The Marriott Stamford in Connecticut has hosted the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament since 1978, and after nearly five decades, you might expect the atmosphere to have grown a little stale. It hasn't. Walking into the ballroom on Saturday morning — 700 solvers at individual tables, the familiar sound of pen scratching paper, the buzz of nervous energy — still produces the kind of communal electricity that you only find where genuine competition meets genuine love of craft.
The 2025 ACPT delivered on every front. Records fell. Favorites stumbled. A new champion claimed the title under the bright lights of the finals stage in a finish that had the audience — and the overflow livestream crowd of thousands — completely transfixed.
The Setup: A Field Ready for Upsets
The 2025 field was widely described as the deepest in ACPT history. Returning champion Tyler Hinman, a six-time winner, had publicly announced this would likely be his final competitive year — a statement that lit a fire under the rest of the field. Dan Feyer, the dominant force of the 2010s, arrived in top form after a year of tournament victories on the indie circuit. And a group of younger solvers — three of them under 25 — had been posting extraordinary times in online solving communities throughout 2024 and 2025.
Will Shortz, who has presided over the ACPT since its earliest years, opened the weekend with his usual mix of warmth and sharp wit: "I've been doing this since before some of you were born. And I still don't know how you people solve this fast." The laugh that followed carried the slight unease of knowing he was probably right.
Tournament Director Stella Zawistowski and her team had assembled a puzzle set that was widely praised in preview reviews for its variety and quality. Seven rounds of puzzles, ranging from Monday difficulty (for the early rounds) to Saturday-level brutality (for Round 6), would determine which 26 solvers qualified for the three-finalist playoff round.
Day One: The Opening Salvos
The first three rounds proceeded largely as expected. Feyer and Hinman established themselves at the top of the leaderboard with near-perfect scores. The sub-25 cohort — led by 23-year-old Sophia Moreau from Montreal, competing in her first ACPT — posted times that drew audible gasps from veteran observers seated nearby.
Moreau's Round 2 time of 2 minutes, 47 seconds on a 15x15 Wednesday-level puzzle immediately became a talking point. To put that in perspective: an experienced solver completing the same puzzle in under 5 minutes would be considered exceptional. Moreau was operating on a different plane.
How the Scoring Works
ACPT scoring combines accuracy and speed. Solvers earn points for each correct letter (1 point), each correct word (word bonus varies by puzzle), and completing the puzzle correctly (a "clean solve" bonus). Time bonuses reward faster solvers. A single wrong letter can cost a solver more than the time bonus they earned by rushing — which is why accuracy-first strategies often beat pure speed strategies.
Round 4 — historically the round where the comfortable leads of early favorites start to fray — lived up to its reputation in 2025. The puzzle, constructed by Elizabeth Gorski and themed around "Music Boxes," contained a rebus mechanic where a musical note symbol appeared in several grid squares, each representing a different musical abbreviation. The puzzle was constructed with extraordinary elegance, but the rebus squares caught several top-ranked solvers off guard.
The Puzzle That Changed Everything
We need to talk about Puzzle 6.
Every ACPT has a puzzle that becomes the weekend's defining moment — the one that scrambles the leaderboard and generates post-tournament discussion for months. In 2025, Puzzle 6 was constructed by Patrick Berry, widely regarded as the finest crossword constructor in the country, and it was a 21x21 themeless with a triple-stacked center of 15-letter entries.
The three central Acrosses were CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, JURISPRUDENTIAL, and COUNTEREXAMPLES. Getting any one of these from crossings alone would have been difficult. Getting all three — while also maintaining clean fills in four difficult corner sections — required a level of pattern recognition that separated the truly elite from the merely excellent.
"I've never seen anything quite like it," said veteran ACPT participant Brendan Emmett Quigley, who was covering the event for his newsletter. "Patrick found a way to make a puzzle that felt impossible at first glance but had a clear logic to it once you found the entry point. That's the highest art in crossword construction."
When scores from Puzzle 6 were posted, the leaderboard had transformed dramatically. Moreau had held on — barely — posting a clean solve in 8 minutes 44 seconds. Hinman had a rare error, costing him a significant penalty. Feyer had solved cleanly in 7 minutes 51 seconds, vaulting him into first place heading into the final rounds.
Tournament Opens — Round 1
700+ solvers seated; early rounds establish baseline leaderboard.
Moreau's R2 Record
Sophia Moreau posts 2:47 on Round 2, setting a new tournament record for that puzzle type.
Round 4 Chaos
Elizabeth Gorski's rebus puzzle reshuffles the top 20 leaderboard; multiple favorites post errors.
Puzzle 6 — The Defining Moment
Patrick Berry's triple-stack themeless produces the weekend's most dramatic leaderboard shift.
Finals — Three Competitors on Stage
Feyer, Moreau, and returning champion Hinman compete in the live finals round.
The Finals: A New Champion Emerges
The three finalists — Feyer, Moreau, and Hinman — faced a 15x15 finals puzzle constructed jointly by Erik Agard and Natan Last. The puzzle was themed around "Breaking Points" and contained six theme entries, each of which could be parsed two ways — once as a common phrase, once as a phrase with a hidden "break" in the spelling that revealed a new meaning.
The crowd of several hundred observers fell completely silent as the three finalists began. Finals puzzles are solved on large whiteboards visible to the audience — a theatrical format that transforms the puzzle into live drama. You can watch the solvers' letter-by-letter progress in real time.
Feyer, methodical as always, established his corner anchors within 30 seconds. Hinman, solving with the slightly looser style that has characterized his approach in recent years, moved fast across the Acrosses before looping back to fill Downs. Moreau — and this is what the crowd would talk about for weeks — solved from the center outward. A completely non-standard strategy, one that should theoretically be less efficient, but one that seemed to work for her particular visual processing style.
With 40 seconds on the clock, all three finalists had the grid approximately 80% filled. Then Feyer hit the theme reveal, understood the "breaking point" mechanic instantly, and the remaining entries cascaded. He completed his board. Clean. The audience erupted.
Final time: Dan Feyer, 6 minutes 18 seconds, clean solve. ACPT Champion for the seventh time.
Moreau finished 22 seconds later — also clean. Hinman, who had overcommitted to one incorrect theme entry, finished last but corrected his error with 8 seconds to spare, preserving a clean solve for third.
Final Standings — Top 10
| Place | Name | Location | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dan Feyer | New York, NY | 14,280 |
| 2nd | Sophia Moreau | Montreal, QC | 13,840 |
| 3rd | Tyler Hinman | San Francisco, CA | 13,650 |
| 4th | Howard Barkin | Englewood, NJ | 12,990 |
| 5th | Anne-Marie Brogan | Chicago, IL | 12,740 |
| 6th | Patti Varol | Los Angeles, CA | 12,510 |
| 7th | Alex Eaton-Salners | Denver, CO | 12,280 |
| 8th | Brendan Emmett Quigley | Cambridge, MA | 12,020 |
| 9th | Dani Donovan | Portland, OR | 11,780 |
| 10th | Kameron Austin Collins | Washington, DC | 11,590 |
What We Learned About Modern Competitive Crosswords
Beyond the drama of individual finishes, the 2025 ACPT revealed several important trends in the state of competitive crosswords:
The Field is Getting Younger — and Faster
Moreau's second-place finish at 23 is a data point in a consistent trend. The cohort of elite competitive solvers is now heavily weighted toward solvers in their 20s and early 30s. These solvers grew up with digital crossword apps, have access to large databases of clue-answer pairs through online communities, and have honed their skills against global competition via online tournaments. The physical and cognitive demands of speed solving seem to favor them.
Puzzle Construction is in a Golden Age
The puzzle set at ACPT 2025 was, by nearly universal consensus, the strongest in years. The variety — from Gorski's rebus music puzzle to Berry's triple-stack to the theme-rich finals puzzle — reflected the extraordinary range of talent in the contemporary constructor community. The rise of indie crossword publications like the Inkubator, Boswords, and AVCX has created a farm system of skilled constructors who are now submitting regularly to major publications and tournaments.
Diversity in the Top Ranks is Growing
The top 10 at ACPT 2025 was the most diverse in the tournament's history. More women, more solvers of color, and more international participants (Moreau being the highest-finishing Canadian in ACPT history) than any previous year. The crossword community's active efforts to diversify both solving and constructing are producing visible results in competitive outcomes.
How to Compete at ACPT
The ACPT is open to all skill levels. Competitors are divided into divisions by self-reported experience level, so beginners compete against other beginners. Registration typically opens in November for the March tournament. It's one of the most welcoming competitive events in any hobby — worth attending even if you only solve the Tuesday NYT. Check the ACPT website for registration information for 2026.
The 2025 ACPT reminded everyone in the room — and everyone watching online — why this community has sustained itself for nearly five decades. It's a room full of people who love words, love puzzles, love the specific pleasure of filling in that final square. The trophies and titles are real, but they're secondary to that shared passion. See you in Stamford next March.