Crosswords are evolving — and puzzlers of all ages are filling in the boxes | CBC Radio

Jeffrey Krasnick didn’t consider himself an ultimate crossword puzzle solver. So when he took on the challenging fifth puzzle at the 2012 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), he was surprised to learn he was among the first people to finish it.

“I’m like, ‘Why? I must’ve done something really wrong here … because there’s no way I finished that quickly,'” the Victoria resident told The Current.

But Krasnick, 60, hadn’t done anything wrong. On the contrary, he recorded one of the highest scores on what was one of the tournament’s most complicated puzzles — among hundreds of competitors.

He said it gave him the sense that he belonged at these competitions.

“There’s sort of this feeling you have to be brilliant … and you really don’t. A lot of it is general knowledge,” said Krasnick, who works for the provincial government.

Krasnick first started attending competitions in 2007, and competed in person most recently in 2019. He hopes to return to the next event in 2024. 

He said the thing he likes the most about competitions and conventions like the ACPT is the people who attend them.

“The irony of this is doing crosswords is a lone activity, but there also is a social aspect in that,” he said. “I’ve made a lot of friends, people from walks of life or places that I never would have met otherwise.”

Another top puzzle event is being hosted in Montreal this weekend: the 2023 National Puzzlers’ League Convention.

The annual convention, which runs from July 13 to 16, features several games and competitions, including crossword puzzles. It’s the first time it will be held in Canada since 2015, when the convention came to Vancouver. (It was supposed to be held in Toronto in 2020, but that was cancelled.)

Will Shortz, program director for the National Puzzlers’ League (NPL), said crossword puzzles may be challenging, but solving them offers a sense of accomplishment.

“You have to put yourself out there,” said the New York Times crossword editor. “You have to be willing to take a challenge and you have to be willing to accept failure.” 

Changing with the Times

Shortz began his career as the crossword editor at the New York Times in 1993. He was the youngest-ever crossword editor at the time, and wanted to modernize the crossword’s vocabulary and subject matter.

“The clues weren’t playful, the answers weren’t modern. The average age of the contributors was probably in the 50s,” he said.

“I felt that the crossword should appeal to everyone who’s reading the New York Times, and that goes from smart teenagers up to as old as people get.”

One of the ways he did this was by publishing more crossword puzzles from teenagers. According to Shortz, before his hiring, only six teenagers have ever had their crossword puzzles published in the Times. But since 1993, he’s published nearly 60 of them.

“The average age of the contributors has come down to [the] 30s, and just the clues, I think, are more playful. There [are] more modern references,” he said. “I think the puzzles are objectively better.”

WATCH: Meet the youngest woman to have a crossword printed in the Times:

She’s the youngest woman ever to have a crossword printed in the New York Times | Across and Down

Soleil Saint-Cyr is one of the few Black crossword constructors to submit puzzles to the New York Times. She’s also the youngest woman to do so!

Krasnick said he’s also noticed a surge in younger people participating in crossword competitions. He’s seeing more young people at crossword competitions, and online puzzles made by them feature more modern clues. 

“The things they put in the puzzles — especially the cultural references or music references — will be more modern artists who I may be less familiar than the older ones,” he said. 

Shortz said the move toward more modern references in New York Times crosswords initially led to complaints that the puzzles were too easy, so he upped the difficulty on them. 

That led to complaints that they were too hard, though. So eventually, he found a “happy medium” where the puzzles get harder as the week goes on.

“Monday is an easy, medium puzzle, and it builds up to very hard on Friday and Saturday,” he said. “My hope is that sometime through the week, there’s a puzzle that is perfect for you.”

Empowering tool

Across his 30-year career, Shortz has seen just how crossword puzzles have touched the lives of everyday people.

He recalls reading a story from an avid Times crossword puzzle solver who was about to have brain surgery. To determine whether the surgery was successful, she solved the Times crossword immediately after the procedure, he recalled. 

In another story, a woman requested an advance copy of a Sunday crossword to put in the casket of her late mother, who loved the puzzles.

“We FedExed that to the daughter and that was put in the casket,” he said. “Now, her mother has the New York Times crossword with her forever.”

Shortz said stories like those show the appeal and empowerment of crossword puzzles.

“Most of the problems we face in everyday life don’t have good solutions, and sometimes they don’t have solutions at all,” he said. 

“When you solve a crossword or Sudoku or some other kind of puzzle, you have literally taken the challenge from start to finish … You’re in control of the world and it’s a great feeling.”