Shortz began his career as the crossword editor at the New York Times in 1993. Profile Seven crossword constructors fighting for better representation in the beloved puzzle '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.' Will Shortz, program director for the National Puzzlers' League (NPL), said crossword puzzles may be challenging, but solving them offers a sense of accomplishment. (It was supposed to be held in Toronto in 2020, but that was cancelled.) It's the first time it will be held in Canada since 2015, when the convention came to Vancouver. The annual convention, which runs from July 13 to 16, features several games and competitions, including crossword puzzles. 'I've made a lot of friends, people from walks of life or places that I never would have met otherwise.'Īnother top puzzle event is being hosted in Montreal this weekend: the 2023 National Puzzlers' League Convention. 'The irony of this is doing crosswords is a lone activity, but there also is a social aspect in that,' he said. He said the thing he likes the most about competitions and conventions like the ACPT is the people who attend them.

Will Shortz is in Montreal for the National Puzzlers' League convention.

He hopes to return to the next event in 2024. Krasnick first started attending competitions in 2007, and competed in person most recently in 2019. A lot of it is general knowledge,' said Krasnick, who works for the provincial government. 'There's sort of this feeling you have to be brilliant … and you really don't. He said it gave him the sense that he belonged at these competitions. 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. '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.īut Krasnick, 60, hadn't done anything wrong. 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. Jeffrey Krasnick didn't consider himself an ultimate crossword puzzle solver. The Current 23:58 Crossword guru Will Shortz on why we love puzzles

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