Congratulations, Paolo Pasco!
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Congratulations!
B division
C division
Pairs division
See Standings for all results.
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Year 47 • 2025 • 787 Solo contestants • 102 Pairs contestants • 252 Virtual Solo contestants, 94 Pairs contestants
A record 889 contestants (including 102 solvers in the Pairs division) took part in the in-person event. Special guests on Friday night were David Balton and Jane Stewart, the Acrostic creators for the New York Times. They led an Acrostic solving competition. That was followed by a contest to solve three unpublished variety puzzles from Games World of Puzzles magazine. On Saturday night Stan Newman became the ninth recipient of the Merl Reagle MEmoRiaL Award for lifetime achievement in crossword construction — with film, Powerpoint, and personal tributes. Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley, the director and producer of "Wordplay," showed excerpts from their 2006 documentary and offered reminiscences. On Sunday morning the magician and crossword constructor David Kwong performed parts of his hit show "The Enigmatist." Paolo Pasco, 24, won the tournament for the second time, crushing the playoff puzzle in 3 minutes 43 seconds.
~ Will Shortz
Capsule history of all previous years.
Posted as they become available.
Interviews from the Live Stream of Constructors, Solvers and Officials, conducted by John Lieb
Contact [email protected] to have your content listed
Information for Rookies (pdf)
Answers to Friday Puzzles: Acrostic | Variety Puzzles
Solve the 2025 Puzzles Anytime: Online | Snail Mail
The following 175 contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.
Ken Aaron, Adam Aaronson, Sue Adams, Dane Afman, Jack Ausick, Dave Bardolph, Gretchen Bath, Laura Bauer, Owen Bergstein, Mike Berman, Julie Bernhardt, Matthew Besse, Melissa Bethel, Chelsea Blink, Jonathan Blythe, Joseph Bockskopf, Katja Brinck, Patty Buethe, Aaron Byrd, Gavin Byrnes, Brian Callahan, Nate Cardin, Kate Chin Park, Kevan Choset, Cathy Ciccolella, David Cole, Brian Cross, Sarah Culp, Kevin Der, Adam Doctoroff, Sam Donaldson, Sam Doucet, John Doucette, Alexandra Doumani, Carmen Dreyer, Evan Druce, Matt Du, Christopher Dufault, Alice Dutton, Vicki Eastus, Jamie Edwards, Katherine Edwards, Laura Effinger-Dean, William Eisenberg, Katie Eschbacher, Andrew Esten, Rachel Fabi, Jason Faulhaber, Steve Feldman, Dan Feyer, Larry Finer, Erin FitzGerald, Brian Fodera, Josh Forsythe, Martin Fox, Jeff Frank, Howard Friedman, Kristy Gardner, Lisa Glukhovsky, Jordan Goldberg, Peter Gordon, Raymond Goslow, Trevor Greissinger, Matthew Grieco, Victoria Groce, Randy Guggenheimer, William Hall, Kate Hawkins, Billy Hepfinger, Jesse Hergert, Tyler Hinman, Chris Hoelck, Annie Hu, Adam Isaacson, Zoe Jacoby, Jason Keller, Paul Kennedy, Molly Knapp, Sandy Knight, Leigh Korn, Andy Kravis, Hannah Krug, Max Kurzman, Jenna LaFleur, Steve Langer, Rob LaRose, Sandy Lawrence, Matthew Leal, Joan Leib, Jeff Levinson, Michael Lieberman, Ilana Lifshitz, Andrew Lim, Jessica Lindoerfer, Tom Lingner, Mary Long, Patrick Lowery, Dave Mackey, Bret Martin, Phil Matthews, Sam Mattson, Phoebe McBee, Anna McCallie, Michael Megargee, Mack Meller, Mark Misener, Michael Morowitz, Reuben Moss, Rafael Musa, Christopher Myers, Shannon Nabors, Mike Nawrocki, Thomas Nawrocki, Will Nediger, Leigh Newman, Sara Nies, John Nord, Adav Noti, Jon Olsen, Angela Olson, Emily O'Neill, Betsy O'Phelan, Dan O'Rourke, Michael Paleos, Debbie Panebianco, David Park, Paolo Pasco, Doug Peterson, Kelly Petitt, David Phethean, Greg Pliska, David Plotkin, Amanda Rafkin, Arnold Reich, Maureen Rekrut, Elaine Renner, Justine Rhue, Claire Rimkus, Adam Rosenfield, Christopher Ross, Nancy Ross, Glen Ryan, Al Sanders, Matt Sandler, Hollie Schmidt, Sarah Schoonhoven, Dan Schwartz, Jay Schwartz, Jeffrey Schwartz, Rocky Schwarz, Mike Shaw, Miriam Sicherman, Rose Sloan, Ryan Smith, Foster Song, Jaime Stearns, David Steinberg, Roberta Strauss, Andrew Sullivan, Bruce Sutphin, Alexia Tate, Burak Tekin, Alexandra Teper, Jen Thatcher, Benjamin Tolkin, George Tolley, Jenn Turney, Stacey Ustian, Alex Vlamis, Karen von Haam, Robert White, Judith Wilkins, John Wilson, Stella Zawistowski, Laura Zipin.
The following 6 pairs contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.
Penelope Harper / Michael Sharp, Katie Zheng/Jacob Laviolette, Grace Warrington / Greg Warrington, John Kugelman Sr. / John Kugelman Jr., Sko Orbach/Tony Orbach, Marcy Prem/Alison Wang
The following 49 solo and 12 pairs contestants solved all 7 puzzles with no mistakes.
Scott Aldworth, Joshua Allfree, Paige Anderson, Carolyn Anzia, Ryan Booker, Brian Chu, Carla Cook, Amanda Darby, Daniel Ferleger, Robert Fisch, Michelle Gao, Jennifer Gottschalk, Mark Guppy, Peter Gwinn, Greg Herchenroether, Jerome Hinkel, Michael Holcomb, Betsy Hook, Liz Hughston, John Hussey, Lauren Jackson, Richard Kalustian, Susan Keefer, Andrew Kirk, Monica Krausse, Matthew Lees, Stewart Lelievre, Riley Lewis, Keith Manchester, Val Marsden Fitzhugh, Dale Masel, James Miller, David Moulton, Alex Peebles-Capin, Dawn Ross, Bartek Shaarani, Thomas Shakow, Jason Shapiro, Noah Snyder, Eytan Solomon, Phillip Steindel, Matt Steinpreis, Carol Walker, Samantha Walsh, Martina Waluk, Christine Watras, Charlie Wentling, David Whitney, Rosaline Wu, Kristen Baxter / Andrew Baxter, Liz Burton / Debra Reich, Kali Carys / Julie Hersh, Leah Fruchtman / Beth Fruchtman, Dawn Goldsmith / Warren Firschein, Matthew Moran / Julie Vladika, Susan Morrow / Lori Mitchell, Alex Munz / Alex Rohrer, Dennis Porcelli / Eli Becker, Marcia Simon / David Snyder, Anne Slevin / Dana Slevin, Cass Worling / Ian WorlingConstructors are listed alphabetically
| Will Shortz | Tournament Director |
| Michael Smith | Tournament Coordinator |
| Nancy Parsons | Lead Tech Team and Webmaster |
| Mike Nothnagel | Lead Judge |
| Dave Sullivan | Virtual Tournament Director |
| Amuse Labs | Virtual Tournament Support |
| Don Christensen | Photographer |
| Livestream Crew | Alhasan Mohamed, Danyal Hassan |
| Joe Cabrera | Database Preparer |
| David Park | Optimized Results developer |
| Greg Pliska and Ophira Eisenberg | Playoff Announcers |
| Special Guests | David Balton and Jane Stewart - NY Times Acrostics; Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley - Wordplay; David Kwong - Entertainer |
| MERL Award Honoree | Stan Newman |
| Judges and referees (in alphabetical order) | |
| Emily Anthony, Michelle Arnot, Doug Ashleigh, David Balton, Howard Barkin, Ben Bass, Tracy Bennett, Eric Berlin, Allison Broad, David Broad, Erin Broad, Katie Byl, Helen Christian, Kevin Christian, Oscar Cimmet, Brian Cimmet, Maria Corpuz, Loren Crary, Betsy Daly, Didi Dean, Joe Dipietro, Margaret Dipietro, Trent Evans, Beth Evans, Ivelyne Eysenburg, Sam Ezersky, Julianna Fabrizio, Joel Fagliano, Jazzy Fisher, Vic Flemming, Robyn Franke, Mary Frazho, Mangesh Ghogre, Tracy Gray, Zach Guido, Damon Gulczynski, Bruce Haight, Katherine Hass, Francis Heaney, Cinda Hocking, Scott Hogan, Patricia Hollohan, Brooke Husic, Christina Iverson, Aiden Jasul, Jasmin Jasul, Madelyn Jasul, Adrian Johnson, Josh Knapp, Natan Last, Bonnie Leach, Katie Lieb, John Lieb, Barb Lin, Wyna Liu, Ian Livingood, Aimie Lucido, Hannah Margolin, Ruth Margolin, Angel Marvin, Jacob McDermott, Patrick Merril, Valerie Meyer, Andrea Carla Michaels, Nicole Mobley, Stan Newman, Mike Nothnagel, Jan O'Sullivan, Lea Pahk, Sarah Pahk, Sam Pahk, Carolyn Pahk, Nancy Parsons, Fred Piscop, Rich Proulx, Brendan E Quigley, Jill Rafaloff, Judy Raphael, Ruth Raphael, Adrienne Raphael, Peter Ritmeester, Chip Rodgers, Una Rose/Midnight, David Rosen, Jess Rucks, Jim Russell, Jane Scheffsky, Walter Schmitz, Mike Shenk, Jack Sherban, Sid Sivakumar, Vanessa Smith, Michelle Sontarp, Jane Stewart, Dave Sullivan, Mary Tobler, Sarah Tolles, Nina Vadnere, Quiara Vasquez, Ashish Vengsarkar, Adam Vincent, Harrison Walden, Byron Walden, Robyn Weintraub, Brad Wilber, Yang Yang, Jen Yuan, Blake Zimmer, Ben Zimmer | |
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