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After a thrilling debut last year, NICE 2023 has returned for English lovers and cryptic clue-breakers alike. Conducted in the spirit of the National Education Policy, this college crossword contest is using three stages — and a mock ‘combat rehearsal’ — to help students develop their critical thinking skills in a new and interesting manner.
How to register
Students from any recognised Indian college or university can register for NICE 2023. To participate, one should sign up on nice.crypticsingh.com. This website also contains important links and specimen clues to help new solvers.
On April 2, an online mock round will be held to explain the pattern of the contest. Since each clue in a cryptic crossword is a word puzzle in itself, solving them quickly requires familiarity with the clueing norms (called conventions). Those new to cryptics are thus strongly advised to not skip this round. This foundational cryptic crossword guide by veteran solver Ramki Krishnan is also a good starting point:
Contest schedule for NICE 2023
The contest will begin after the mock round. Stage I will be held online on four successive Sundays: April 9, 16, 23, and 30. Participants will be required to solve five crossword clues on each date, with supplementary hints. Based on their speed and accuracy, solvers will receive points on NICE’s leaderboard.
Each Sunday’s clues will be posted at 10.30 am IST on the contest website, as well as on the NICE-22 Android app. Participants must solve and submit them by 5 pm on the same day.
Stage II will be the offline Zonal Rounds, where the top two performers from each institution will team up to represent their college/university. The contest will have five zones: North, South, West, East, and Northeast. Each zone will have prelims for up to 50 teams, and an on-stage final for the top six teams.
Stage III will be the offline National Final, where the top three qualifying teams from each zone will battle it out for the NICE 2023 crown. The finals will have written prelims, an on-stage G20 round, a semi-final, and a final. The exact dates for Stage II and Stage III are yet to be announced, but the latter will likely be in July or August.
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Last year’s national winners were Harshul Sagar and Arush Utkarsh from IIT Delhi, who walked away with the Rs 25,000 grand prize. The 2023 edition is being organised by the AICTE once again, in association with the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), New Delhi, and Patna body Extra-C.
This story is part of Express Puzzles & Games, where we do a daily (non-cryptic) crossword, three levels of sudoku, and a weekly news quiz. Sign up to start playing and follow @iepuzzles for updates!
