Ramki Krishnan of Chennai on Sunday lifted the National Crossword Champion trophy for the record 8th time at the end of the Grand Finale of the 13th Indian Crossword League (IXL)in Bengaluru.

The runner-up position went to Sohil Bhagat ofBengaluru and the 2nd runner-up to Shashwat Salgaocar of Goa.

The offline Grand Finale, one of the most awaited crossword events, started with an impressive line-up of 24 contestants who had proved themselves through a two-and-half months of 10 grueling online rounds played by aficionados of the game globally. Out of them, after a tough two-grid prelims, Ramki Krishnan, Sohil Bhagat, Shashwat Salgaonkar, Venkatraghvan S from Mumbai, Jose A from Thane and Aashirvad Vishwanathan from Chennai qualified for the On-stage finals.

The day started with the reading of the messages sent by two top IXL 2025 Grand Finale qualifiers from US who could not be present.

In a rare acknowledgement of India’s intellectual heft, Matthew Marcus from Portland, US, who consistently clinched the top spot during the preliminary online phase and was declared the IXL 2025 winner, said: “Although we did rather well in the IXL qualifying rounds, the truth of the matter is thst US is not a widely regarded cryptic nation. It is a source of personal terror to me that India, with its population of 1.4 billion souls, and its proven track record in the fields of brainpower, letters and thinking outside the box, might be ‘coming for us’ on the field of combat that is the 15x15 grid.”

The message of Erik from Kansas City, himself an editor and a crossword constructor, and who too blazed through the online rounds with top positions and cornering the IXL 2025 runner-up spot, read: “The only thing better than getting mauled by a difficult crossword for over an hour is, knowing that other people are going through the same delightful agony simultaneously.”

After 10 online rounds, the top 30 on the basis of their cumulative scores are invited to Bengaluru for the Grand Finale. The winner Ramki takes home the National Crossword Champion trophyafter a brief hiatus of 2 years . He also represented India at the World Crossword Championship,London conducted by Extra-C.

Crossmaster Ochintya Sharma anchored the show, ably supported by Kushagra, Venkatesh and Robin of Extra C. Mr Vivek Kumar Singh, Chairman RERA Bihar, and Chief Mentor of IXL detailed the crossword journey across India, and now the world. He also informed as to how 21st December was declared as the World Crossword Day during the Grand Finale of the 1st Crossword League in 2013. He also declared that the 1st National Cryptic Crossword Contest ion Hindi would be held on 14th September 2026.

Mr. Ranjan Biswas,Managing Partner, EY and Prof.Debabrat Das were the Chief Guests for the event. Also in attendance were senior bureaucrats Rakesh Singh,Chairman,Rera Karnataka,Umesh Kumar IPS, Laxman Singh IRSEand Mr. Amar Pandey retired IPS officer.

PICS CAPTIONS:

IXL FINALE PIC 1 – IXL 2025 Champion Ramki Krishnan receiving trophy from Mr. Vivek Kumar Singh, Chairman RERA Bihar, Mr. Ranjan Biswas, MD Ernst & Young India, Prof. Debabrata Das, Director IIIT Bengaluru, Mr. Amar Pandey, IPS Retd (President Crossword Association of Karnataka) and Mr. Ochintya Sharma.

IXL FINALE PIC 2 – The eminent guests releasing the Indian Crossword League 2025 TShirt.

IXL FINALE PIC 3 – Group photo of the Indian Crossword League 2025 Grand Finalists along with the eminent guests at the Grand Finale.