17 Across Where Tournament is Moving

After this weekend, Stamford no longer will be a synonym for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

The 30th annual tournament, which begins today, will be the last at the Stamford Marriott Hotel and Spa, where it debuted in 1978.

Thanks to publicity from last year's documentary "Wordplay," the three-day competition has become too large for the Stamford Marriott and will move to the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott in New York next year, organizers said.

The event began with about 150 contestants. This year, the hotel is booked solid, with a record 750 people registered to compete.

The crossword tournament was dreamed up by Stamford Marriott's first marketing director as a way to fill rooms on a slow winter weekend when the hotel was new, Shortz said.

The pitch made its way to Shortz, then 25, living in Stamford and working as a puzzle editor for Penny Press, a crossword publisher now based in Norwalk.

The move presents a word crisis of sorts, Shortz said. It will mean having to come up with new shorthand for the tournament's long title.

"People refer to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament as 'Stamford,' as in, 'We're going to Stamford,' " Shortz said. "I don't know what we're going to say next year - 'we're going to Stamford-in-Brooklyn?' "