In 2025, I Became a Competitive Crossword Solver

This week, as we near the end of 2025, the writers and editors of KQED Arts & Culture are reflecting on One Beautiful Thing from the year.

On a bright Sunday morning in June, I sat down in a crowded synagogue library in West Berkeley for my first ever crossword puzzle competition.

I’d signed up on a lark, in the interest of trying something new. Berkeley’s second annual Westwords crossword tournament — a grueling, six-hour puzzle-solving extravaganza — certainly fit the bill.

“I’m gonna get smoked!” I told my wife and kids, who’d decamped to New Jersey for the summer a few days earlier, leaving me with a precious free weekend to pursue my nerdy hobbies. “I just don’t want to finish last.”

Look, I’d done enough research ahead of time to know I didn’t have a prayer of winning, or