I felt a glimmer of hope watching the crossword documentary, Wordplay, particularly when the young five-time-winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Tyler Hinman, stated: On the other hand, if you're like me, you probably have a few areas of expertise, a decent foundation in a variety of subjects, and above all, a love for words and logic. If you fit that description, you might be a promising contender for NYT Crossword Editor Will Shortz' American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Sure, it helps if you are a living encyclopedia, heavily laden with a wide range of trivia. Is a deeper educational background essential to becoming an advanced solver? Is solving strength predominately a matter of one's individual breadth of knowledge? For the amateur, at least, I'm not sure a ready database of facts is all that matters. I have often wished that I had more world history under my belt, any inkling at all of American sports trivia, a better understanding of philosophy, and whatever else might potentially boost my solving abilities. As a kid, I loved reading, excelled in spelling bees and enjoyed diagramming sentences. in textile design, I generally catch the art history clues, the repeated use of the answer ELL (a former measure of length used mainly for textiles), and a decent number of the literature, film & pop culture references. What does it mean to be a master cruciverbalist? I have often pondered the many factors: logic, pattern, repetition, areas of expertise, vocabulary, facts, worldliness, educational background, spelling, reading retention, memory, age, I.Q. This guide is for beginner solvers advanced solvers will not find it useful. I'm a beginner to intermediate solver, master of Monday-Wednesday, working on my Thursday-Sunday game. Writing this has helped me digest the information I've gathered and memorize those few remaining odd words or facts that turn up again and again. This article is my own guide to what I personally find most useful. Many of them have useful information, some of it obvious, some of it not. I've read quite a few books and articles on solving crosswords. And when it comes to solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, the old cliche does apply: practice makes perfect. Contrary to the message in the image above, it's NOT over.
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