This September the country's best crossword solvers will battle for words in the fourth edition of the Indian Crossword League (IXL), an online cryptic crossword competition.
The first crossword puzzle titled "word cross" was published by Arthur Wayne, a US-based Briton, in the US daily New York World in 1913, and IXL organiser Extra-C, a Patna-based civil society initiative, organised the first edition of the competition to mark its centenary year.
The registration for the competition will commence on Thursday, August 25, and the competition will begin on September 11. Participants can register on www.crypticsingh.com. The inaugural event will be held in Delhi, and will continue for 10 weeks following which the top 20 will play in the finals at Bangalore on Christmas day.
A grid of cryptic crossword puzzles is uploaded to the website every Sunday at 11am and participants are given a week's time to submit their answer. Based on the quickest and highest number of correct entries, scores are awarded to participants. The cumulative score after 10 weeks will decide the top 20.
The organisers are using social media in a bid to reach out to the maximum number of crossword solvers. IXL chief mentor and 1989-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer Vivek Kumar Singh told The Telegraph on Wednesday: "We want to spread the crossword as a hobby so that more people can enjoy the game."
IXL director Kushagra Singh added that apart from spreading word about the event in India, Extra-C will also try to reach out to non-resident Indians. Special rounds will be created for participants in Chicago, London and Sydney, in addition to Toronto and New Jersey which had been included in the last edition of the competition and had received a large number of participants from the Indian diaspora settled there, Singh said.
Ramki Krishnan, winner of the 2013 and 2015 editions and a senior director with Cognizant Technology in Chennai, said: "Cryptic crossword not only tests your vocabulary, but also helps in developing the art of out-of-the-box thinking."
