The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament: History, Format and How Scoring Works
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) is the oldest and largest crossword competition in the United States. Will Shortz founded it in 1978, and it still runs every spring. Solvers sit at long tables and work through seven timed puzzles over a weekend. Points come from correct words, a bonus for each full minute you beat the clock, and a big bonus for a perfect grid. The top three solvers in the main division then meet in a final playoff, solving one last puzzle on giant boards in front of a live audience.
That's the short version. The longer story is a lot more fun. It covers a tournament that started with 149 people in a Connecticut hotel, a scoring system that has barely changed since 1979, a documentary that doubled attendance, and a computer program that quietly outscored every human in the room. This guide walks through all of it, with the math shown so you can score a puzzle yourself.
What the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is
The official tournament site calls the ACPT the nation's oldest and largest crossword competition. Will Shortz, the crossword editor of The New York Times, directs it and acts as host and puzzlemaster. Each year's puzzles are original. They're written and edited just for the event, so nobody has seen them before the clock starts.
The basic weekend looks like this:
- Friday evening: sign-in, warm-up games and a social hour. Nothing on Friday counts toward the main standings.
- Saturday: the heart of the event. Puzzles 1, 2 and 3 run in the morning, and Puzzles 4, 5 and 6 run in the afternoon. There are more word games at night.
- Sunday morning: Puzzle 7, the last puzzle everyone solves. Then prizes are announced, and the playoff finalists are named.
- Sunday early afternoon: Puzzle 8, the championship playoff, solved on stage by the finalists.
That schedule comes straight from the 2026 tournament information page, which lists the session times for every puzzle. The tournament also offers games and talks between puzzles, but the seven scored puzzles plus the playoff are what decide the champion.
If you like crosswords but have never competed, it helps to know what kind of solving this is. Tournament puzzles are standard American-style grids with interlocking answers, not British cryptics. If you need a refresher on how those grids work, our guide to crossword puzzles covers the basics, and our guide to how to solve cryptic crosswords explains the British style.
Who started it: Will Shortz and the 1978 tournament
Will Shortz is one of the few people in the world with a college degree in puzzles. According to Indiana University's honors page, he finished an individualized major in "enigmatology," the study of puzzles, in 1974. The university describes him as the only graduate of IU, or any academic institution, with that degree. The same page notes that he founded the ACPT, has directed it since 1978, became crossword editor of The New York Times in 1993, and has been puzzlemaster for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday since 1987.
So the tournament is older than Shortz's time at the Times by fifteen years. That matters, because people sometimes assume the ACPT is a Times event. It isn't. It's Shortz's own tournament, with its own staff of constructors, judges and volunteers.
The tournament's capsule history describes the 1978 event as the first major American crossword tournament since the 1930s. It drew 149 contestants, and Nancy Schuster of Queens, New York, won it. That first year was scored differently from today: points went to correct letters, not correct words.
The format grew up fast:
- 1979: the first full weekend tournament, with warm-up puzzles and games on Friday night. Scoring switched to points per word with time bonuses, the system still used today.
- 1980: the first championship playoff among the top three contestants. The finalists solved on overhead projectors so the audience could follow along.
- 1982: People magazine ran a two-page spread, an early sign the event was catching on beyond puzzle fans.
How scoring works at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
This is the part most people want to understand, and it's simpler than it looks. The official tournament information lists three ingredients:
| Scoring element | Points | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Each correct word (Across and Down) | 10 | Accuracy, entry by entry |
| Each full minute finished before the time limit | 25 | Speed |
| Penalty on the speed bonus for each missing or wrong letter | minus 25 (the bonus can't go below zero) | Checking your work |
| Completely correct grid | 150 | A perfect solve |
A few definitions make the table clearer:
- Word: the rules define a word as any run of letters between black squares, or between a black square and the edge of the grid. A long phrase like a theme answer counts as one word.
- Time limit: each puzzle has a suggested solving time set by the organizers. Bigger, harder puzzles get more time. The rules page doesn't list the limits in advance.
- Full minute: only complete minutes count. Finishing 4 minutes and 50 seconds early earns 4 minutes of bonus, not 5.
Here's the clever part. Because the speed bonus shrinks by 25 points for every missing or wrong letter, racing carelessly doesn't pay. One typo costs you a minute of bonus and the 150-point perfect-grid bonus and the 10 points for each word that letter sits in (usually two words, one Across and one Down). That's why experienced solvers take a few seconds to scan their grid before raising a hand.
A worked scoring example
Let's score one puzzle three ways. These solvers are made up for illustration, and the numbers are chosen to keep the math easy. Say the puzzle has 76 words and a 15-minute time limit.
Solver A finishes perfectly in 9 minutes and 20 seconds.
- Words: 76 x 10 = 760
- Time left: 15:00 minus 9:20 = 5:40, so 5 full minutes. Speed bonus: 5 x 25 = 125
- Perfect grid: 150
- Total: 760 + 125 + 150 = 1,035
Solver B is faster, finishing in 7 minutes and 30 seconds, but has one wrong letter where two words cross.
- Words: 74 correct x 10 = 740 (the wrong letter spoils one Across and one Down word)
- Time left: 7:30, so 7 full minutes, or 175 points. Minus 25 for the wrong letter: 150
- Perfect grid: 0
- Total: 740 + 150 + 0 = 890
Solver C runs out of time with three empty squares, each in a different pair of words.
- Words: 76 minus 6 = 70 correct, so 700
- Time left: none, so no speed bonus (and the penalty can't push it below zero)
- Perfect grid: 0
- Total: 700
Solver B was almost two minutes faster than Solver A and still lost by 145 points. That single example explains most tournament strategy. Speed matters, but a clean grid matters more.
| Illustrative solver | Finish time | Errors | Word points | Speed bonus | Perfect bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 9:20 | 0 | 760 | 125 | 150 | 1,035 |
| B | 7:30 | 1 letter | 740 | 150 | 0 | 890 |
| C | 15:00 (time up) | 3 blanks | 700 | 0 | 0 | 700 |
How fast is "competitive"? The tournament gives one useful yardstick. For a sample medium puzzle from 2021, the information page says a 15-minute finish would be competitive and a time under 10 minutes would be excellent. Top finalists are much faster than that, as you'll see in the playoff section.
The divisions: everyone competes at once
One of the nicest things about the ACPT is that a first-timer and a nine-time champion solve the same puzzles in the same room at the same time. Nobody is sorted into a separate contest. Instead, each solver is automatically entered in every division they qualify for, and prizes are handed out within each one. The 2026 rules list these divisions:
| Division | Who's eligible |
|---|---|
| A | Everyone. This is the championship division. |
| B | Solvers who haven't won an A or B prize in their last seven tournaments |
| C | Solvers who haven't finished in the top 20% in their last three tournaments, plus all rookies |
| D | Solvers who haven't finished in the top 40% in their last three tournaments |
| E | Solvers who haven't finished in the top 65% in their last three tournaments |
| Rookies | First-time competitors (not eligible for D or E prizes) |
| Age groups | Juniors (25 and under), Fifties, Sixties, Seventies and Seniors (80 and over) |
| Regions | 11 regions, from Connecticut and New York City to the South, Midwest, West and Canada/Foreign |
| Pairs | Two people solving one copy together, in a separate room |
Think about what that means in practice. A rookie from Ohio in her sixties is competing in Division A, Division C, Rookies, Sixties and the Midwest region all at once, with a single set of scores. She probably won't win Division A, but she might take home a regional or age-group trophy.
The divisions are based on past results, not self-rating. That keeps strong solvers from sandbagging in a lower division. Once you win a B prize, for example, you're out of B for the next seven tournaments.
The Pairs division is newer. According to the capsule history, it arrived in 2024, when 66 pairs took part. Partners get two copies of each puzzle but turn in only one, and the rules ask them to keep talk to an occasional whisper.
The championship playoff: solving on stage
After Puzzle 7, the scores are totaled and the top solvers in Divisions A, B and C move on to a final playoff. The playoff is a separate puzzle, Puzzle 8, and it's the most famous part of the weekend.
Here's how it looks from the audience. The finalists stand at giant grids set up on stage. A 2008 ESPN The Magazine story, reprinted on the tournament site, describes the finals being played out "on massive wipe boards-turned-crossword puzzles." The same story notes that competitors wear headphones to drown out the crowd. A 2010 profile in the Princeton Alumni Weekly describes the final as a three-person contest held onstage, with headphones that play white noise to block out the commentators and audience.
Commentators, often well-known constructors, talk the audience through what's happening while the solvers can't hear a thing. When a finalist is done, they turn to the judges and say so. It's a strange mix of a spelling bee, a chess match and a sporting event, and fans love it.
A few details about how the playoff tends to work, drawn from the tournament's own history:
- Who makes it: the top three scorers in each playoff division after seven puzzles. The 1980 history entry describes the first playoff as being "among the top three contestants."
- Three playoff groups: the 2026 schedule says the Division A, B and C playoff contestants are announced together on Sunday, and that the A and B finals are called jointly by two commentators.
- Accuracy still counts: a fast finish with an error can lose to a slower clean grid, just like in the main rounds.
Playoff times are startlingly fast. The capsule history notes that Erik Agard set a record playoff time of 4 minutes 58 seconds in 2018, beating defending champion Dan Feyer. In 2025, Paolo Pasco finished the playoff puzzle in 3 minutes 43 seconds. Some finals are decided by tiny margins: in 2015, Dan Feyer beat Tyler Hinman "by a split second," and in 2023 Feyer beat Pasco by one second.
A history of the tournament, decade by decade
The capsule history keeps a year-by-year record, and it's one of the best sources anywhere on competitive crossword solving. Here are the big turning points.
1978 to 1999: a small, loyal crowd
For its first fifteen years, the ACPT stayed small. Attendance hovered between about 110 and 150, with a low of 110 in 1985. Growth picked up in the 1990s: 172 in 1992, 216 in 1994 and 254 in 1999. The champions of this era became legends among solvers. David Rosen won four times in the 1980s. Jon Delfin and Doug Hoylman traded the title for most of the late 1980s and 1990s, and Trip Payne won his first title in 1993.
2000 to 2009: the Wordplay effect
In 2001, Ellen Ripstein won the tournament, her first title after 18 years in the top five. Attendance passed 400 in 2002.
Then came the movie. Patrick Creadon's documentary Wordplay was built around the 2005 tournament, which the history notes was filmed in full. That same year, Tyler Hinman became the youngest champion in the tournament's history at 20. Publicity for the film drove a record crowd in 2006, and in 2007 attendance jumped to 698, so many people that the event spread across two ballrooms.
In 2008 the tournament left Stamford, Connecticut, for the first time, moving to the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott in New York City. That year Hinman became the first person to win four times in a row, and in 2009 he made it five straight. Also in 2009, scoring was computerized for the first time, using a program written by Matt Ginsberg. Ginsberg's name will come up again.
2010 to 2019: the Dan Feyer era
Dan Feyer won in 2010 and didn't stop. He won six in a row through 2015, becoming the first person to do so. That 2015 tournament was also the year the ACPT returned to the Stamford Marriott. In 2016, Howard Barkin pulled off a famous upset, beating Feyer in the playoff. Feyer came back to win in 2017, Erik Agard won in 2018 with his record playoff time, and Feyer won again in 2019 for a record eighth title. The 2019 tournament drew 741 contestants, including more than 200 rookies.
2020 to today: cancellation, going virtual and record crowds
The 2020 tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021 the ACPT went fully online for the first time, using puzzle software from Amuse Labs. With no travel needed, 1,287 people took part. Tyler Hinman won that year, beating Erik Agard by eight seconds in the playoff.
In-person solving returned in 2022, with a virtual tournament running alongside. Hinman won again, his seventh title. Feyer took his ninth in 2023. In 2024, for the first time since 2001, no past champion made the Division A final, and Paolo Pasco won. That year Will Shortz led the tournament from a wheelchair while recovering from a stroke. Pasco won again in 2025, when a record 889 people competed in person.
The 2026 tournament was the last at the Stamford Marriott, with 915 in-person contestants, and Erik Agard won his second title. According to the tournament homepage, the 2027 event moves to the Sheraton Downtown in Philadelphia, scheduled for April 30 to May 2, 2027.
Champions and records
Here's how the most successful champions stack up, counted from the year-by-year list in the capsule history:
| Champion | Titles | Winning years |
|---|---|---|
| Dan Feyer | 9 | 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023 |
| Tyler Hinman | 7 | 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2021, 2022 |
| Jon Delfin | 7 | 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2003 |
| Doug Hoylman | 6 | 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000 |
| David Rosen | 4 | 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987 |
| Trip Payne | 3 | 1993, 1998, 2004 |
| Erik Agard | 2 | 2018, 2026 |
| Paolo Pasco | 2 | 2024, 2025 |
One-time champions include Nancy Schuster (1978), Miriam Raphael (1979), Daniel Pratt (1980), Philip Cohen (1981), Stanley Newman (1982), John McNeill (1984), Ellen Ripstein (2001) and Howard Barkin (2016).
A few records worth knowing, all from the tournament history:
- Most titles: Dan Feyer, with nine.
- Longest winning streak: Dan Feyer, six in a row (2010 to 2015). Tyler Hinman's five straight (2005 to 2009) was the record before that.
- Youngest champion: Tyler Hinman, at 20 in 2005.
- First five-time and six-time champion: Doug Hoylman, in 1997 and 2000.
- First seven-time champion: Jon Delfin, in 2003.
Notice how few women appear on the champions list: Nancy Schuster, Miriam Raphael and Ellen Ripstein. Plenty of women finish high in every division each year, and Ripstein's long run in the top five before her win shows how deep the top of the field is.
Attendance over the years
Attendance tells the story of the tournament's growth better than anything else. The figures below are copied from the capsule history (in-person solo contestants unless noted):
| Year | Contestants | What was happening |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 149 | The first tournament |
| 1985 | 110 | The smallest field on record |
| 1994 | 216 | First time over 200 |
| 2002 | 401 | First time over 400 |
| 2007 | 698 | The Wordplay boost; two ballrooms |
| 2019 | 741 | More than 200 rookies |
| 2020 | Canceled | Pandemic |
| 2021 | 1,287 | Fully virtual |
| 2026 | 803 solo, 112 pairs | Last year in Stamford |
Simple math shows how far it's come: 803 solo solvers in 2026 is about 5.4 times the 149 who showed up in 1978 (803 divided by 149 is roughly 5.39). And that doesn't count the pairs or the hundreds solving the same puzzles online.
The computer that beat the humans: Dr. Fill
Matt Ginsberg, the programmer who computerized the tournament's scoring in 2009, also wrote a crossword-solving program called Dr. Fill. Starting in 2012, the program solved the tournament puzzles unofficially, alongside the human field but outside the official rankings.
Its first try was humbling. A New York Times report from March 2012, reprinted on the tournament site, says Dr. Fill would have finished 141st. Ginsberg had hoped for the top 50. Two puzzles gave the program real trouble. One of them, Puzzle 5, required some answers to be entered diagonally, and Shortz summed it up by saying Dr. Fill "got killed on puzzles two and five." Tricky themes that bend the usual rules are exactly what a computer struggles with.
The program kept improving. The capsule history lists its unofficial finishes: 104th in 2013, 55th in 2015 and 41st in 2016. Then in 2021, at the first virtual tournament, Dr. Fill recorded the top score on Puzzles 1 through 7 for the first time.
A team from the University of California, Berkeley, helped get it there. According to Berkeley's Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department, members of the Berkeley natural language processing group combined their own system, the Berkeley Crossword Solver, with Dr. Fill. The combined program made three errors but finished most puzzles in well under a minute, and it outscored the top human, who made no errors at all, by 15 points.
That last detail is the scoring system in action. The human champion was perfect. The computer made mistakes but was so fast that its speed bonuses more than covered the lost points. The official title, and the prize, still went to a human, because Dr. Fill was never an official entrant. Tyler Hinman won the 2021 playoff.
What it's like to compete for the first time
If you're thinking about going, here's a practical picture of the experience, built from the tournament's own published rules and schedule.
Registration fills early. The tournament homepage says registration opens January 1. The capsule history notes that in 2026 registration filled the venue more than two months before the event. If you want a seat, plan early.
You don't have to be fast to have fun. Most people in the room have no chance of winning Division A, and they know it. They come for the puzzles, the people and the evening games. With divisions for rookies, age groups and regions, there are many ways to earn a trophy.
There are other ways to play. The homepage lists a virtual tournament, an option to play online at home and an option to play by mail. Non-competitors can also attend, solve the puzzles and skip turning them in.
Practice under a clock. Tournament solving is timed solving, and that feels different from a relaxed Sunday puzzle. If you usually solve the big weekend grids, our guide to Sunday crossword puzzles covers the larger format, and our list of hard crossword puzzles is a good way to stretch. A full guide to building crossword speed from Monday-level to Saturday-level puzzles is on the way.
Paper, not a screen. In-person contestants solve on paper. If you practice on an app, spend some time solving printed grids with a pencil too, since your hand speed and erasing habits matter. Printable crossword puzzles for adults are a good place to start.
Tournament strategy: what the scoring teaches you
You don't need to be a champion to use the scoring rules wisely. Here's what the numbers suggest, step by step.
- Finish the grid before you chase the clock. Every correct word is worth 10 points no matter how long it takes. An unfinished corner can cost you dozens of points.
- Check before you hand in. One wrong letter costs at least 20 word points (two crossing words), 25 bonus points and the 150-point perfect bonus. That's 195 points or more for one square. A 30-second scan almost always pays for itself, since 30 seconds can cost you at most one 25-point minute.
- Watch the minute marks. Because only full minutes count, finishing at 9:58 left on the clock earns the same bonus as 9:01 left. If you're close to a minute boundary, a quick check costs you nothing.
- Don't leave blanks if you can guess. A blank square is always wrong. A smart guess might be right.
- Know when to let go. If you're truly stuck on a hard puzzle, a reasonable guess and a submitted grid is better than staring at one square while the clock runs out.
Let's test rule 2 with numbers. Imagine an illustrative solver who finishes with 6 full minutes left but isn't sure about one square. Turning it in right away, with that square wrong, earns 6 x 25 minus 25 = 125 bonus points, and no perfect bonus. Spending 50 seconds to check might drop the bonus to 5 minutes, or 125 points, but if the check fixes the square, she also gets the 150-point perfect bonus and the 20 word points back. The check is worth up to 170 points and costs at most 25.
How tournament puzzles are made
Every ACPT puzzle is newly written for the event and edited under Shortz's direction, according to the tournament homepage. The 2012 New York Times report notes that Shortz commissions and edits the puzzles. The capsule history mentions some memorable moments, such as constructor Mike Shenk building a 15x15 puzzle during the 2005 event.
Tournament puzzles range in size and difficulty across the weekend. Some are standard daily-size grids, some are the larger Sunday size, and some have gimmicks, like the diagonal answers that tripped up Dr. Fill in 2012. That variety is deliberate. It tests a solver's range rather than rewarding one narrow skill.
If watching the pros has you curious about building your own grid, our step-by-step guide to how to make a crossword walks through themes, grid symmetry and clue writing.
Other puzzle tournaments worth knowing
The ACPT is the biggest crossword event in the US, but it isn't the only competitive puzzle scene. Will Shortz also founded the World Puzzle Championship in 1992, according to Indiana University, and co-founded the World Puzzle Federation in 1999. Sudoku has its own world championships and national qualifiers, which we cover in our guide to sudoku competitions. The tournament homepage also links to other crossword events among its friends and sponsors, which is a good place to look for regional contests.
If you'd like to run a small contest yourself, the ACPT's 10-25-150 system is easy to copy, and you can time each puzzle with a phone.
Common mix-ups about the tournament
A few misunderstandings come up again and again. Here's how they line up against the tournament's own published record.
- "It's a New York Times contest." It isn't. Will Shortz founded and runs it, and he started it in 1978, fifteen years before he became the Times crossword editor. The puzzles are original to the tournament, not reprints from any newspaper.
- "The fastest solver wins." Not necessarily. The worked example above shows a solver who was nearly two minutes faster losing by 145 points because of one wrong letter. Accuracy is built into every part of the formula.
- "You have to be an expert to enter." Every year the field includes rookies, and the tournament has a whole division for them. Divisions C, D and E exist so that solvers are compared with people at a similar level.
- "The playoff decides everything from scratch." The playoff decides the winner among the finalists, but you only reach it through your total score on the first seven puzzles. A shaky Saturday usually ends any title hopes.
- "A computer won the 2021 title." A computer posted the top score on the seven main puzzles that year, but it was an unofficial entry. The official champion was Tyler Hinman, who won the playoff.
- "It's always in Stamford." It was for most years, but it spent 2008 through 2014 in Brooklyn, ran online in 2021 and is scheduled for Philadelphia in 2027.
Try it yourself: run a mini tournament at home
You can recreate the feel of the ACPT with friends or a club. Here's a simple plan:
- Pick three puzzles of rising difficulty, such as an easy grid, a medium one and a harder one. Our daily crossword puzzles page is a good source.
- Set a time limit for each. As a starting point, try 10 minutes for an easy 15x15, 15 minutes for a medium one and 20 minutes for a hard one. Adjust for your group.
- Count the words in each grid before you start, so scoring is quick.
- Use the official point values: 10 per correct word, 25 per full minute left, minus 25 per wrong or missing letter (bonus can't go below zero), and 150 for a perfect grid.
- Hold a final. Give the top three one more puzzle, solved side by side on large printouts taped to a wall. Ask everyone else to stay quiet, or hand the finalists some noise-blocking headphones for the full experience.
It's a great party or classroom activity for grown-up solvers, and the scoring math gives everyone something to argue about afterward.
Make your own tournament puzzles
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament has grown from 149 people in a hotel ballroom to more than 900 in-person solvers, plus hundreds more online. Its scoring has barely changed since 1979: 10 points a word, 25 points a minute and 150 for a perfect grid. That simple system rewards both speed and care, and it's why the finals are so tense.
If you want to practice or run your own mini tournament, our free puzzle maker can help. You type your own words or pick a theme, choose a puzzle type such as a crossword, and print it with an answer key, so you'll have a scoring sheet ready for the judges.
The Tournament Weekend Session by Session
This table walks through the weekend in order and shows which sessions decide the championship.
| Session | What happens | Counts toward the standings? |
|---|---|---|
| Friday evening | Sign-in, warm-up games and a social hour | No, nothing on Friday counts toward the main standings |
| Saturday morning | Puzzles 1, 2 and 3 | Yes, these are scored puzzles |
| Saturday afternoon | Puzzles 4, 5 and 6 | Yes, these are scored puzzles |
| Saturday night | More word games | No, the seven scored puzzles plus the playoff decide the champion |
| Sunday morning | Puzzle 7, then prizes and the playoff finalists are announced | Yes, this is the last puzzle everyone solves |
| Sunday early afternoon | Puzzle 8, the championship playoff, solved on stage by the finalists | It decides the champion among the finalists |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament?
Will Shortz founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1978 and has directed it ever since. Shortz earned an individualized degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles, from Indiana University in 1974, and he became crossword editor of The New York Times in 1993. So the tournament is fifteen years older than his job at the Times. It's his own event, not a newspaper contest, with its own constructors, judges and volunteers who help run the weekend each spring.
How is the ACPT scored?
Each puzzle is scored the same way. You get 10 points for every correct Across and Down word, plus 25 points for each full minute you finish before the time limit. That speed bonus drops by 25 points for each wrong or missing letter, but it can't go below zero. A completely correct grid earns another 150 points. Scores from the seven main puzzles are added together, and the top solvers in Divisions A, B and C move on to a final playoff puzzle on Sunday.
Where is the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held?
For most of its history it was held at the Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut. It moved to the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott in New York City from 2008 through 2014, returned to Stamford in 2015 and held its last Stamford tournament in 2026. The tournament website lists the 2027 event at the Sheraton Downtown in Philadelphia, scheduled for April 30 to May 2, 2027. In 2021 the whole tournament ran online, and virtual options have continued alongside the in-person event since then.
Who has won the most ACPT titles?
Dan Feyer holds the record with nine titles: six in a row from 2010 to 2015, then 2017, 2019 and 2023. Tyler Hinman and Jon Delfin have seven each. Hinman won five straight from 2005 to 2009 and added titles in 2021 and 2022, while Delfin won between 1989 and 2003. Doug Hoylman won six times. Recent champions include Paolo Pasco, who won in 2024 and 2025, and Erik Agard, who won in 2018 and again in 2026.
Can a beginner enter the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament?
Yes. Anyone can register, and first-timers compete in a Rookie division as well as Divisions A and C, an age group and a region, all with the same scores. Most contestants have no hope of winning the whole thing and come for the puzzles and the people. Registration opens January 1 and has filled quickly in recent years, so plan ahead. You can also take part through the virtual tournament, play online at home or play by mail if you can't travel.
Did a computer ever win the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament?
Not officially, but one came close. Matt Ginsberg's program Dr. Fill solved the puzzles unofficially starting in 2012, when it would have placed 141st. It improved steadily, and in 2021 a version combined with the Berkeley Crossword Solver posted the top score on Puzzles 1 through 7. It made three errors but was so fast that it beat the best human by 15 points. Because it wasn't an official entrant, the title went to Tyler Hinman, who won the playoff.
How fast do ACPT champions solve?
Very fast. In the on-stage playoff, Erik Agard set a record of 4 minutes 58 seconds in 2018, and Paolo Pasco finished the 2025 playoff puzzle in 3 minutes 43 seconds. For ordinary contestants, the tournament offers a more realistic yardstick: on a sample medium puzzle from 2021, it said finishing in 15 minutes would be competitive and under 10 minutes would be excellent. Most people in the room solve well below championship pace and still have a great weekend.
What is the movie about the crossword tournament?
It's Wordplay, a 2006 documentary by Patrick Creadon built around the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which was filmed in full. That was the year Tyler Hinman, at 20, became the youngest champion in the event's history. The film features Will Shortz and the top solvers, and its publicity brought a surge of new contestants. Attendance set a record in 2006 and then jumped to 698 in 2007, enough that the event had to use two ballrooms.
Sources
We checked every source below while writing this guide. Last reviewed October 30, 2026, by Joan Ramos.
- American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (official site) (American Crossword Puzzle Tournament)
- Tournament Information: rules, scoring and divisions (American Crossword Puzzle Tournament)
- Capsule History of the ACPT (American Crossword Puzzle Tournament)
- Will Shortz, honoree profile (Indiana University Honors and Awards)
- NLP team helps a computer win the 2021 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences)
- Report on Dr. Fill at the 2012 tournament (Steve Lohr, March 18, 2012), reprinted (The New York Times, via ACPT)
- Crossword tournament feature (Anna Clemmons, March 5, 2008), reprinted (ESPN The Magazine, via ACPT)
- Tiger of the Week: Dan Feyer '99 (Princeton Alumni Weekly)
