I'm competing in my first ever crossword puzzle tournament -- the Indie 500 -- tomorrow, and I have no idea what to expect. Well, okay, I have some idea -- the tournament format is clearly laid out on the website, I've seen the movie Wordplay about competitive crossword puzzle solving, and I've competed in many a Scrabble tournament, so I think I have a decent sense of the logistics and the vibe (for lack of a better word). The part I'm clueless about is how well I will do. I don't know how my times compare to the field. Typically I do an NYT Monday puzzle in 4-5 minutes (on paper), a Wednesday puzzle in 7-8 minutes, and a Saturday puzzle in 10-20 minutes (with the important disclaimer that sometimes I get stuck on late week puzzles and either don't finish at all or finish after many, many minutes of banging my head against the wall). Certainly, this doesn't rate with the top solvers -- I do know that -- even if I cut my times in half, I think the best solvers would still beat me, but I won't be competing against the top solvers. I'm on the "outside track" of the Indie 500 (Get it? Outside track, Indie 500 -- it's a car theme.), which means I will be competing only against people who have not finished in the top 25% of a crossword puzzle tournament within the last five years. Against these less formidable foes, my times are -- good? bad? average? Like I said, I have no idea.
Now, I'm sure I could search online and get some notion of where my times rate among my likely competitors, but I'm intentionally not doing that. I'm not doing it, because I'm telling myself that it doesn't matter. I'm telling myself that it's all just for fun, that the point of the tournament is just to have the experience, that I don't care where I finish. It's a lie, of course, I do care, but I'm telling myself this, because there is a non-trivial chance I am quite bad as a competitive crossword puzzle solver, and it's much worse to be bad at something you care about than something you don't.
The truth of the matter is that I'm a pretty competitive person -- not in a sociopathic-affects-my-personal-relationships-Ty-Cobb-Michael-Jordan type of way, but in a run-of-the-mill-egotist type of way. I take tournaments and things of the like seriously and want very much to win them, even if they're about frivolities like Scrabble and crossword puzzles. I've never understood the phrase "for fun," because to me the competition -- the score, the stakes, the stats, the winning, the losing -- is precisely what makes games fun. Things that are only "for fun" are, to me, usually the exact opposite.
So despite what I'm telling myself, my performance tomorrow does matter. I don't have to win (I'm competitive, not delusional), but I would like to not be the slowest -- middle of the pack would be fine. Obviously winning is the ultimate goal, but that's probably not realistic given that I've never competed in a tournament, and I've never really practiced speed solving. I decided to sign up for the Indie 500 completely on a whim (it's located just a few miles from my house, which was the deciding factor), and the only training I've done for it started a week ago. My typical xword regimen is to do the New York Times everyday (except Sunday -- too big) and do the LA Times themeless on Saturday, all on the computer. But I figured if I'm going to do a competition, I had better up the volume and solve on paper. So for the past week, I've done about five paper puzzles a day with a stopwatch running. I also Googled some tips on speed solving. That's been the extent of my preparation. It's pretty minimal. I would have liked to have done more, but, you know, job and wife and kid and whatnot -- free time is not as plentiful for me as it once was.
So I'm probably underprepared. Also, I worry that my biggest problem with speed solving isn't about "solving" at all. It's about something much more basic: reading. For a smart guy, I'm a very slow reader. Growing up, I was usually in the advanced classes, and I was amazed at how much faster than me the other kids could finish their reading passages -- so much so that I remember thinking they must be skipping parts. And yet they would answer all the comprehension questions correctly. At some point, I realized the unusual person couldn't be every kid. The outlier was me -- and in the wrong way. I can tell too when I'm reading crossword clues that I'm taking a relatively long time; there's a little voice in my head telling me "you should be done with this one by now!," which of course only makes things worse. Doing puzzles casually those extra microseconds aren't even noticeable, but with the clock ticking they matter a lot. They add up.
Well, that's where I'm at with this thing. I'm feeling inexperienced, untrained, and slow. And I have no idea what to expect. But it doesn't matter anyway, because that's not what it's about; it's not about how fast I can solve the puzzles; it's not about winning and losing. Being in the presence of other crossword puzzle aficionados and enjoying the solving experience -- that is what it's really about. Except not completely.
Now, I'm sure I could search online and get some notion of where my times rate among my likely competitors, but I'm intentionally not doing that. I'm not doing it, because I'm telling myself that it doesn't matter. I'm telling myself that it's all just for fun, that the point of the tournament is just to have the experience, that I don't care where I finish. It's a lie, of course, I do care, but I'm telling myself this, because there is a non-trivial chance I am quite bad as a competitive crossword puzzle solver, and it's much worse to be bad at something you care about than something you don't.
The truth of the matter is that I'm a pretty competitive person -- not in a sociopathic-affects-my-personal-relationships-Ty-Cobb-Michael-Jordan type of way, but in a run-of-the-mill-egotist type of way. I take tournaments and things of the like seriously and want very much to win them, even if they're about frivolities like Scrabble and crossword puzzles. I've never understood the phrase "for fun," because to me the competition -- the score, the stakes, the stats, the winning, the losing -- is precisely what makes games fun. Things that are only "for fun" are, to me, usually the exact opposite.
So despite what I'm telling myself, my performance tomorrow does matter. I don't have to win (I'm competitive, not delusional), but I would like to not be the slowest -- middle of the pack would be fine. Obviously winning is the ultimate goal, but that's probably not realistic given that I've never competed in a tournament, and I've never really practiced speed solving. I decided to sign up for the Indie 500 completely on a whim (it's located just a few miles from my house, which was the deciding factor), and the only training I've done for it started a week ago. My typical xword regimen is to do the New York Times everyday (except Sunday -- too big) and do the LA Times themeless on Saturday, all on the computer. But I figured if I'm going to do a competition, I had better up the volume and solve on paper. So for the past week, I've done about five paper puzzles a day with a stopwatch running. I also Googled some tips on speed solving. That's been the extent of my preparation. It's pretty minimal. I would have liked to have done more, but, you know, job and wife and kid and whatnot -- free time is not as plentiful for me as it once was.
So I'm probably underprepared. Also, I worry that my biggest problem with speed solving isn't about "solving" at all. It's about something much more basic: reading. For a smart guy, I'm a very slow reader. Growing up, I was usually in the advanced classes, and I was amazed at how much faster than me the other kids could finish their reading passages -- so much so that I remember thinking they must be skipping parts. And yet they would answer all the comprehension questions correctly. At some point, I realized the unusual person couldn't be every kid. The outlier was me -- and in the wrong way. I can tell too when I'm reading crossword clues that I'm taking a relatively long time; there's a little voice in my head telling me "you should be done with this one by now!," which of course only makes things worse. Doing puzzles casually those extra microseconds aren't even noticeable, but with the clock ticking they matter a lot. They add up.
Well, that's where I'm at with this thing. I'm feeling inexperienced, untrained, and slow. And I have no idea what to expect. But it doesn't matter anyway, because that's not what it's about; it's not about how fast I can solve the puzzles; it's not about winning and losing. Being in the presence of other crossword puzzle aficionados and enjoying the solving experience -- that is what it's really about. Except not completely.
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