Tour Part 5 — Just for Fun
Remembering remarkable achievements
Before computer databases, even brilliant crosswords lived an ephemeral existence. After providing a nice diversion over a morning coffee or a subway ride, the discarded puzzles ended up wrapping fish or lining the bottoms of bird cages. A few lived on in collections but most were forgotten, and there was no way to refer back to that incredible puzzle that knocked your socks off.
Similarly, while movie buffs could follow their favorite directors, most solvers didn't even bother to notice constructors' names since there was no way to follow their collected body of work anyway.
XWord Info is helping to change all that. Here's a guide to finding notable NYT crosswords.
Artistic grids
Two popular pages on XWord Info are Grid Art and Visual Puzzles.
Grid art
The Grid Art page shows puzzles with clever or beautiful arrangements of black squares. Here are a few. You can click each grid to see the larger view.
Visual puzzles — grids to draw on
Sometimes the complete puzzle solution requires that you connect the dots or otherwise draw on the completed grid. Those are collected on the Visual Puzzles page. Some examples:
Technical achievements
Record-setting puzzles aren't always great puzzles but they're often interesting, and XWord Info helps you track various categories.
Letter Counts
For example, here are the 15x15 puzzles with the most A's, E's, I's, O's and U's. That last one by Manny Nosowsky also happens to have the most Q's. Click here for the other record-setting letter counts.
| A | S | F | A | R | A | S | M | A | R | A | C | A | ||
| M | A | R | S | A | L | A | A | D | A | M | A | N | T | |
| A | G | A | K | H | A | N | S | A | N | T | A | N | A | |
| N | A | N | A | S | D | R | A | M | S | N | A | P | ||
| A | S | S | N | B | A | L | S | A | ||||||
| T | A | M | A | R | A | B | A | N | N | S | ||||
| S | P | A | M | A | N | A | M | A | S | A | D | A | ||
| C | A | T | W | A | L | K | B | A | C | K | B | A | R | |
| A | R | R | A | N | T | B | A | M | A | S | K | A | ||
| B | R | A | N | D | C | A | S | A | B | A | ||||
| A | T | L | A | S | S | W | A | G | ||||||
| G | A | L | A | H | A | S | P | P | L | A | T | H | ||
| A | L | A | S | K | A | N | A | T | L | A | N | T | A | |
| G | A | S | T | A | N | K | R | W | A | N | D | A | N | |
| S | H | A | N | K | S | T | A | N | T | A | R | A |
| B | E | G | S | E | W | E | S | E | L | W | E | S | ||
| E | T | R | E | B | E | R | T | F | E | R | D | E | ||
| R | E | E | D | B | E | N | E | F | E | E | D | S | ||
| G | R | E | E | N | S | K | E | E | P | E | R | S | ||
| E | N | C | R | E | P | E | T | T | S | E | ||||
| N | E | E | R | E | E | F | P | E | G | L | E | G | ||
| E | V | E | N | E | D | L | E | S | E | |||||
| W | E | R | N | E | R | K | L | E | M | P | E | R | E | R |
| E | L | E | C | E | D | E | R | L | E | |||||
| D | E | S | E | E | D | S | M | E | E | E | T | S | ||
| S | E | E | V | E | T | B | E | S | E | T | ||||
| C | R | E | M | E | D | E | M | E | N | T | H | E | ||
| D | E | T | E | R | N | E | V | E | T | H | E | E | ||
| E | V | E | N | T | S | L | E | W | R | E | E | L | ||
| C | E | D | E | S | E | L | L | S | E | R | S | E |
| K | O | B | E | I | S | L | E | T | H | A | J | I | ||
| O | R | E | S | S | T | A | L | E | E | R | I | C | ||
| O | B | I | T | B | R | I | E | R | A | C | M | E | ||
| L | I | G | H | T | N | I | N | G | R | O | D | |||
| S | T | E | E | R | K | E | Y | M | A | S | A | I | ||
| R | A | B | E | P | E | C | T | I | N | |||||
| H | O | G | C | A | P | T | A | I | N | H | O | O | K | |
| O | S | O | S | L | A | I | L | A | E | R | L | E | ||
| W | H | A | T | S | M | Y | L | I | N | E | K | I | D | |
| D | E | L | R | A | Y | M | O | T | E | |||||
| Y | A | S | I | R | A | G | O | N | A | R | C | S | ||
| V | I | R | G | I | N | I | A | R | E | E | L | |||
| Z | U | N | I | D | I | G | I | T | T | H | A | I | ||
| I | R | O | N | A | L | L | E | E | H | A | S | P | ||
| P | I | N | G | S | E | I | S | M | A | B | E | S |
| O | H | N | O | B | R | O | T | W | O | D | ||||
| M | O | O | R | S | L | O | B | B | O | O | R | S | ||
| O | T | R | O | C | O | L | O | R | O | N | D | O | ||
| O | L | D | S | C | H | O | O | L | O | T | T | O | S | |
| C | O | M | P | S | H | O | T | |||||||
| H | O | H | O | H | O | K | O | M | O | D | O | |||
| O | R | O | O | S | M | O | N | D | O | R | R | S | ||
| S | L | O | P | S | O | S | O | S | T | O | O | L | ||
| P | O | C | O | M | O | T | T | S | T | O | N | O | ||
| P | H | O | B | O | S | P | R | O | L | O | G | |||
| L | O | W | S | T | O | O | D | |||||||
| S | C | O | R | N | S | N | O | O | P | D | O | G | G | |
| N | O | T | O | K | H | O | O | K | L | O | O | T | ||
| O | C | H | O | S | O | W | L | S | O | P | T | O | ||
| B | O | O | M | O | S | S | T | S | O | S |
| S | Q | U | A | B | S | L | E | I | C | A | ||||
| L | U | N | U | L | A | D | I | A | M | O | N | D | ||
| E | I | L | E | E | N | G | U | N | R | A | N | G | E | |
| E | X | I | L | E | D | O | N | U | S | Q | R | S | ||
| K | O | N | P | R | A | N | K | S | Q | U | I | T | ||
| E | T | E | S | A | X | E | S | Q | U | E | E | R | ||
| R | E | D | A | L | D | E | R | Q | U | A | R | R | Y | |
| N | O | E | L | Q | U | A | N | |||||||
| P | E | S | T | L | E | Q | U | I | L | T | E | R | S | |
| E | Q | U | A | L | Q | U | A | D | A | N | E | T | ||
| N | U | N | S | Q | U | A | I | N | T | D | E | R | ||
| R | I | B | Q | U | I | N | U | R | S | U | L | A | ||
| O | N | E | Q | U | A | R | T | N | O | O | S | E | S | |
| D | E | L | U | I | S | E | C | O | D | E | R | S | ||
| S | T | A | P | H | S | P | A | R | S | E |
Block count
The most famous record in crosswords is the quest for the fewest blocks or black squares. Here are the three whitest and, just for comparison, the two blackest grids.
And lots more...
Here is just a sample of the technical categories:
- Highest scrabble scores
- Grids with no 3- or 4- or even 5-letter answers
- Grids with record stacks of 15-letter answers
- Grids by a favorite author
Rule breakers
We've come to expect that crosswords follow a set of long-established conventions, but these are puzzles after all and sometimes the aha moments come when those conventions are tossed aside.
Silliness
- The XWord Info Bar Game which isn't a game at all but might be fun to watch
- Garson Hampfield, who is great fun to watch
And now you're on your own
This tour barely scratches the surface of everything in XWord Info. Poke around on your own and you'll discover lots more. Have fun!