“Two of the puzzles were bizarre in ways that were bad for it,” Dr. Indeed, the seventh puzzle, a difficult one, it got perfectly.īut the computer program is literal minded, and tends to struggle on puzzles with humor, and puzzles with unusual themes or letter arrangements. Fill typically thrives on conventional crosswords, even ones with arcane clues and answers. “It was within the range, but I wish it had done better,” Dr. Fill finished 141st, or would have (only human solvers got official rankings). Said, “If I’m unlucky, I’ll end up 150th,” but still in the top fourth. With only seven puzzles, the range of possible outcomes was wide. Ginsberg said the program would probably finish in the top 50, among the 600 contestants. In simulations of 15 past tournaments, Dr. Fill and an expert in artificial intelligence, predicted a range of likely outcomes for his clever code. ![]() Fill, which I wrote about earlier, matched its digital wits against the wetware of 600 of the nation’s best human solvers at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn.īefore the tournament, Matthew Ginsberg, the creator of Dr. ![]() Over the weekend, an impressive crossword-solving computer program, called Dr. Score one for humans and their subtle, quirky, pattern-matching brains. Fill, that competed at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Will Shortz, the fourth person at the post, told me, “My goals have been to modernize the crossword vocabulary, reduce crosswordeseĪnd obscurity, introduce more playful themes and in general broaden the audience.Chris Pietsch for The New York Times Matthew Ginsberg, the man behind a computer program, called Dr. ![]() Each New York TimesĬrossword editor since has put their mark on the evolution of the puzzle. Own.” Margaret Farrer, who co-edited the original Simon & Schuster crossword collection as well as many following editions, was hired as the paper’s first crossword editor. They get nothing out of it except a primitive sort of mental exercise, and success or failure in any given attempt is equally irrelevant to mental development.”Īlmost two decades later, says Shortz, “as the story goes, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger had become tired of turning to the competing Herald Tribune for its crossword and decided The Times should have its 17, 1924, the crossword puzzle, “is not a game at all, and it hardly can be called a sport: it merely is a new utilization of leisure by those for whom it otherwise would beĮmpty and tedious. According to an opinion column, entitled “ A Familiar Form of Madness,” Last remaining newspapers in the United States to run one. Word’ puzzle.” Since then, the name has remained unchanged.ĭespite the widespread success of the puzzle, especially after the fledgling publisher Simon & Schuster came out with a collection of crosswords in 1924 (their very first book), The New York Times was one of the Two weeks later, according to Will Shortz, the New York Times’ crossword editor, “a compositor accidentally transposed the words in the title to ‘Cross Its popularity promptedĪnother iteration the following week. After settling on that format, he formulated the clues and answers that would populate the grid in the style that is now familiar toĭespite one editor’s note that the staff at the paper “regarded the game as ‘beneath a sensible man’s consideration,'” the puzzle was a hit with readers. His solution was a diamond-shaped grid that could be read both across and down. Yet featured in “Fun” was the world’s first crossword puzzle, introduced as the “Word-Cross.”Īrthur Wynn, editor of the Fun section, “was determined to feature something new and special in the Christmas issue,” according to Michelle Arnot, author of “ What’s Gnu: A History of the Crossword Puzzle.” Next to these stories, the lighthearted Fun supplement introduced that day would not seem Rise after AT&T relinquishes its holdings of the Western Union Telegraph Company to mollify the Department of Justice. ![]() 21, 1913: woman in Yonkers is robbed at gunpoint, aviator Glenn Curtiss vows to make the world’s first transatlantic flight and phone stocks Among the items that appeared in The New York Sunday World on Dec.
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