Puzzle and Word Game Links
Usenet
rec.puzzles,
rec.puzzles.crossword, and
rec.games.trivia are the principle
puzzle-related newsgroups. The
rec.puzzles archives
contain a vast collection of puzzles and their solution. The
Scrabble FAQ
is an excellent resource for that game.
Crosswords
The CrossWord Puzzle Lab has the most extensive list of crossword links anywhere.
Literate Software's Crossword Gallery has a collection of fine puzzles that you can solve on your
own computer, using the Across Lite program available there. Regularly
appearing online puzzles include
Caspian's weekly cryptic crossword and monthly prize cryptic,
Squizz's cryptic crosswords,
Dell Magazine's daily crossword, the
PhillyNews crossword, the
USA Today puzzle,
and the two best of all: the New York Times and the
Times of London.
Other crossword pages:
Mike Smith's Crossword Page
The Crossword Constructor's Forum
Haynes' Crossword page
Hamano's Home Page
A Java crossword applet
Crossword Crossroads
1000 Transword crossword puzzles to learn languages
Other word games
The Word Puzzler's Corner is
just getting started. There's a site devoted to
palindromes.
Castle Oaks
Computer Services offers products relating to word puzzles.
If you need help with a word puzzle you can consult the
Internet Anagram Server (AKA "inert net grave near mars"), Tom Magliery's
word finder and
word lists,
or a
word ladder finder.
Chess
Retrograde chess problems are considered at the
WWW RetroCorner; another site is for
missing piece chess/checkers/go puzzles.
Geometric and pattern puzzles
In two dimensions, there's
ImIsion (computer-aided tangrams);
OOG, "The Object Orientation Game";
IBM's
Electric Origami Shop, and the
extremely addictive matchstick puzzles at
MatchBox.
In three dimensions,
Blueberry Design offers Rubik's
cube and other puzzles, and another UK site offers
"Frustration" and its successor,
"Volutare 3D".
Contests
Our favorites are
Panthera's weekly
puzzle contest and the Word Wizard's
"What Are Words Worth" contests. Both are free and offer modest prizes.
The Labyrinth has trivia contests, and
the
Armchair Treasure Hunt home page is concerned with, well, treasure hunts.
The Daily Record and Sunday Mail
features uniquely British SPOT THE BALL and FIND THE COINS contests.
Other unclassified puzzle sites:
SPECTRUM: The Family Internet Magazine
Island Puzzler
The Puzzle Depot and its
puzzle software
search engine
A special intro edition of The
ENIGMA, monthly publication of The National Puzzlers' League
Maze, a book by Christopher Manson
Riddler
Puzzles
Inter-Links
CodeMasters (decoding puzzles)
Livewire Puzzles