Word lovers in the city can look forward to a great opportunity to put their skills to the test and decimate opponents.

It’s been a century since Liverpool journalist Arthur Wynne invented crossword, the popular word game. Civil society initiative Cross-C would organise a national-level competition for students of classes VIII to XII to celebrate the occasion.

The platform would provide them an opportunity to exhibit their puzzle-solv- ing skills.

The initial rounds would be held in 30 cities across India in which teams from prominent schools would take part. Thirty teams would participate in the final.

The Patna round is likely to start from August 24. “We have already selected around 20 schools from the state capital and we would pick 20 more,” one of the co-ordinators of Cross-C, Prabudh Biswas, said on Sunday.

Apart from Patna schools, students from Bhagalpur, Saharsa, Chhapra, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Purnea, Gaya and Munger, would have to slog it out in their respective cities for making it to the final. Each team would have two students and the school authorities would select the members.

Other cities that would send their teams for the final round are Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta and others.

Biswas said this was the first time an inter-school crossword tournament was being organised and the response has been tremendous. “The warm response has given us confidence that the final round would be a grand show. We plan to organise it sometime in October or November.”

Bihar cadre IAS officer Vivek Kumar Singh has played a major role in organising the event. He had an interest in crosswords since his school days. He has to his credit a book titled Understanding Cryptic Crosswords: A step by step guide.

He, at present, is the secretary of the agriculture department.