Announcing the winner of our Tylogram Summer Challenge!

We here at Tylogram™ Central would like to offer hearty congratulations to the winner of our Tylogram Summer Challenge! Tylogram is the diabolical semi-weekly sliding word puzzle where you form words from a grid of eight letter tiles, then rearrange the tiles to try to achieve the highest score possible.

A little over a month ago, we challenged players to find the mystery word that could be derived from the puzzles that would run for the next thirty or so days. We also offered Leo as the first of a series of extra hints that would relate to the mystery word. (This hint did not, as some speculated, have any association with the Zodiac sign corresponding to the challenge period.)

While there were many creative answers submitted, loyal Tylogram player Duane Grasse was first to vault over the competition and correctly submit the mystery word. Duane noticed that the anchor letters of the puzzles running during the challenge period appeared to be spelling out a word in reverse. On August 11, only seven puzzles in, he correctly predicted that the mystery word would turn out to be SWORDPLAY.

Here is a rundown of the nine puzzles, together with their anchor letters and extra hints:

• 7/21: Y - Leo (nickname of Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
• 7/25: A - Joan (of Arc, who carried the sword of St. Catherine)
• 7/28: L - Diego (Don Diego de la Vega a/k/a Zorro)
• 8/01: P - Sonja (comic book warrior Red Sonja)
• 8/04: D - Alonso (Quijano a/k/a Don Quixote)
• 8/08: R - Beatrix (Kiddo a/k/a The Bride from Kill Bill)
• 8/11: O - Cyrano (de Bergerac, poet and swordsman)
• 8/15: W - Errol (Flynn, known for his swashbuckling movie roles)
• 8/18: S - Inigo (Montoya from The Princess Bride)

Three other entrants came up with the correct answer, though Duane beat his nearest competitor by more than five days! In addition, many entrants submitted WORDPLAY as a solution, but they were unfortunately a letter short.

Congratulations again to our big winner, and thanks to everyone who took part in the Tylogram Summer Challenge! Though the challenge is over, there’s a brand-new puzzle out today, and we hope you keep on playing.