…Then sign yourself up for the 2012 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship, the annual online contest which is used, in part, to determine who will represent the United States at the World Puzzle Championship in Croatia. The contest itself is this Saturday, August 25 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern — but whether or not you care to compete, registering will give you access to the practice test, featuring a dozen challenging puzzles by master constructor Thomas Snyder. Seriously, there is a word search in this batch that I am having a hard time with. A word search.
Also note that seven days later, the same site will be hosting a qualifier for the World Sudoku Championship, also in Croatia the same week as the WPC. If doing a bunch of standard sudoku in a row sounds tedious, rest assured that the qualifier (and the world championship) will include some wacky variants.