The Canadian Puzzler's Googlepages page - The Canadian Puzzler's Google Home Page

Welcome here. I hope you will find this site informative and interesting. At the moment, it is small - only a single page - and given the amount of things that keep landing on my to-do list, it will probably grow at a fairly slow pace.

A bit about me: My name is Craig Kasper, and when I'm not at my day job (I'm a programmer/analyst type by trade), one of the things I do is creating and solving puzzles. I am fairly proficient at both of these activities.

With respect to solving puzzles, I've had the pleasure of competing in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut, several times, and each time I've competed I've typically placed higher than about 90% of the other contestants.

With respect to constructing puzzles, my crosswords have appeared in the New York Times, The New York Sun, and the L.A. Times; there has also been one of my crosswords in every issue of The Walrus Magazine. Also, my puzzles have been used in the World Puzzle Championships and the US WPC qualifying test.

I am not currently soliciting additional puzzle commissions at the moment, due to general busyness. That being said, however, I may accept additional puzzle commissions at my own personal discretion. Contact me if you would like to suggest something.

I also have an enduring interest (as a solver and fan, in additon to being a constructor) in the World Puzzle Championships. I hope to someday soon be able to accompany the Canadian WPC team to the championships, or maybe even participate in the championships as a member of the team. More ambitiously, I would love to see Canada become a member of the World Puzzle Federation (the association which organizes the WPCs), and even find a sponsor for the team. Also if there is a World Sudoku Championship in 2007, I would love to see a Canadian championship to act as a qualifying event. If any of you who read this are able to help with any of this, please let me know. My E-mail address is in the footer of this page.

Links:

The Walrus magazine publishes one of my crosswords every month.
The World Puzzle Championships take place yearly. I have a multi-year history of contributing puzzles to the qualifier for the US WPC team, including some new and unique designs I'm very proud of. (I've also contributed puzzles to the WPC's themselves, on a more irregular basis.)
Puzzle Cannon is a blog with a particular interest in puzzle construction theory and practice. It is currently in a state of hibernation but includes a lot of interesting musings on puzzles and their construction.
Diary of a Crossword Fiend is a blog which discusses the New York Times crossword puzzle, the New York Sun crossword puzzle, and other daily crosswords available over the internet.
Crosswords Without Pity is a blog where puzzle constructor and fan holds court on recent crosswords from a constructor's point of view. CWoP is also frequented by a number of other crossword constructors, including yours truly.