ACPT 2024: A Rookie Report

by Will Eisenberg

Will is a French horn player, music teacher, and crossword constructor located in the Twin Cities. He is the current 3rd horn of Orchestra Iowa and a founding member of the Minnesota Horn Quartet. More of his puzzles can be found on the blog Half-Baked Puzzles.

Wow.

What follows is a spoiler-free recap of my first American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. There have been plenty of stories from the ACPT this year, but I had more thoughts than I could fit into a Twitter thread, and I thought it might be interesting to share a log of what it was like to compete at ACPT—not just participate, but train for and attempt to do my best during the tournament, and not as an A division legend but as a (hopefully) scrappy rookie.

“Training” is a funny word in crosswords. Few solvers at ACPT would even admit to training; the most you might get is a taciturn “Well, I didn’t solve as many puzzles as I would’ve liked this year.” But ACPT is, ultimately, a competition. A competition attended by an incredibly friendly and supportive group of competitors, with a large contingent of solvers who don’t care about the speed solving aspect at all, but a competition nevertheless.

For me, training started this summer, in the run-up to Lollapuzzoola. I was very new to paper solving at Lolla, and making the leap from solving on the computer to solving on paper was a surprisingly big stumbling block. I was used to hopping around, always having the clue at my fingertips, and paper solving took that all away. So I chose to participate in the Local Division, the gentler of their two options. My plan was to make up the time I would lose navigating easier puzzles on paper by catching up on the tougher puzzle four—and the plan worked well enough to get me onto the big boards, where I promptly finished third (of three) and left a square blank. But I had caught the bug. 

I started printing off every daily puzzle, amassing a clipboard of paper solves and tearing through books full of prior ACPT puzzles. I bought a cheap laser printer. I began to gain a modicum of familiarity with the rhythm of solving on paper, as opposed to on the computer. Maximum difficulty puzzles slowly felt more and more approachable. The total number of solves, when the dust settled, was 2,300 puzzles. Among these were plenty of midis and minis and other computer solves, but I’d estimate I did at least 1,500 full-size puzzles on paper.

I set my goals for ACPT as high as I could: take home a trophy from the rookie division, one from the Midwest division, and make the C boards (top three, essentially, although this year top five would suffice, with Will Nediger moving to the A boards and Ryan Judge moving to the B boards). Easy enough, right? But I figured I could allow myself to dream big if I focused on the process, rather than worrying about the end result or obsessively comparing myself to solvers around my level.

In Stamford, before the solving came the people. It’s something you hear from everyone, and it’s even printed in the welcome packet how approachable people at ACPT are. But it’s another thing to experience it in person. One minor earthquake aside, Friday was a whirlwind of meeting all my crossword heroes. Having a connection to so many folks, whether via collaboration, editing, being edited by, or just plain admiration made socializing easier than it’s ever been for me. It didn’t really need confirmation, but these are my people. I almost felt like an extrovert, flitting from one interaction to the next over wine and cheese. An exhaustive list of the folks who were so gracious to me with their time would be impossible, but suffice it to say it included New York Times editors, some of the best constructors in the business, and absolute gods of speed solving.

A word, too, on the hosts and organizers. Will Shortz was recovering from a stroke, but still managed to open and close the tournament, and do so with an inspiring amount of energy and poise. Seeing the community united in several ovations for him was really moving. Pete Muller, standing in as host for the rest of the puzzles, did a stellar job. Above all, he projected an atmosphere of calm that was really crucial for me that weekend. There were a few hitches, and moments of disorganization, including notes before two puzzles about small editorial typos, but this just drove home for me the huge amount of impact Will Shortz has on making the weekend run smoothly. So many volunteers helped make the tournament go, and among their number too were more friends than I can count who helped me get through everything. I didn’t hear about a single issue with scoring for anyone, which seems astounding!

I was pretty much a wreck before the first puzzle. I did my best to get good sleep and stay hydrated, but I still wasn’t exactly feeling my best by the time it rolled around. I made it through, slowly, with one massive misstep that I managed to catch by checking my work. It didn’t feel like “speed solving,” but it got the job done. Getting that first puzzle down definitely eased the nerves, and puzzle two, a clever offering by Anna Shechtman, was one of the smoothest solves of the weekend for me.

I managed to avoid another massive mistake on puzzle three, and finished it cleanly despite needing to engage some serious brainpower to make sense of the theme when checking my paper. My feeling after finishing puzzle four was “everything that could’ve gone wrong, did go wrong.” I didn’t know how right that was at the time. I knew I did a lot of erasing and fixing mistakes, but I took the extra minute to check over my puzzle and figured I had muddled through cleanly. Not so. I had erased part of an entry, solved one of its crossers, and been baffled by the other. I never came back to it, and whatever pencil marks I left in the box were enough for me to ignore it when I checked my work. That one error cost about eight minutes of solving time. At ACPT, clean is paramount.

When puzzle five, the killer puzzle of the weekend came around, I had no idea I’d made an error yet, and I’m glad I didn’t. P5, as it’s called, is by far the scariest part of the weekend, and I knew all my training might not be enough. I put my head down, determined to grind my way through the puzzle clue by clue. As it turns out, it was easier than expected, and a more holistic approach might’ve saved me a chunk of time. I had spent the lunch break obsessively fretting over possible curveballs puzzle five might throw at us, and had managed to hit on the correct answer among that lunchtime litany. Did it pop out to me right away? Not at all, I was far too focused! Still, I finished, relatively confident I had done it cleanly, with fifteen minutes left out of a possible thirty on the clock. Easy or not, I smashed my expectations on puzzle five by, well, fifteen minutes.

Puzzle six was probably my favorite of the weekend. Constructed by Robyn Weintraub, it felt like sinking into a warm bath. Comfortable, relaxed, and safe. Then it was off to socialize again, and to discover I’d made an error on puzzle four. It definitely hurt. The worst part about leaving a square blank is it feels hard to take a lesson away—it’s not something I didn’t know, and it’s not like I skipped the chance to check my work. It just … was. But being fully out of contention for the C boards also made getting to sleep a little easier.

My goal for puzzle seven, the last of the weekend, was just to be methodical and clean. I had, in my mind, little left to play for, and just wanted to save any further big slip-ups. So I took my time and finished it—cleanly. As it turns out, puzzle four was my only mistake on the weekend. I would’ve needed another minute here or there to make the C boards, even without the mistake, but the “what if” game at ACPT is fruitless anyway. The extra speed I would’ve needed could’ve led to a spate of errors elsewhere.

Preparing for ACPT was a ton of work. A “no days off” mentality meant I was grinding through puzzles, not all of which I loved, on days when I was sick, or upset, or traveling for work. I’m sure a lot of people would say, “Well, why bother with something so frivolous? Why ‘work’ for it at all?” But I never stopped enjoying the journey, and all the benefits I reaped along the way: working to hone my skills as a speed solver has made me a better constructor, and a better editor, and helped grow relationships with the constructors I solved. And the final results of the weekend, blank square or no, were really as good as I could’ve hoped. Top 10% overall, top 5% among rookies, one mistake total. I genuinely admire the folks who can go through the weekend without that hunger for competition. But pushing to be the best version of myself I can be is a part of me I’m not able to turn off. I wouldn’t trade the joy and satisfaction I felt at the end of the weekend to rid myself of the stress and worry that came along with it.

Yes, ACPT is a competition. But at the end of the day, it really is about the people. Competing with crossword folks feels safe, and friendly. I have nothing but genuine admiration for every solver who outpaced me, and I think that sentiment is widespread. That’s what I’d tell anyone who’s curious about trying speed solving, but isn’t sure about it: it’s okay to try your best, it’s okay to work hard for it, and it’s okay to do all that and still fail. You’ll be among friends when you do. And there’s a sense of satisfaction that can only be found on the other side of hard work–even if that work is really pretty fun. 

A real full circle moment for me was seeing Andrea Carla Michaels receive a lifetime achievement award on Friday night. She’s my distant cousin (yes, doubters, it’s true) and the reason I got into puzzle construction in the first place. I wouldn’t have even known crossword construction was a thing you could do without hearing about Andrea’s exploits. More than that, she helped me for months in making my first crossword, and that collaboration, and first “yes” from David Steinberg, hooked me on making puzzles. Without her, I’d never have ended up in that ballroom. Without her, I’d never have known everything I stood to gain from crosswords. A trophy? Sure, the trophy’s pretty great. But more importantly, crosswords has given me a passion. A hobby, and a side hustle. A community.

Thanks, crossworld. Thanks, ACPT. See you next year. Training started the Monday after ACPT.