Letters: Crossword Puzzle Challenge!
Already solved the puzzle, or already stumped? Click here for the answers.
Think you're good at crossword puzzles? Here's your chance to test yourself against the best. Print out the final puzzles from the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and see how you do. Winner Dan Feyer solved the hardest version in just eight minutes!
Puzzle #8: Talent Show (Set A)
Extremely Difficult
Last weekend, the best crossword puzzle solvers in the country gathered in Brooklyn to compete at the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, hosted by Will Shortz, the Puzzle Editor of the New York Times and Puzzle Master for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. After seven rounds, finalists solved the final puzzle on stage in front of hundreds who gathered to watch. They scribbled their answers in magic marker on giant puzzle grids held aloft on easels. Now you can try your luck at home by printing out one of the puzzles the finalists solved in the championship round.
The final puzzle comes in three variants. Each one has exactly the same answers, but the clues are set at differing levels of difficulty.
This puzzle, with "clue set A," features clues judged "extremely difficult." Print it out, challenge yourself, then join us Thursday at 3:40 EST, when you can talk with the man who came up with these diabolical clues, Mike Shenk, who constructs puzzles for the Wall Street Journal. We'll post the answers after the show.
Puzzle #8: Talent Show (Set B)
Very Difficult
The final puzzle of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament comes in three variants. Each one has exactly the same answers, but the clues are set at differing levels of difficulty.
This puzzle, with "clue set B," features clues judged "very difficult." Print it out, challenge yourself, then join us Thursday at 3:40 EST, when you can talk with the man who came up with these diabolical clues, Mike Shenk, who constructs puzzles for the Wall Street Journal. We'll post the answers after the show.
Puzzle #8: Talent Show (Set C)
Moderately Difficult
The final puzzle of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament comes in three variants. Each one has exactly the same answers, but the clues are set at differing levels of difficulty.
This puzzle, with "clue set C," features clues judged "moderately difficult." Print it out, challenge yourself, then join us Thursday at 3:40 EST, when you can talk with the man who came up with these diabolical clues, Mike Shenk, who constructs puzzles for the Wall Street Journal. We'll post the answers after the show.
