 Don Christensen
Champion Tyler Hinman with Will Shortz
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Congratulations!
B division
C division
See left panel for all results. Updated 3/22/09
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Capsule History
Thanks to a new computer program by Matt Ginsberg, the contestants' solutions were marked by judges with special pens and then scanned into a computer for automatic scoring. Contestants could visit the tournament website to see scans of their own puzzles to check for accuracy of the judging and satisfy their curiosity. The Friday night program included a panel discussion on "Blogging Crosswords," with Amy Reynaldo (a k a Crossword Fiend), Michael Sharp (Rex Parker), Ryan Hecht/Brian Cimmet (of Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords), and Jim Horne (of Wordplay). Tetsuya Miyamoto, the inventor of KenKen, introduced the new Japanese logic puzzle, and Amanda Yesnowitz sang an original parody about it. This was followed by a KenKen contest. Tyler Hinman, still officially a Junior, won his fifth straight ACPT in a nail-biting come-from-behind playoff victory. Robert Irvine, a celebrity chef for the Food Network, prepared the awards lunch. The lunch and the tournament as a whole were filmed for an episode of "Dinner: Impossible," to be aired in May.
Will Shortz
Capsule history of all 32 years.
Videos
You Tube Video Page
- Nancy Shack (higher-res than YouTube): "A" | "B" | "C" | KenKen song | Bloggers Panel
Dinner Impossible Videos [Thank you Nancy Shack!]
On Nancy's server (high-res): Part 1 | Part 2
On YouTube: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Dinner: Impossible website
To purchase a DVD of the tournament for only $5, provided by Nancy Shack, click the "Buy DVD" button. It's 2h 10 min and has the talk by Tetsuya Miyamoto, Blogger's Panel, KenKen Song, Finals, Awards, and other stuff. Or you can email nshack@comcast.net, who will accepts checks and green stamps.
Podcast
Pictures from the Tournament
- Jeremy Zilar's NYT Blog Slideshows: See Jim Horne's blog
- Don Christensen: Friday Night Judges Dinner | Friday Night | Saturday Night | Playoffs
- Lorinne's Flickr Page
- Nancy Shack's Photobucket
Blogosphere
- Eric Berlin: One day we’ll be watching this on ESPN2
- Ross Beresford: An Englishman Solves American Crosswords
- Dan Feyer: ACPT 2009: The Puzzles | The Experience
- Tyler Hinman: The story of #5, part 1 | Yet more from Brooklyn
- Jim Horne [NYT]: ACPT
- ilivetolearn: ACPT: An Excercise in Humility
- Patrick Merrell: ACPT Snapshots | Finals Cartoon
- Mark Murphy: Fun at the puzzle tournament
- Miriam H. Nadel: ACPT
- Rex Parker: Tournament recap
- Trip Payne: 2009 ACPT
- Brendan Emmett Quigley: ACPT Wrapup | Another ACPT posting
- Amy Reynaldo: ACPT roundup (no spoilers)
- Ellen Ripstein: Crossword Tournament recap - better late than never
- Ryan and Brian do Crosswords: The 2009 ACPT
- Times for the Times: Snippets
- Ben Zimmer's Word Routes: Friday | Saturday | Sunday | A Last Look Back
Solving Perfection
The following 49 contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.
John Beck, Janet Bradlow, Adam Cohen, Marisa Cohen, Frank Colangelo, Stella Daily, Jon Delfin, Len Elliott, Dan Feyer, Leslie Frates, Thomas Gazzola, Amy Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Rolf Hamburger, Brent Hartzell, Patricia Heath, Tyler Hinman, Doug Hoylman, Will Johnston, Richard Kalustian, Dan Katz, Stephen Kawalek, Joshua Kosman, John LaMattina, Andrew Laurence, Elaine Lippman, Frank Longo, Eric Maddy, Phoebe McBee, John McNeill, Bill Michaels, Jan O'Sullivan, Trip Payne, Bob Petitto, Arnold Reich, Amy Reynaldo, Al Sanders, Suzanne Saunders, Ken Stern, Roberta Strauss, Steve Tice, Jennifer Turney, Mary Ann Wamsley, Larry Wasser, Thomas Weisswange, John Wilson, Brian Levinson, Howard Friedman, Francis Heaney.
More stuff
- "KenKen" by Amanda Yesnowitz, performed Saturday night
- Distribution Charts by Puzzle — Thanks to Mel Rosen for running these analyses!
- Karen's ACPT Results Site: Charts of your personal results by year or cumulatively. (Very cool!)
In the News
- Explanatory Information Is Revealed - Wordplay Blog - NYTimes.com Jim Horne, The New York Times [April 4, 2009]
- War of the words: A crossword puzzle tournament rookie tests himself agains the best Dan Margolies, Kansas City Star [April 3, 2009]
- Among the fast and furious Rose Wynn, Silver Chips Online [March 7, 2009]
- Crossword connoisseur Elliott takes 3rd in national tourney Robert Whale, Auburn Reporter [March 6, 2009]
- Alumni Compete, Win at Crossword Tournament Corrina Kerr, Wesleyan Connection [March 5, 2009]
- Will Shortz’ Puzzle Mania Returns to Brooklyn For Its Thirty-Third Year Caitlin McNamara , Brooklyn Daily Eagle [March 4, 2009]
- Puzzles Patricia Stark, Craving Confidence [March 3, 2009]
- Puzzle Guru Will Shortz M.J. Stephey, Time Magazine [March 2, 2009]
- Tournament heaven for crossword lovers unsigned, The Money Times [March 2, 2009]
- The Wordsmith Will Shortz, Robert W. Stock [March 1, 2009]
- 'Mr. Puzzle' heads to 32nd crossword tournament - recordonline.com - The Times Herald Record Victor Whitman, Times Herald-Record [February 28, 2009]
- 11 Across: Amy Reynaldo unsigned, NBCChicago.com [February 26, 2009]
- Chicago's crossword whiz heads to tournament Patrick T. Reardon, chicagotribune.com [February 26, 2009]
- How to solve a crossword puzzle James Y. Lee, Time Out New York [February 26, 2009]
- Crossword king stumps the master to win $1,000 Daniel Listwa, Local Source [February 4, 2009]
- Will Shortz Suggested… Library Tweaks Crossword Tournament Rules Marianne Sullivan, Valley Courier [January 22, 2009]
Officials — 2009
| Director | Will Shortz |
| Coordinator | Helene Hovanec |
| Webmaster | Doug Heller |
| Scoring Programmer | Matt Ginsberg |
| Database Preparer | Joe Cabrera |
| Online Tournament Manager | Peter Ritmeester |
| Photographer | Don Christensen |
| Nametags | Mike Shenk |
| Playoff Announcers | Neal Conan and Merl Reagle |
| Special Guest | Tetsuya Miyamoto |
| Judges and referees (in alphabetical order) | |
| Deb Amlen, Doug Ashleigh, Augustine Bartning, Ken Bessette, Maxine Bleiweis, Jessica Bozarth, Erica Byrne, Melissa Casey, Carol Cate, Yang-Yang Chen, Robert Colsom, Liz Donovan, Evie Eysenburg, Vic Fleming, Ethan Friedman, Paula Gamache, Bonnie Gentry, Matt Ginsberg, Maru Gonzalez, Elizabeth Gorski, Doug Heller, Helene Hovanec, Todd Hovanec, Joan Hume, Marvin Hume, Maura Jacobson, Jamaica Jones, Casey Julia, David Kahn, Linda Kahn, Eleanor Kohn, Susan Kohn, Joan Kuhn, Elizabeth Lang, Joel Lang, Jeff Levene, Pat Merrell, Andrea Carla Michaels, Bob Nacht, Irmari Nacht, Stan Newman, Jim Page, Nancy Parsons, Fred Piscop, Brendan Quigley, Bob Rattner, Merl Reagle, Laurie Resnick, David Rosen, Randy Ross, Laurie Ruben, Sara Sadin, Nancy Schuster, Mike Shenk, Rich Silvestri, Michael Smith, Allison Somers, Donna Tessitore, Jessica Tran, Ashish Vengsarkar, Bruce Venzke, Byron Walden, Susan West, and Brad Wilber, Jen Yuan | |