Team USA Wins 2008 World Puzzle Championship
Roger Barkan comes in 3rd

Minsk, Belarus (Oct 31, 2008) For the third year in a row, the US team won the team title at the World Puzzle Championship, edging out Japan and the Czech Republic. Ulrich Voigt of Germany won his sixth individual title, leading Germany to fourth place in the team competition.

The organizers used a "17" theme throughout the competition, going so far as to expand the playoffs to include the top 17 individuals. Thus the US became the first team in WPC history to have all four team members make it to the playoff round. Roger Barkan led the team coming in 3rd, followed by Thomas Snyder in 7th, Wei-Hwa Huang in 10th, and Zack Butler finishing in14th place.

Full individual and team results are the WPC17 site. The US Team heartily thanks Vladimir Porugalov for organizing and hosting the event.
Team USA, Zack Butler, Roger Barkan, Thomas Snyder, and Wei-Hwa Huang,
solving five geometric assembly puzzles simultaneously.

Puzzles from the
2nd World Sudoku Championship

For a collection of Sudoku puzzles from WSC2 and other selected puzzle books, check out the
Team USA Book Store.

Puzzles by Nikoli, Japan

Puzzles for the Sudoku National Championship were provide by Nikoli, Japan. Daily puzzles,books and magazines are available at

Other News

See the News Page for other news reports regarding the World Puzzle Championship and Team USA, and the World Puzzle Federation web site.

Wei-Hwa Huang Wins 2008 Sudoku National Championship
Thomas Snyder places second


Philadelphia, USA (October 25, 2008)
Wei-Hwa Huang edged out Thomas Snyder (the reigning world and defending US champion) to win the 2nd Annual Philadelphia Inquirer Sudoku National Championship. Tammy McLeod, the 2007 runner-up, came in third.

Chris Narrikkattu, a regular participant in the USPC, won the intermediate division, and Lisa Haffner won the beginner division.

Visit Philly.com/sudoku for the full official tournament results. The organizers are indebted to Nikoli Co. for providing the tournament puzzles.

Thomas Snyder Wins 3rd Consecutive
Google U.S. Puzzle Championship

Mountain View, USA (June 26, 2008) Thomas Snyder recorded the first-ever perfect score on his way to winning his third US championship, finishing 15 minutes before the 2 1/2 hour deadline. Zack Butler placed second with 322 of 365 points, claiming the open spot on the US Puzzle Team to compete in Minsk, Belarus later this year. Roger Barkan was third with 303 points, and Dan Katz was fourth with a score of 298.

Participants representing 36 countries besides the United States submitted answer sheets, and the test was used to help select team members for Canada and Italy. The top Canadian scores were: Byron Calver (317), Derek Kisman (255), Terry Newton (225), and Aaron Chun Shing Chan (220). The top Italian scores were: Alberto Fabris (275), Stefano Forcolin (194), Silvano Monastero (185), and Enrico Leon (160).

The top international scores were: Vlad Klyachin of Russia (300), Hideaki Jo of Japan (285), Shinichi Aoki of Japan (265), Taro Arimatsu of Japan (260), and Denis Auroux of France (255).

The solutions page is live and linked 2008 Summary Page.

Thanks go to the puzzles designers: Dave Tuller, Michael Rios, Craig Kasper, Adam R. Wood, Erich Friedman, Sid Kravitz, Nick Baxter/Patrick Merrell, Shawn Kennedy, Moshe Rubin, Nancy Schuster.

Thomas Snyder Repeats as
World Sudoku Champion
Czech Republic wins team title; US Team in fourth

Goa, India (April 16, 2008)  American Thomas Snyder repeated as the individual champion at the World Sudoku Championship in Goa, India. Thomas also won a special title as the best solver of "classic" sudokus. Full results at wsc2008.com.

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