By The Skin Of His Teeth, Bob Mackey Wins His Sixth Westchester Trophy

What a final round of the 18th annual Westchester Crossword Tournament. Two puzzlers finished. Bob Mackey looked over his whiteboard for mistakes. Ken Stern looked over his whiteboard for mistakes. Neither knew the game of Chicken that was being played. Bob was looking for something that would complete a specified number of thematic elements in a future New York Times puzzle. Ken's puzzle was clean.

Finally, Bob found the final missing piece and broke the tense silence.

"DONE".

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Misissisppi. Ken echoed...

"DONE."

It could have gone the other way if Ken had signaled "Done" just seconds earlier, or if Bob had done the same without checking his work, but the final outcome of the 18th annual Westchester Tournament was the same as five of the previous installments, with Bob Mackey taking home the championship trophy.

(SPOILER ALERT: You may not want to look at the picture if you have not yet solved the puzzle to be published on October 2, 2014.)

Although Glenn Ryan was the third man in the scenario working the left board, all the focus was on the two solvers at center and right, with Bob taking an early lead and Ken steadily catching up, when finally the two solvers had no more blank squares. To some it looked like Bob was being super cautious, but the puzzle's notes had indicated that there were six thematic quirks. Bob kept counting, and counting, and counting, but could only find five. He finally found the final crossing that completed the theme requirements, a mere four seconds before Ken Stern threw up his hands in surrender. All three solvers completed the puzzle with no errors.

In the first of a year of homecomings for tournament emcee/host Will Shortz, the Westchester Tournament returned to its prior home, the St. John's Episcopal Church in Pleasantville, after a three year residency at the Westchester Table Tennis Club. Next spring, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be once again in its birthplace of Stamford, Connecticut. One wag noted that perhaps Will will bring Games Magazine back from the dead next.

Bob's qualifying puzzle was the Tuesday, September 30 puzzle by Andy Kravis, who was the only constructor present at Friday's tournament. Judges for the tournament included perennial head judge Stan Kurzban, Ellen Ripstein, Mimi Raphael, Frank Longo, Hayley Gold and Pat Merrell.

As always, proceeds from the tournament benefitted the Pleasantville Fund For Learning.

WESTCHESTER TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO ST. JOHN'S CHURCH SEPTEMBER 19

The 18th edition of the Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be on Friday, September 19, and the tournament is moving back to the St. John Episcopal Church in Pleasantville, once again to benefit the Pleasantville Fund for Learning. As always, the tournament will feature the four New York Times puzzles from the following Monday through Wednesday, with the Thursday puzzle serving as the playoff puzzle for the top finisher on each of the three puzzles. $30 to compete singly, $45 as a team, or $5 just to watch.

Last year's tournament finals involved the same three solvers from the 2013 ACPT "B" finals, Glenn Ryan, Jeffrey Schwartz, and Robert Mackey, which culminated in Mackey winning his sixth Westchester trophy - five singles and one doubles title with Dave Mackey.

The tournament was held the last three years at the Westchester Table Tennis Club, which is owned by New York Times crossword guru Will Shortz. No reason was given for the change, although a Facebook post by perennial Westchester finalist Elaine Renner noted "the acoustics are better" in the church.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN - ACPT B Finals Replay Gives Bob Mackey His Fifth Westchester Championship

Bob Mackey realized early on that the finals of the 17th Westchester Crossword Tournament would most likely be a replay of the ACPT "B" division finals from this past March in Brooklyn and let everyone know it (the word "jinx" not being in his vocabulary). Scanning the room, he found Jeff Schwartz and Glenn Ryan, who harbored much the same desire. Nowhere to be found was defending champion Thomas Weisswange.

Glenn Ryan was the first clean finisher on the Monday NY Times puzzle from the forthcoming week, a construction by Ian Livengood. If not for one wrong letter, Bob Mackey would have qualified on the Tuesday puzzle of Joel Fagliano. Jeff Schwartz was the first eligible correct solver. And for the third puzzle, the Wednesday, October 2 by Paula Gamache, it was Bob as the last announced finalist, finishing just behind the already-qualified Jeff. The finals were set.

In spite of an early pen problem, Bob steadily worked through the Thursday puzzle - a nice rebus from first time NYT contributor Evan Birnholz - while the other two lagged behind, with Glenn out in front first, and Jeff eventually overtaking him in what little drama the finals had. Bob finished clean in a little over eight minutes, even with the pen mishap, to capture his fifth Westchester Crossword Tournament title (sixth if you count the doubles title in 2006).

Kudos to Will Shortz for keeping this tournament lively and interesting with the addition of a table tennis playoff for the top finishers on the Gamache puzzle. Afterwards, Westchester Table Tennis Club co-owner and resident pro Robert Roberts treated us to a demonstration.

WESTCHESTER TIME AGAIN

The cooler weather and turning trees mean only one thing - Westchester time is upon us! Will Shortz is again hosting his hometown Westchester Crossword Tournament at his Westchester Table Tennis Club, in Pleasantville. The 17th tournament, to be held Friday, September 27 beginning at 7:30 p.m., will again benefit the Pleasantville Fund For Learning.

Donationa to compete are $30 for single, $45 for doubles pair, or $5 if you just want to watch.

Competitors will tackle the next three Monday-Wednesday New York Times puzzles, then the top finisher on each puzzle (perfect in the quickest time) will solve the Thursday puzzle on stage using the familiar white boards.

Additionally, this year there will also be a crossword/table tennis biathlon. The top four finishers at crosswords who sign up for the biathlon will face off in table tennis to determine the biathlon champion.

Last year's singles champion was Thomas Weisswange. More information available at www.pffl.org.

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.

15th Westchester Set For October 21

Friday, October 21, will be the 15th annual Westchester Crossword Tournament, which will be held at the Westchester Table Tennis Center, 175 Tompkins Avenue, Pleasantville. Begins at 7:30. Can you beat defending champion Bob Mackey?

Westchester Table Tennis Center Grand Opening

Owned and managed by Will Shortz and Robert Roberts, the Westchester Table Tennis Center will have its grand opening on Saturday, July 16, from 10:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m. Admission and all play is free on Saturday, including the opportunity to play the master himself as Will has pledged to take on all comers. (Be ready for a workout. Will knows his stuff.) The club had its soft opening in May.

The address is 175 Tompkins Avenue in Pleasantville. This is signficant because sometime in the fall, Shortz will fold up the table tennis tables and host the 15th annual Westchester Crossword Tournament there, moving there from the St. John Episcopal Church.

Maura Jacobson Retiring From New York Magazine Crossword

Maura B. Jacobson is putting away her grids. The veteran crossword constructor has announced her retirement from the New York Magazine crossword, a slot that she has held since 1980.

Ms. Jacobson had learned puzzlecraft at the feet of the first New York Times crossword editor, Margaret Farrar. Jacobson had been hired to do a crossword for a magazine that was eventually folded into New York, Cue, at the recommendation of Will Weng. Beginning in May of 1980, Jacobson's byline had begun appearing in New York Magazine, usually appearing with a cryptic puzzle. Jacobson's puzzles were hardly brain-busters, but were accessible to casual solvers and always great fun. Even before that, Jacobson had been tapped by a brash young crossword editor named Will Shortz to provide one puzzle a year for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Jacobson's Puzzle No. 6 slot hopefully will continue in perpetuity.

Signs that the Jacobson era was soon to end started appearing last year, when Cathy Allis (Millhauser) shouldered half of Jacobson's workload. Allis will take on the construction chore full time after the final Jacobson puzzle appears, at a date yet to be determined. But the legacy of Jacobson lives on. Constructor Liz Gorski noted on her blog that "...Maura's extensive puzzle-ography has had a profound effect on my confidence as a solver...and later, as an aspiring puzzle writer. Seeing a woman's byline over that big New York puzzle each week made all the difference. Maybe I could make a puzzle some day. And if Maura B. Jacobson uses a byline with a middle initial ... so will I."

CoverItLive Replay of ACPT Finals

Martha Stewart Wants Puzzlers!

Martha Stewart is planning a special episode about puzzles which will tape in February for later broadcast. She is hoping to have an entire audience chock full of puzzle fans - be it crossword, sudoku, KenKen, mazes - for this taping. One of the guests will be Puzzlemaster to the World, Mr. Will Shortz. If you want free tickets to the taping, go to Martha's website and tell the audience coordinators about your puzzling activities.

Westchester Tournament Moving

Aah, the charm of St. John's Episcopal Church. Great place to have a crossword get-together. Unfortunately, the demand has far exceeded the space. Will Shortz announced at last night's tournament that in 2011, the new venue will be Shortz' own Westchester Table Tennis Club. No report as to whether next year's winner will go on to the Bonus Round, challenging Shortz one-on-one in table tennis.

14th Westchester Is October 1

One of the favorite tournaments the Puzzle Brothers customarily attend is the Westchester Crossword Tournament, held in Pleasantville, New York, and hosted by Pleasantville's own Will Shortz. The 14th edition of the tournament has been scheduled for Friday, October 1, 2010, at the tournament's traditional home, St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Pleasantville. As is the custom, the event will benefit the Pleasantville Fund for Learning. Jeffrey Schwartz is the event's defending champion; for the two years prior the tournament was won by The Puzzle Brothers' own Bob. We have already marked our calendars for this annual event and are looking forward to seeing all our friends and colleagues in the puzzle world.

"How I Met" Will Shortz

The tweet from Neil Patrick Harris offered some enticing wordplay in the style of the master as he effused about the show's latest big-name guest star. "Ten letters, 'Death Document' plus 'legless pantz'. I geeked out. I'm a fan."

New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz flew to Hollywood to make a cameo appearance on the hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", which stars the former Doogie Howser child star who has become quite an adult star in his own right, thanks to his TV appearances and his riotous performances in the "Harold and Kumar" movie series.

The episode, entitled "Robots vs. Wrestlers", casts Shortz as a guest at a party that Barney and friends decide to crash; another party guest is Arianna Huffington, queen of the The Huffington Post. The episode is expected to air on CBS during the May sweeps.

Will Will Pong For Charity Tomorrow

Will Shortz is among the celebrities taking part in "So You Think You Can Pong", a charity table-tennis event to be held Wednesday, January 13, at Spin New York, on 23rd between Madison and Park. The beneficiary is 826NYC, a non-profit that helps young people with their expository writing skills.

Other participants in the tournament will include hockey player Sean Avery, actors Mike Myers, Catherine Keener and David Schwimmer, authors Sarah Vowell and Dave Eggers, and chef Mario Batali.

You can support Will or any of the other celebrities via a donation or you can even play in the tournament should there still be spots available. For more information visit their website.

The Case Of The Missing Acrostic

Here, from the Wall Street Journal, which blithely makes room on Friday for a Sunday-sized puzzle which is often very good, is a report on the disappearance of the Hex acrostic from the Sunday New York Times print edition.

ACPT "Dinner Impossible" Airs Tonight On Food Network

Please watch - or set your VCR's, if you still like to use tape, for - tonight's "Dinner Impossible" episode. You will recall that during this past February's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the buffet menu was kept hush-hush. Reason for that was it hadn't even come to fruition until hours before the buffet, thanks to daring chef Robert Irvine. The story of the weekend will be told in tonight's episode, "Crossword Puzzle Crisis", giving viewers another look inside a corner of Will Shortz' puzzle empire - and hopefully boosting up attendance at the next tournament next February, just as "Wordplay" did.

Food Network has up its episode page for the show including many of the tasty recipes from tonight's episode. Basically, he created a number of dishes, each based on a famous saying. Such as "soup to nuts" yielded a coconut soup with carmelized nuts. The dishes were then described and tournament attendees including five-time champion Tyler Hinman had to guess the sayings the dishes were based on.

As Crossworders Gather In Boston...

...looming is the possiblity of the Boston Globe print newspaper folding. The Globe carries a weekly Sunday crossword alternately authored by Henry Cook and the team of Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon. For a brief period last year, Liz Gorski was doing some puzzles filling in for Hook. It's too early to think about the crossword's fate now.

We are not at the Boston tournament due to other commitments today but we wish the competitors well and hope to bring you news of whoever is victorious there. Will Shortz is directing the tournament, using next week's NYT puzzles. Ironically, Shortz' boss, The Times Company, owns the Boston Globe.

Chef Revealed

Will Shortz and Robert Irvine - the Food Network chef who will be creating today's luncheon menu - commandeered the ballroom for an interview this morning. The filming is for Irvine's series, "Dinner Impossible".

Sunday Morning In Brooklyn

Snow, foreboding a larger storm this evening and tomorrow, is starting to fall outside the Marriott. The Puzzle Brothers went to bed around 1:00 a.m. after playing some Fluxx games with the likes of Joni Dashoff and Doug Hoylman and members of his crew.

We understand that there was filming at 3:30 a.m. this morning for a Food Network segment related to the luncheon this afternoon. We still don't know who the chef is that is concocting our meal, but Will Shortz noted that it's going to be revealed sometime this morning.

Game Show Night

We'd like to thank the three ladies who joined us on our "Family Feud" team, including Susan Boardman, Harriet Geller and Fiona Newman (our scribe from Canada). Although we didn't get on stage to play the game we thank you for your enthusiasm!

The "Chain Reaction" game was actually the show's current endgame, which has been used in various forms on other Bob Stewart shows like "Go". Two contestants alternate words in asking a question to get a third player to say a word, name or place.

Stan Newman's trivia games were a lot of fun; he says he'll be asked back to do the next one in about ten years.

Will Watch

Heads up for "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" fans: Will Shortz will be appearing in the role of Expert on the program next week. The "Ask the Expert" lifeline is new to the show this season and the experts rotate roughly every week.