Interview With The World's Best Crossword Solver

Simon interviews Mark about his recent win in The Times Crossword Championship. Many of the questions are those requested by our viewers!
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Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the eleven-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@Pyromonkey83]

I'm very disappointed that the title of this video isn't "Question Mark"...

[@KurtHugoSchneider]

didn't realize simon was in the upper right until 10 minutes in haha.. but congrats mark, despite english being my native language, cryptic crosswords are a mystery to me.

[@peterdunlop7691]

I never noticed that until I read your comment. Makes you wonder what else goes on without notice in front of our very own eyes.

[@nadines.1107]

I only saw when I read your comment. So subtle haha.

[@timsullivan4566]

Before anyone ELSE goes off on that pedant route, why don't we all just agree that since crosswords are very much concerned with language , then "World Championship" - being a term in English - shall be understood to denote the winner of a global competition for solving English language crosswords. We're all okay with this now and can get on with congratulating Mark? ...Good. Well done, Mark!

[@AussieJohnny]

Thank you both for a revealing interview. My first introduction to cryptic crosswords was as a sixteen year old sitting at the back bench in the school (Hampton Grammar) lab during a chemistry lesson (a subject I detested). Someone had left a Daily Telegraph on the bench and I tuned out from the lesson and looked at the cryptic crossword. To my amazement I was able to solve two or three clues. Fifty four years later I live in Brisbane, Australia, where I do The Times/Sunday Times crossword everyday thanks to The Australian newspaper (online edition). Mark made reference to changes in The Times crossword over the years. Back in the 1960s there was always a literary quotation clue for which I never knew the answer.

[@BloodyFox1]

Amazing interview, Simon - how did you manage to score that?

[@DeanoMayerWreckfest]

Thanks for the mention Mark! Just want to add that if you fancy a good Sunday cryptic the Sunday Times is now a different animal under Peter B, almost identical style to the weekday series. David McLean puts in lots of sly humour, Rob Price particularly inventive (STEVEDORES defined as 'hold hands' in his last puzzle), and me doing whatever it is I do. Most Sunday puzzles have a reputation for being easy and maybe we're bucking the trend, but I'm very impressed with my colleagues' work and I think you'd enjoy it too.

[@timsullivan4566]

Happy to say that interview covered every question I had for Mark, as well as a few for which I hadn't the wits to wonder. Thanks guys.

[@tomdeane6199]

great to see interaction with you two! brilliant channel! proud patreon of the channel

[@kellwillsen]

Thank you for not only explaining the answer to the "shaken players" clue, but also why the next line in the novel is "Vetinari sneered at it." I thought it was strange that the Patrician should sneer at a clue simply for being easy, but if it's playing fast and loose with proper crossword etiquette then he would raise an eyebrow. He was dismissive of their re-using an old sudoku layout, as well. Pratchett's subtle humour never ceases to amaze me. I think my favourite is his passing mention of an ancient feud between the Selachii and Venturi families. Who else would bring together taxonomy, aeronautics, and musical theatre for the sake of a background joke?

[@emilywilliams3237]

Going back through old videos on the channel - I very much enjoyed this interview!

[@grenvillephillips6998]

I have been waiting for very long time for such an interview. Previous champions have always seemed a bit coy when asked such questions. Whether it is Feynman or Goodliffe, genius is always fascinating.

[@GuilhermeCarvalhoComposer]

Only now did I come back to watch this super cool interview from the before times, it's really nice! And what a POWER MOVE by Mark in that competition, solving the given crossword super fast and then solving _more_ difficult crosswords in front of everybody just to flex. I love it. :)

[@joshuaknowles]

Thanks for the interview and congrats again, Mark. Love watching your solves - wish the channel would just put more Times and Listener crossword solves up.

[@ciz121]

interesting, you need to be in a bigger box at the top though as it took me a while to see you there :)

[@guangjianlee8839]

Wow, collaboration from 2 of my favorite sudoku youtubers!

[@skasperl]

Mark's on Sporcle! Hooray!

[@alanberry1318]

Academically I have had to pull myself up by my bootlaces. In an essay I once wrote 'dinamic' and at the tutor's remark was simply that I should check my spelling in a dictionary. I have never spelt the word wrong since but my bootlace was somewhat shorter. Cryptic crosswords requires practical skill as well as general knowledge and I stand completely in awe of Mark

[@JaggerG]

Seems much happier in this vid than in sudoku solves.

[@GasparLewis]

I wish I hadn't left this in my Watch Later for so long! Doing user-submitted free-floating clues might make for a fun channel feature. I wrote one with an... unusual cluing mechanic that I ran past some other cryptic fans I fell in with this year. While it well-received, we all kind of agreed that it potentially opened new and frightening doors that more seasoned (and sadistic) authors probably shouldn't be trusted with. That said, I'd be willing to risk it for a professional-level opinion.

[@_-_-Sipita-_-_]

THERE IT IS, THE LORE

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

I'm surprised you don't solve Mephisto every week. I've found it very addictive, and very helpful in solving the more difficult cryptics.

[@MrCheeze]

Oh, so that's where the overjoyed thumbnail pic comes from!

[@peterjongsma3221]

I often go to sleep just listening to these guys do the solve. I do The Daily Telegraph Cryptic in Sydney Australia. Level of Difficulty? VS. Very Simple. Not sure if my Abbreviations are Legit.

[@idngafaa]

maybe my own google algorithm hasn't totally picked up what i'm interested in (which makes me unbelievably happy, but also makes me question - how?).. but, what hornblower are they referring to?

[@timsullivan4566]

Horatio?

[@fussyboy2000]

Is he any good at Countdown though?

[@essentialatom]

I couldn't solve this.

[@jackming-hung8064]

How old are these guys.

[@JaggerG]

I think I heard mark’s an 11 time champ, so at LEAST 11.

[@robertleifeld225]

Why did you interview him in the echo chamber?

[@ragnkja]

The world’s best solver of crosswords in English, because how can you have a direct comparison between solvers of crosswords in different languages?

[@peterdunlop7691]

English is said to have the biggest vocab of any language so having to know so many different words would make it potentially harder in this language. Are there languages that are not suitable for crossword or cryptic crosswords? Can Japanese and Chinese people do crosswords in their native language? Do you need an alphabet?

[@ianyoung1101]

Fair point. I assume as English is the "international" language, that the competition is in English. Presumably, anyone in the world can compete, which is why it is the World Championship.

[@ragnkja]

Peter Dunlop The number of _possible_ words with no spaces is still much larger in languages where compound words are very common. How do you even _measure_ the number of meaningful words you could use in a, say, German crossword? Just about no matter what noun, verb or adjective you choose, you could come up with a synonym with so many letters that it’s just plain silly.

[@tomaskot9278]

@@peterdunlop7691 How many words does the English language have? My language (Czech) has around 300,000 root words. So it's not like in Germany where you can combine words into endless longer words - those 300,000 are the "core" words. And of course that doesn't include declension, conjugation and other modifications typical for Slavic languages.

[@PDeRop]

In how many languages can he solve crosswords? (Seems important it’s a ‘world-championship’)