Update: 30th Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

And the winner is, Tyler Hinman, the kid, now a 3-time winnder. Al Sanders came in second--I don't even want to now how close he came. Maybe we need a second documentary just focusing on him. Here are the 10 ten winners in category A from the official website:

Congratulations!

1. Tyler Hinman
2. Al Sanders
3. Francis Heaney
4. Trip Payne
5. Patrick Jordan
6. Ellen Ripstein
7. Kiran Kedlaya
8. Katherine Bryant
9. Jon Delfin
10. Dave Tuller

My own experience was fun, but with abyssmal results. I don't work well against the clock (had the same trouble with SATS). And, there were some functional quirks--e.g., for the daily online NY Times puzzle, you move from clue to clue by hitting tab, which is on the left. For the tournament software, you hit return, which is on the right. Any gamer will tell you that fingers/thumbs are hard to retrain, especially on the most basic keying.

Still, I'll be in it again next year. I read they are moving the tournament from Stamford, Ct., to Brooklyn, so maybe in person.

 Mapeel     3/26/2007