{"id":25552,"date":"2026-10-20T15:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/20\/could-this-be-a-deep-blue-moment-for-the-cryptic-crossword\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T15:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:37:20","slug":"could-this-be-a-deep-blue-moment-for-the-cryptic-crossword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/20\/could-this-be-a-deep-blue-moment-for-the-cryptic-crossword\/","title":{"rendered":"Could this be a Deep Blue moment for the cryptic crossword?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A computer program has finally oudone humans at solving cryptic crosswords. Plus, more from around the puzzleverse<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/puzzles\/2026\/sep\/30\/sign-up-for-the-cluesletter-our-free-puzzles-email\"><strong>Don\u2019t get Cluesletter, our weekly puzzles newsletter, delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, it was an early victory for artificial intelligence over the human mind, and the culmination of decades of attempts. Almost 30 years later, a computer program has finally outdone humans at solving cryptic crosswords.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, a model called Darmok solved the final puzzle of the Times\u2019s annual cryptic crossword competition about three minutes faster than Liam Hughes, 29, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/puzzles\/quizzes-teasers\/article\/youngest-times-crossword-solver-ai-puzzles-gh26c8g8h\">became the contest\u2019s youngest (human) winner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wolf trap missing its lowest crosspiece? (5)\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Proportion of inspiration and perspiration? It\u2019s roughly 45% and 42% (5)<\/p>\n<p>Kick-off leads to decisive early goal for PSG (5)<\/p>\n<p><em>To read the complete version of this newsletter including the exclusive Letter Adder game, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/puzzles\/2026\/sep\/30\/sign-up-for-the-cluesletter-our-free-puzzles-email\">subscribe to receive Cluesletter<\/a> in your inbox every Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/puzzles\/crossword-blog\/2026\/oct\/20\/could-this-be-a-deep-blue-moment-for-the-cryptic-crossword\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/c6c720b35b47cb4d8acc8251786141517b5aaa4d\/0_0_1676_1341\/master\/1676.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=738d38dacdb921827ce299617ff525cb\" title=\"Could this be a Deep Blue moment for the cryptic crossword?\" \/>A computer program has finally oudone humans at solving cryptic crosswords. Plus, more from around the puzzleverse<br \/>\n\u2022 Don\u2019t get Cluesletter, our weekly puzzles newsletter, delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<br \/>\nWhen the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, it was an early victory for artificial intelligence over the human mind, and the culmination of decades of attempts. Almost 30 years later, a computer program has finally outdone humans at solving cryptic crosswords.<br \/>\nEarlier this month, a model called Darmok solved the final puzzle of the Times\u2019s annual cryptic crossword competition about three minutes faster than Liam Hughes, 29, who became the contest\u2019s youngest (human) winner.<br \/>\nWolf trap missing its lowest crosspiece? (5)\u201d<br \/>\nProportion of inspiration and perspiration? It\u2019s roughly 45% and 42% (5)<br \/>\nKick-off leads to decisive early goal for PSG (5)<br \/>\nTo read the complete version of this newsletter including the exclusive Letter Adder game, subscribe to receive Cluesletter in your inbox every Tuesday. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A computer program has finally oudone humans at solving cryptic crosswords. Plus, more from around the puzzleverse \u2022 Don\u2019t get Cluesletter, our weekly puzzles newsletter, delivered to your inbox? Sign up here When the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, it was an early victory for artificial intelligence over the &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/20\/could-this-be-a-deep-blue-moment-for-the-cryptic-crossword\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Could this be a Deep Blue moment for the cryptic crossword?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":25553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}