigh in on the matter, but my vote is for a return to Stamford.

FANTASTIC FEYER

Dan Feyer does it again, but it was no walk in the park this year. Dan snagged his fourth American Crossword Puzzle Tournament championship in a squeaker over second place finisher Anne Erdmann, but third place finisher Tyler Hinman did not finish the puzzle in the alloted 20 minutes (yes, the puzzle was THAT TOUGH this year, so Will tacked on an extra five minutes.)

Dan was consistently on top of his game throughout the tournament, increasing his lead on the final three puzzles he solved to solidly take the first berth in the tournament. All three puzzlers found the bottom left corner particularly sticky in Kevin G. Der's tournament puzzle, but Dan was able to conquer it on the heels of a faster-moving Erdmann. Tyler finally finished his puzzle after the time was up, but the five-time champion had the crowd pulling for him to finish.

B: MOST SMARTEST

Robert Mackey returned to the B finals for the first time since 1998 and became only the second repeat B champion - the only other one was Randy Ross, who won in 1992 and 1996. Robert beat a consistent Westchester Tournament nemesis, Jeffrey Schwartz, and rookie Glen Ryan, who's still trying to find the number of that truck that hit him. Robert's win was quick and convincing, with one Twitter commentator noting that "he made it seem like a Tuesday puzzle".

Other winners today:
C: Benjamin Coe
D: Vegavahini Subramaniam
E: Matthew Paranto
Junior: David Plotkin
50's: Erdmann
60's: Ellen Ripstein
70's: Len Elliott
Senior: Bob Rubin
West: Hinman
Connecticut: Ryan
New York: Feyer
New Jersey: Barkin
Long Island: Thomas Weisswange
New England: Joon Pahk
Upstate NY: Michael Sharp ("Rex Parker")
Mid-Atlantic: Eric Agard
South: Plotkin
Midwest: Erdmann
Foreign: Emily O'Neill
Handwriting: Judy Cole

The 37th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be the same weekend next year - March 7-9.

Recapping Saturday's Action!

UPDATED 3/10/2013 5:57 AM

Saturday's puzzles are now in the books, and they from all the stuff I've read on the TPB and my own personal Twitter feeds, I can report that Puzzles 5 and 3 respectively were the ones that separated the field into the haves and have-nots.

With Puzzle No. 6, Dan Feyer increased his lead to three minutes over Tyler Hinman and six minutes over Anne Erdmann. As of Sunday morning, the rest of the Top 10 is Francis Heaney, Stella Zawistowski, Kiran Kedlaya, Howard Barkin, Joon Pahk, Al Sanders and Jon Delfin.

Glen Ryan is the top rookie in 14th place and could make the B finals. Due to scoring changes, the top native B scorer so far is Robert Mackey, who is in 17th place, with Jeffrey Schwartz in 20th place holding down the possible third spot on the B stage.

Benjamin Coe is the other hot rookie this year, currently sitting in 33rd place. His nearest C competitors are Jeff Davidson (67th) and Neville Fogerty (75th).

Puzzle No. 7 kicks off the Sunday festivities at 9:00 a.m. with the finals set to start after the talent show which starts at 11:00 a.m.

THROUGH TWO PUZZLES

Three way tie at the top among Anne Erdmann, Dan Feyer and Tyler Hinman. Four way tie for fourth among Howard Barkin, Francis Heaney, Kiran Kedlaya and Al Sanders. Three way tie for eighth featuring David Plotkin, rookie Glen Ryan and Stella Zawistowski. Bob Mackey is part of a group of nine solvers in 11th place.

Another ACPT Absentee

The always colorful and wackily costumed j!m jen!sta will not be attending the ACPT this year. On the Facebook page for American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Attendees, he notes, "Despite my inclination to holler 'Damn the cardiologist, fill crosswords ahead!', I ended up listening to some alien voice in my head called 'prudence'."

ACPT CONSTRUCTORS ANNOUNCED

This year's ACPT constructors are:

• Patrick Berry
• Patrick Blindauer
• Kevin G. Der
• Liz Gorski
• Lynn Lempel
• Ian Livengood
• Brendan Emmett Quigley
• Mike Shenk

The big news this year is there's no Merl Reagle puzzle this year.

DAVE MACKEY TO SKIP 2013 ACPT

Due to a personal conflict, I will be missing the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the first time since I began competing in 2005.

There are a number of issues that are hastening my non-appearance this year, but the main conflict is a commitment to Region III of the New Jersey Music Educators to conduct their Elementary Honors Band this year. As such, I will be required to participate in the selection of the fifth and sixth grade band members on Saturday, March 9 - the day most of the puzzles will be solved. This is a daylong process that will culminate in the selection of up to 360 musicians in three separate Honors Bands. The concert itself is on May 4.

I am pleased to announce that I am not turning my back on crosswords entirely. I plan to get back into construction this summer and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone at Westchester in the fall, and at the ACPT in 2014. Have fun at the tournament, everyone!

We are back!

Damn domain registration. If you can see this we are back. We apologize for any downtime, on this site which davemackey.com actually hosts.

WWW = WEISSWANGE WINS WESTCHESTER

Two time defending champion Bob Mackey never made the podium in the finals of last night's 16th annual Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament, benefitting the Pleasantville Fund For Learning. Thomas Weisswange was the only solver of the three finalists - the other two being Glenn Ryan and Jeffrey Schwartz - who completed the Thursday, September 28 New York Times puzzle perfectly. The tournament was held for the second year at tournament host Will Shortz' Westchester Table Tennis Club. See other pictures at the Photo Gallery but please be aware that your enjoyment of the September 28 puzzle may be spoiled.

Bob Mackey To Attempt Three-Peat At 16th Westchester Tournament Set For September 21

The 16th annual Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament is set for Friday, September 21, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Westchester Table Tennis Center, 175 Tompkins Avenue, Pleasantville, NY. The tournament annually benefits the Pleasantville Fund for Learning and is under the direction of Will Shortz, who is also owner of the Westchester Table Tennis Center. Registration is $30 individual, $45 pair, or $5 spectator, payable at the door. The format of the tournament will remain as in years past - three New York Times puzzles everyone solves, and the Thursday puzzle solved by the fastest finisher on each puzzle. The defending tournament champ is Bob Mackey, who also won in 2010, 2008, 2007, and won the pairs division with Dave Mackey in 2006. Jeffrey Schwartz was the 2009 winner.

Simon & Schuster Mega 13

There have been some inquiries as to when Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book would be out. It is scheduled for October 9. Last S&S Mega was October 4, 2011.

Crosswords LA Results!

Sorry to be late with this news. Jordan Chodorow repeated two Saturdays ago as Crosswords LA champion with Eric LeVasseur coming in second.

Doug Heller, R.I.P.

We have the sad duty to inform you that Doug Heller, for years one of the top officials at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, has died of cancer. Doug's illness had been known within the puzzle community and many ACPT attendees last March used the tournament as an opportunity to say goodbye and thanks for his many years of service to the tournament. More information as it becomes known to us.

2012 ACPT Live Blog

NEVER SAY DIE

Like most of the rest of the crossword world, we left Dan Feyer for dead yesterday at the side of the road after a head-on collision with one blank and one wrong square (thanks to BEQ for the clarification) on Puzzle No. 3.

What happened after that is worthy of a primetime soap opera on the order of classics like "Dynasty" and "Dallas".

Through a series of missteps, appeals and one recanted appeal by a very sportsmanlike contestant (who wound up making the podium anyway), and aided by a very steady podium performance, Dan Feyer captured his third American Crossword Puzzle Tournament championship and another $5,000 check.

Bob Mackey will be analyzing Dan's rocky road to his third championship in a future blog post. For his part, Bob won a trophy for finishing second among New Jersey solvers, beating out Howard Barkin. Bob was 18th overall, tying his personal best since his blistering 6th place rookie performance in 1998. Dave finished 85th thanks to errors in Puzzles 1 and 7.

Your other champions crowned Sunday:
B: John Beck
C: Guy Tabachnick
D: Benjamin Aisen
E: Alex Allain
Rookie: Erik Agard
Juniors and South: David Plotkin
Fifties: Anne Erdmann
Sixties: Doug Hoylman
Seventies: Neil Singer
Senior: Jane Blanshard (with Mimi Raphael in second, adding to her trophy haul)
West: Tyler Hinman
Connecticut: Douglas Goodman
New England: Joon Pahk
NYC: Dan Feyer
Long Island: Peter Gordon
Upstate NY: Arnold Reich
Mid-Atlantic: Scott Weiss
Midwest: Erdmann
Foreign: Emily O'Neill

Additionally, 140 solvers beat "Dr. Fill", a computer that solved the seven tournament puzzles, programmed by Matt Ginsburg.

This Topsy-Turvy Tourney

Anne Erdmann, good sport that she is, has decided to take back her error on Puzzle #1, but successfully appealed her Puzzle 4 "error". The standings are now Tyler Hinman, David Plotkin and Dan Feyer going into puzzle 7, with Anne now in fourth place.

Bob is close up to the top of the B's. Dave made an error on Puzzle 7 but hopes others did the same.

Live blogging of the finals coming sometime in the noon hour. Hope you can join us.

Through Four Puzzles

1. Tyler Hinman
2. Al Sanders
3. Francis Heaney

Anne Erdmann slips down to twelfth...

20. Bob Mackey (4th among B solvers)
95. Dave Mackey

Through Three Puzzles

The current rankings as of Puzzle 3.... the standings are showing Dan Feyer in 12th place.... could he be fallible? UPDATE: We confirmed that Feyer had two blank squares on Puzzle 3.

1. Tyler Hinman
2. Anne Erdmann
3. Al Sanders
4. Francis Heaney
5. Joon Pahk
6. Jon Delfin
7. David Plotkin
8 (tie). Doug Peterson
8 (tie). Stella Zawistowski
10. Doug Hoylman
11. John Beck
12. Dan Feyer

25. Bob Mackey
97. Dave Mackey

Through Two Puzzles

Dan Feyer and Tyler Hinman are in a flatfooted tie for first, with Al Sanders in third place. Following close behind are Francis Heaney, Scott Weiss, Jon Delfin, Doug Hoylman, Joon Pahk, and David Plotkin. Bob 60th and Dave 112th, each making a one-square mistake (but not the same one) on Puzzle 1.

First six puzzles were (in order) Lynn Lempel, Patrick Merrell, Patrick Berry, Ian Livengood, Patrick Blindauer, and Elizabeth C. Gorski. That leaves Merl Reagle and Mike Shenk to provide Sunday's puzzles.

Tonight, a demonstration of Dr. Fill, a slide show by Don Christensen, and a team-solving challenge by Eric Berlin and Jeffrey Harris. Tomorrow, the seventh puzzle, the variety show, and the finals. Be sure to follow all the action of the finals LIVE tomorrow in the window at the top of your Puzzle Brothers website.