By Eileen Oldfield, Staff Writer
What’s an eight-letter word for crossword puzzle king?
Howard Barkin would know the answer is “champion,” though he’s just one spot from having that title. The Bloomingdale Drive resident placed second in the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held Feb. 19-21 in Brooklyn.
”I never really expected to do well with it,” Mr. Barkin said. “That sort of happened over time.”
Mr. Barkin, along with first-place winner Dan Feyer and third-place winner Anne Erdman, ousted Tyler Hinman, who had claimed the tournament’s top spot from 2005-2009.
Even with a second-place title and a $600 prize from the tournament and the ability to complete multiple puzzles in a short time Mr. Barkin insists solving the puzzles is a hobby that began as a lunchtime distraction.
While working at a job where “the highlight of the day was the lunch hour,” Mr. Barkin, who now works with computers at a different company, began doing the puzzles to fill the time.
”I didn’t really have time to go out for lunch so I would look for books or magazines to take a break,” Mr. Barkin said. “Eventually, I started to do the crossword puzzles … After a while, you get familiar with the facts, and you get familiar with the clues and the language.”
Like any sport or musical instrument, practice improves with the time spent on the puzzles, he added. When he began doing the puzzles, Mr. Barkin spent time reading about subjects he didn’t know, like theater or movies. Soon, he was doing three puzzles during his 30-minute break.
”If you keep practicing it, you’re going to get better at it,” Mr. Barkin said. “I was just picking up things really quickly. It’s kind of a good way to trick yourself into learning.”
He entered his first crossword competition, which benefited a local charity, a few months after picking up the puzzles during lunch and entered the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the first time about five years ago. While it’s a competition, the emphasis is on the social aspect and the puzzle content rather than the contest.
”Most people don’t go to it expecting to win,” he said. “Most people go to socialize … It’s just a really good time.”
He added, “When you’re done with a puzzle (at the competition), and it’s collected (by the proctors), you can either stay in the room or go outside and talk with other competitors. Nobody’s hoping for anybody to fail … It’s more about the camaraderie than the cash prize.”
During the tournament, the contestants sit at tables in a ballroom and are given a certain amount of time to finish the crossword puzzles. The idea, Mr. Barkin said, is to finish the puzzles as quickly and accurately as possible, and, once a contestant finishes a puzzle, the time is recorded, and the puzzle is collected.
”It reminds me a little bit of taking a standardized test, but it’s more fun than that,” Mr. Barkin said.
The best contestants in the three groups, one for middle-of-the-road competitors and first-timers, a second for faster puzzle solvers and a third for the best of the competition, go to the final round.
Since the puzzles are a hobby and a way to relax for Mr. Barkin, no special preparations goes into readying himself for the tournament, he said. Usually, he’ll do a few puzzles online, either through the New York Times’ Web site or through other Web sites.
”If people have interest in it, it’s not something where you have to be fast (at crossword puzzles) to go,” Mr. Barkin said. “It’s a social event. It’s just a quirky kind of thing to do.”
