Darmok Beats Human Champion by 3 Minutes in Times Cryptic Final

1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 20

Darmok solved the final puzzle in the Times’s annual cryptic crossword championship about three minutes faster than Liam Hughes, 29, who still became the youngest human winner.
Four frontier AI models powered the system—mainly Gemini 3.1 Pro and Claude Fable 5—with GPT-5 and GPT-6 Astra assisting, while developer Sid Chatterjee also changed it to attempt every clue before filling answers.
One decisive answer was SNARF, a clue that stumped three of the five finalists, including 14-time champion Mark Goodliffe, because it required turning SNARE into SNARF by removing the bottom bar of E.
The result marks a milestone cryptic crosswords had long resisted, after Darmok failed to finish the same final in 18 minutes a year earlier and after AI had already beaten humans in chess and American-style crosswords.
Chatterjee said the next challenge is not solving but setting cryptic puzzles, which he called harder because clues must work in both normal and cryptic English.