Capsule History

A U.S. vs. U.K. cryptic crossword contest, featuring one puzzle made in each country, was held on Friday night. Britain’s Mark Goodliffe won, finishing first on both puzzles. Other weekend highlights were a crossword magic performance by David Kwong, a team puzzle extravaganza based on TV’s “Amazing Race” by Greg Pliska and John Chaneski, and a crossword play, “Life Is Shortz,” written and directed by Lee Marcus. BIC and Penny Publications sponsored the tournament for the first time. Cartoonist Roz Chast presented the prizes. Dan Feyer won for the second year in a row.

Will Shortz

Capsule history of all previous years.

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Pictures from the Tournament

• Don Christensen: Friday Night | Saturday | Sunday | Sunday Playoffs
• Nancy Shack's Photos

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Blogs

If you blogged the tournament, Let us know and we'll add a link!

• ACPT Tweets
• Deb Amlen (Wordplay): Off to the Races | Wrap-Up
• Simon Anthony (Pieman): The US Crossword Championship, from the British perspective
• Ben Bass: Before | After
• Ross Beresford (An Englishman Solves American Crosswords): Crossword Man Speaks!
• Anne Erdmann (on Facebook): ACPT 2011
• Dan Feyer (Not a Blog): ACPT 2011: Bi-Winning!
• Angela Halsted (LA Crossword Confidential): ACPT Wrap-Up
• Tyler Hinman: That Puzzle Guy's Blog | Summary
• Dave and Robert Mackey (Puzzle Brothers): Dawn of a New Day | Two-Timin' Dan
• Victor Mather (NYT City Room): Puzzling Across and Down
• Patrick Merrell: 2011 ACPT Vignettes
• Mark Murphy: Words, words and more words | Saturday | Sunday
• Brendan Emmett Quigley: ACPT recap
• Andrew Ries (Aries Puzzles): ACPT Wrap-Up
• Nancy Ross: ACPT 2011
• Ryan and Brian do Crosswords: Preview #1 | Preview of ACPT: Final Podcast
• Dan Singer: National Crossword Tournament
• Ben Zimmer (Visual Thesaurus): Friday | CBS radio appearance | Saturday | Sunday

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YouTube Videos

• AARP's Inside E Street
• The 3 Playoffs, Talent Show, Roz Chast, "Life Is Shortz" play, Ross Beresford, and Magician David R. Kwong (thanks to Nancy Shack)
• "This Could Be My Year" (2011) by Parnell Hall. His annual song-summary of the tournament, including clips of Mimi Raphael and the Will Shortz play.
• The A Playoffs, posted by Ben Zimmer (Thanks, Ben!)

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In the News

• Roz Chast on Crossword Puzzles Robert Mankoff, The New Yorker [March 23, 2011]
• They’re No Squares: Crossword Contenders Battle at Marriott Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle [March 21, 2011]
• Across and Down, and Onward to Victory Victor Mather, The New York Times [March 18, 2011]
• 34th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament Comes to Brooklyn Jesse Schmitt, Yahoo! [March 18, 2011]

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More stuff

• Friday Night's U.S. vs. U.K. Crossword Showdown, winners and Ross Beresford's presentation, with video
• Roz Chast's Humorous Remarks, transcript and video
• Short biographies and pictures of this year's puzzlemakers

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Solving Perfection

The following 34 contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.

Peter Braxton, Patty Buethe, Jon Delfin, Joe Dipinto, Anne Erdmann, Dan Feyer, Amy Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Francis Heaney, Tyler Hinman, Susan Hoffman, Will Irving, Will Johnston, Bruce Kahn, Richard Kalustian, Joshua Kosman, Elaine Lippman, Frank Longo, Matt Matera, Marc Maximov, Rich Norris, Emily O'Neill, Trip Payne, David Plotkin, Arnold Reich, Ellen Ripstein, Richard Romano, Dan Sadoff, Andrew Snyder, Ken Stern, Roberta Strauss, Dave Tuller, Robert White, John Wilson.

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Constructors and Officials — 2011

Director	Will Shortz
Constructors	Kelly Clark, Bonnie L. Gentry, Vic Fleming, Maura Jacobson, Pete Muller, Mike Nothnagel, Merl Reagle, Mike Shenk, Ashish Vengsarkar, Narayan Venkatasubramanyan. Friday night puzzles: Don Manley and Richard Silvestri. Click for short biographies and pictures of this year's puzzlemakers
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	Roz Chast
Judges and referees (in alphabetical order)
Deb Amlen, Leslie Ann, Doug Ashleigh, Katie Carroll, Yang-Yang Chen, Mark Danna, Nikhil Dhingra, Joe DiPietro, John Dunn, Vic Fleming, Nancy Fried, Ethan Friedman, Rayzi Furer, Matt Gaffney, Paula Gamache, Bonnie Gentry, Matt Ginsberg, Elizabeth Gorski, Doug Heller, Carol Henry, Helene Hovanec, Joan Hume, Marvin Hume, David Kahn, Linda Kahn, Francine Kaplan, Marilyn Kelly, Ian Kerrigan, Bob Klahn, Joan Kuhn, David Kwong, Jeff Levene, Donna Levin, Steve Levy, Randie Lipkin, Ian Livengood, Pat McGlashan, Sharen McKay, Pat Merrell, Nicole Mobley, Pete Muller, Bob Nacht, Irmari Nacht, Stan Newman, Mike Nothnagel, Evan O’Donnell, Jim Page, Nancy Parsons, Fred Piscop, Iris Prager, Brendan Quigley, Merl Reagle, Laurie Resnick, Kenisha Rhooms, Carmelita Riley, Peter Ritmeester, Sara Sadin, Nancy Schuster, Mike Shenk, Rich Silvestri, Michael Smith, Lloyd Stableford, Donna Tessitore, Jessica Tran, Ashish Vengsarkar, Bruce Venzke, Emily Volz, Byron Walden, Penny Weinstein, Brad Wilber.

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