STAMFORD, Conn. — The Gary Lineker joke goes, “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.” Perhaps it’s not the strongest analogy given the current state of Die Mannschaft, but the sentiment definitely applies to the last decade-plus of competitive crossword solving. Since the 2005 edition of the sport’s most prestigious competition, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), was immortalized in the documentary Wordplay, only two people not named Tyler Hinman or Dan Feyer have won the A Final, the tournament’s highest level open to all competitors. Hell, only 14 different people have even made the A Final over that timespan, with just six names accounting for 44 of those 54 finalist slots.
But this year’s ACPT, held in a Marriott ballroom on April 5-7, featured a crop of contestants well-positioned to break Feyer and Hinman’s grip on the sport. Nearly all of the crossword community’s young guns and speediest online solvers made the trip to Stamford, and the old guard arrived knowing that solvers like Paolo Pasco and David Plotkin would be snapping at their heels.