I hit nearly half an hour with my solving time, which I think was a ten-minute increase from my performance in the previous League’s debut puzzle.Īlthough I would have better performances later in the season - my time averaged out to 24:48 across eight puzzles - that was definitely a shot right across the bow of my confidence. I didn’t know the number of operas Beethoven had written, or who spoke what ended up being a Madonna quote, or what Mohsin Hamid’s “Exit West” was about. The first puzzle of the season immediately showed me what I’d gotten myself into. I signed up for Stormy by mistake, and didn’t realize my error until I logged in and prepared to solve the season’s first puzzle.Īs you might expect, being freed from the shackles of themed puzzle building allows constructors to really flex their creative muscle, indulging all sorts of curious and unexpected vocabulary as they cross long entries and employ fewer black squares in these impressive grids.Īnd since I’d mistakenly opted for the toughest level of cluing, I also saw the decidedly clever and devious side of each constructor as I navigated tricky wordplay and more challenging clue content. The previous two seasons, I’d opted for the middle ground, Choppy. Unfortunately, I accidentally signed up for the wrong difficulty level this time around. With the previous two Themeless League events under my belt, I had a good sense of what to expect both from the puzzles and from myself.Īlthough I rarely solve online - and I solve themed crosswords far more often than themeless crosswords - I now have a good base to build on. Hundreds of solvers signed up for the challenge of two months of themeless puzzle solving and a bit of friendly competition, and now that it’s over, I’d like to share a few thoughts about my experience in the League.
(When solvers registered to participate, they chose the difficulty level that suited them best.) Smooth was the least challenging, Choppy was the middle ground, and Stormy was the most challenging. While each week’s puzzle only had one solution, there were three sets of clues, each representing a different difficulty level for solvers. Each puzzle is scored based on your answer accuracy (incorrect letters, empty squares, etc.) and how quickly you complete the grid. If you’re unfamiliar, the Boswords 2021 Fall Themeless League spreads out a tournament-style solving experience over nine weeks, one themeless crossword per week.
After two months of challenging, engaging, and thoroughly enjoyable weekly solving, the Boswords 2021 Fall Themeless League came to a close last week.
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