Sponsored by Games Magazine and directed by Will Shortz, it attracted thousands of potential competitors and was, along with the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, one of the two largest crossword tournaments in recent decades.
Solvers of the puzzle could decide whether they wanted to be Nonparticipants or Participants.
Nonparticipants with correct solutions were eligible for a random drawing, the winner of which would receive a cash prize.
Participants with correct solutions were mailed four very difficult tiebreaker crosswords, many of which had deliberately tricky crossings and unannounced gimmicks (for example, the long entries in a puzzle might reveal that all of the across clues were in reverse order).
The 250 solvers with the best scores on the tiebreak puzzles were invited to New York City to participate in the tournament.