Crossword solving speed

The Game Room
1

I follow a blog by Michael Sharp (under the name of Rex Parker). Each day he shows the solved NYT crossword with his deconstruction and commentary. He is a competitive solver and also a constructor.

He solved today’s NYT puzzle in 2:28. Yes, it’s a Monday puzzle. Yes, it is even easy for a Monday. But c’mon, that puzzle has 186 letters in it. I don’t think I could even fill it in from looking at a solved copy that fast. My time was 7:46, one of my fastest ever.

I don’t really have a question, just wanted to express my awe. I attempt most NYT puzzles but often cannot crack a Friday or Saturday puzzle, and don’t even get all the Thursdays.

2

I tried to get faster at NYT weekday and Saturday puzzles in the past. Yeah, Monday can be pretty easy, but 2:28? That’s blinding speed. And I’ve left quite a few Saturday puzzles substantially unfinished. As for Sunday puzzles, I do 4 or 5 a week out of books. They have a lot of words but they’re theme puzzles, once you work out the theme it gets a lot easier. I hate Maleska’s step-quotes because I never know the quote and it’s like adding random characters into the puzzle. I did get a Sunday puzzle done in a little over 20 minutes once, it was pretty easy and I just got into the zone on that one.