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https://www.wsj.com/articles/contest-crosswords-101-how-to-solve-puzzles-11625757841


Contest Crosswords 101 Illustration by Tammy Lian


CONTEST CROSSWORDS 101


LEARN THE INS AND OUTS OF WSJ’S WEEKLY CONTEST CROSSWORD IN THIS FOUR-PART
SERIES

Contest Crosswords 101 Illustration by Tammy Lian
By
Matt Gaffney
Updated July 23, 2021 11:57 am ET

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Welcome to Contest Crosswords 101. Every Friday for the past six years, we’ve
published a contest crossword here at the Journal, and their treasure-hunt-like
allure has turned growing legions of crossword solvers into contest crossword
fanatics. If you’re not one already, we hope this short introduction course will
zombify you into One of Us. If that should happen, you might want to leave your
Friday afternoons free of other plans. Not entirely kidding! They’re addictive.

Our contest puzzles are just like normal crosswords, but with one big
difference: somewhere in each completed puzzle grid there’s a secret word or
phrase hiding, and you’ve got to figure out where and what it is. You’ll see us
refer to these hidden answers as “metas” throughout the course.

This course consists of four contest crosswords that were published earlier this
year. The first two are relatively easy—even a solver who’s never attempted one
of these will have a chance of success. The last two will be slightly tougher,
but still easily accessible even to newbies. 

We’ll include a solving tip or two at the beginning of every lesson, and we’ve
also added insight from our puzzle community (also known as the Muggles, named
after the crossword champion mug that’s awarded weekly) at the end of every
lesson. These tips will give you a nudge in the right direction for both the
current puzzle and for any contest crosswords you encounter in the future.

You can email us at crosswordcontest@wsj.com with any questions. For an even
quicker (and possibly more useful) response, you can join the Muggles Forum
here. This forum was created by fans of the WSJ contest puzzles, and it’s
populated by hundreds of experienced solvers who love to answer questions about
them. 

On to Contest Crosswords 101! Follow the links below to head to the first
lesson.


CONTEST CROSSWORDS 101

Explore the contest crosswords course.

Contest Crosswords 101
Part 1: Poetic Justice
Part 2: Chemical Change
Part 3: In Character
Part 4: Looking for That Spark


Credits

 * Produced by Taylor Nakagawa
 * Design by Andrea Pappas
 * Illustrations by Tammy Lian





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