Day: January 24, 2026

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Black Crossword: Mini by Juliana Pache.
Club 72: Freestyle 1083: “Buy low, sell high.” by Tim Croce. .pdf, .puz only
Crossword Nexus Blog: Puzzle #147: Chain Chain Chain (crossword with meta) by Alex Boisvert
David Alfred Bywaters: Put It in Reverse by David Alfred Bywaters.
Queerty: Queerty Crossword #471 by Queerty.
Southern Crosswords: southern crosswords mini #106 by michael.
Apple News: ($) Freestyle by Kelsey Dixon. News+ Subscription Required
Apple News Mini: ($) Daily Mini by Taylor Johnson. News+ Subscription Required
The Atlantic: by Amanda Rafkin; edited by Kelsey Dixon.
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago-Style (Mini) Crossword by Kelsey Dixon.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword by Ada Nicolle.
Crossword Flow: ($) by Matthew Luter. iPad-exclusive app.
Matt Gaffney’s Weekly Crossword Contest: ($) MGWCC #921 -“Let’s Turn This Around” (Meta) by Matt Gaffney. Subscribe at Patreon.
Morning Brew: Editor’s Notes by Jack Murtagh.
Puzzmo: Ditto! by Willa. Online only
Puzzmo: Mini Crossword by Brooke Husic. Online only
Reason: Take Home Essayist by Stella Zawistowski.
Spyscape: Spies in the Spelling by Joshua Palmer.
The Walrus: You’ve Cracked the Code by Emma Lawson.

The Boston Globe: Mini Crossword by Sowmya Ramkumar.
Los Angeles Times: by Rafael Musa & Geoffrey Schorkopf. Create free Cruciverb account for .puz.
Los Angeles Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski.
Merriam Webster: The Missing Letter by Matt Gaffney
New York Magazine: Many Happy Returns by Matt Gaffney.
New York Sun: ($) Adaptees by Ogden Porter. Reissues from 2008.
New York Times: ($) by Adrian Johnson and Ryan McCarty.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano.
Newsday: Saturday Stumper by David P. Williams. Online .pdf
Universal: ($) Universal Freestyle 208 by Boaz Moser. Direct link to .puz.
USA Today: Exit Left by Matthew Luter.
Vox: Transfiguration by Will Nediger.
The Wall Street Journal: A Chorus Line by Desirée Penner & Jeff Sinnock. Direct link to .puz.

Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Crossherd: Daily Mini. Online only
Crosswordr Community: Community Puzzle Platform.
Crosswords with Friends: Smartypants Saturday App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Midi Puzzle App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Mini Puzzle App Store | Google Play
Daily POP Crosswords: by Mark McClain. App Store | Google Play, Online, phone app only
India Mini Crossword: Daily Mini
LunaMini: D-pad (Mini crossword) by Luna. Online only
Mangesh Ghogre’s Indian Mini Crosswords: Daily Mini by Mangesh Ghogre.
The New Dork Times: New Dork Times Puzzle: Mini 189 by Cole Rush. Subscribe at link.
PlayFour: ($) Daily Puzzle. Online only
Squared Away: ($) Daily Puzzle. Online only
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic Online only
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Frank Longo.

Sporcle: Daily Acrostic. Online only
Tortoiseshell Studio: ($) Snake Criss-Cross by Nathan Curtis. Patreon subscription.

Financial Times: FT Crossword .pdf only
Financial Times: FT Crossword: Polymath .pdf only
Financial Times: FT Weekend Magazine Crossword .pdf only
Gemelo Cryptic: Cryptic
The Hindu Cryptic: Daily Cryptic .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword .pdf, online only
WSJ Variety: Acrostic by Mike Shenk. Direct link to .pdf.

Support Daily Crossword Links

Check out the DCL’s staff recommendations from last week’s puzzles

Other American-style links:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | “Crosscord” Discord | Crucidrama (en español) | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Easy Crossword (Newsday Archives) | FreeDailyCrosswords | Medium Crossword (Newsday Archives) | Hard Crossword (Newsday Archives) | r/crossword | USA Today Reviews and Discussion at Off the Grid | Squares.io | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety links:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | CoxRathvon.com | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener


Crossworld News & Notes: Looking ahead to Spring

One of the online crossword community’s annual traditions is a tongue-in-cheek play on awards season: the ORCAS (an anagram of OSCAR) celebrate the previous year in puzzles. Rich Proulx, who heads the effort, passes on the following blurb kicking off this year’s awards.

There’s something special about the 14th ORCAS.

Sure, we added five new awards (did someone say cryptics?) Yeah, the ballot contains 15 categories comprised of 124 nominations from 59 different outlets. But, this year, you can solve these spectacular ORCA-nominated puzzles in our first-ever puzzle pack!

All funds raised support The Trevor Project, a suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth. Although suicide rates for LGBTQ+ youth are surging (39% seriously considered suicide in 2024), HHS terminated its contract for FY2026.

The puzzle pack includes 76 ORCA-nominated puzzles from 44 outlets plus five original puzzles from the Constructor of the Year nominees. Along with the puzzle pack, donors will receive early access to the ORCAS ballot, which will be posted publicly on February 3.

For information on how to make a donation and receive the puzzle pack, email:  theorcaawards@gmail.com. 

Join us for the ORCA awards on Monday, February 23 at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET. Co-hosts David Kwong and Ophira Eisenberg will be live at https://www.youtube.com/@orcaawards along with T Campbell, Aimee Lucido, Laura Braunstein, Katie Grogg, Christina Iverson, Ben Tausig, Stella Zawistowski, Andy Kravis, Brad Wilber, Mangesh Ghogre, Peter Collins, H. Kim Vu, Rafael Musa, Lynn Lempel, and more.

Do you want to know just how good it’s going to be? Check out this sneak preview.

Several members of the DCL team are nominators for the ORCAS, and we’re thrilled to see 59 different outlets represented this year.

As expected for the final year in Stamford, the ACPT sold out rapidly this year. If you missed out on an in-person spot, you can still register at the tournament website for the concurrent online competition, and mark your calendars now for 2027’s tournament in Philadelphia, April 30-May 2.

Before we get there, Boswords’ annual Winter Wondersolve, a fully online event, takes place next Sunday, February 1 and features four puzzles from 1:00 to 4:30 PM Eastern. 

If you’re local enough to Westport, CT, the annual Westport Library Tournament (also run by Will Shortz) takes place two weekends from now, on February 7th.

Boswords’ Spring Themeless League will also likely start up prior to ACPT. More on that as it’s announced. 

Post-ACPT, the crew at Westwords have announced their 2026 event will again take place in Berkeley, CA on June 14. Westwords offers both an in-person and online tournament, and new this year will have an in-person pairs division. I believe the in-person event has sold out every year so far, so don’t hesitate to make plans if you’re interested. 

Andy Kravis maintains a Google Doc here staying up to date on all known tournaments throughout the year. Worth bookmarking for a quick reference!

The team behind These Puzzles Fund Abortion, which has raised nearly $400K for abortion funds and access to healthcare since 2021, have announced TPFA6 coming later this spring. More details coming in the next few weeks.

Keep an eye out on our lists in early February for an expanded puzzle section from Toronto-based newspaper The Globe and Mail. We’re expecting a daily mini, a weekend 21x, and cryptics from the legendary Fraser Simpson finally available online. 

Thanks to all who donated to our year-end fundraiser. If you donated and have not received the puzzle pack, either I mistyped your email or I don’t know your email. Please reach out to crosswordlinks [at] gmail [dot] com. 

You can of course donate to our project at any time of the year, and will be automatically added to the list for our next fundraiser pack. More information at our Support Us page.