|
|
|||||
Team USA Wins 20th World Puzzle Championship
Eger, Hungary (Nov 12, 2011) Team USA won it's 13th team title at the World Puzzle Championship this week, edging out rival Germany. Over two days packed with 14 team and individual rounds, the lead change hands eight times! In the last team round, both teams received bonus for finishing early, but USA had enough of an edge to hold off the surging German team. The final score was 20,447 to 20,304, a margin of victory equivalent to just five minutes of solving time. Japan was third place with 18,026 points. The individual championship was equally dramatic. Over the two days of preliminary rounds, Palmer Mebane, Thomas Snyder, and Germany's seven-time world champion Ulrich Voigt each held the lead at some point. Going into the playoffs, Ulrich had established a lead that earned him intimidating head-starts of 2:35 and 4:25 over Palmer and Thomas. But he uncharacteristically ran into trouble with the eighth of nine final round puzzles, and Palmer was there with a strong performance to overtake Ulrich and cruise on the final puzzle to take the title. Palmer is the first American to win the individual title in 12 years. Full results are available at the official tournament web site. Our thanks and gratitude go our host György István, Zoltán Németh, and the rest of the Hungarian organizing team for hosting a very well-run tournament. |
Team USA Mailing List Register to be notified about future Team USA championships and qualifying events. Sudoku Masterpieces Each puzzle is a work of art. Puzzles by US Puzzle Team members Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder. Visit the Team USA Bookstore.
Puzzles from the For a collection of
Sudoku puzzles from WSC2 and other selected puzzle books, visit the
Puzzles by Nikoli, Japan Selected puzzles for the USPC and the Sudoku National Championship are 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. |
||||
Thomas Snyder Wins World Sudoku Championship
Eger, Hungary (Nov 10, 2011) American Thomas Snyder won the individual title at the 6th World Sudoku Championship, his third title in five years. Thomas led the field after a day and a half of preliminary rounds, earning a three-minute head start for the final round, then cruised through the nine playoff puzzles in just 38 minutes. Seven minutes back in second place was first-time contestant Kota Morinishi of Japan. Following close behind in third place was Tiit Vunk of Estonia. Germany edged out the Czech Republic to become the first repeat winner of the team competition. Team USA came in third, its best Sudoku finish since 2007. Full results are available at the official tournament web site. Our thanks and gratitude go our host György István, Zoltán Németh, and the rest of the Hungarian organizing team for hosting a very well-run tournament. |
|||||
2011 US Sudoku Team Qualifying Results
San Francisco, USA (September 27, 2011) Open qualifying for the US Sudoku Team was held Saturday, September 24. Jonathan Rivet was the top qualifier, solving 19 of 22 puzzles for 255 points. Also qualifying for the U.S. Team were Jason Zuffranieri (230), Jim Schneider (224), and William Blatt (207). They will join Thomas Snyder and Wei-Hwa Huang in representing Team USA and the World Sudoku Championship in November in Eger, Hungary. The qualifying test was open to participants world-wide. Branko Ćeranić (Serbia) had the overall score, solving all but one puzzle for 289.29 points. Close behind were Bastien Vial-Jaime of France (280) and Hideaki Jo of Japan (275). Visit the Qualifying Test pages for puzzles, solutions, solving statistics, and full results. The competition puzzles were designed by team members Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder, co-authors of Sudoku Masterpieces (see sidebar). The 6th World Sudoku Championship will be held November 6-10, in Eger, Hungary. All WPF member countries have been invited via email to participate. If your country is not represented by a WPF-member body, contact the organizers for information about independent participation. |
|||||
Palmer Mebane Wins
U.S. Puzzle Championship
San Francisco, USA (August 30, 2011) Palmer Mebane achieved the second-ever perfect score to win the 2011 U.S. Puzzle Championship. Thomas Snyder was second, falling short in his effort to win a sixth consecutive title, solving 20 of 22 puzzles and scoring 349 out of 395 points. William Blatt (309) was third, followed closely by Dan Katz (305), Wei-Hwa Huang (297), and Roger Barkan (290). Representing the U.S. at the World Puzzle Championships in Hungary in November will be Palmer Mebane, Thomas Snyder, William Blatt, and Wei-Hwa Huang. Participants representing 33 countries besides the United States submitted answer forms, and the test will be used to help select WPC team members for Canada and the UK. The top Canadian scores were: Byron Calver (275), Terrence Newton (225), Derek Kisman (224), and David Jones (185). The top UK scores were: David McNeill (229), Murray Hughes (221), James McGowan (212), and Neil Zussman (200). The top international scores were: Hideaki Jo of Japan (303), Branko Ćeranić of Serbia (303), Bram De Laat of the Netherlands (297), and Kota Morinishi of Japan (266). Thanks to the 2011 puzzles designers: Nikoli, Cihan Altay, Serkan Yürekli, Adam R. Wood, Michael Rios, Dave Tuller, Erich Friedman, Shawn Kennedy, Patrick Merrell, Scott Kim, and Moshe Rubin. Thanks to the test solvers: Ulrich Voigt, Roland Voigt, Niels Roest, Dave Tuller, Michael Rios and Craig Kasper. And Thanks to the to prize sponsors: ThinkFun and Nikoli.com. Please visit the USPC Competition Home for puzzles, solutions, solving statistics and full results. |
|||||
World Puzzle Championship Warsaw, Poland (October 28, 2010) Team USA topped the leader board for most of the first two days, but slipped to second place in the last round, giving up a small time advantage to a strong Japanese team. But on the final day, the Americans crushed the team relay round, and survived a no-notes physical Skyscraper Sudoku puzzle to win the team championship. Japan placed second, and Germany third. Americans Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder, both qualified for the 8-person individual playoffs, but were eliminated in the first round. In the final round, Taro Arimatsu of Japan won first place, followed by Ulrich Voigt of Germany, Hideaki Jo of Japan, and Ko Okamoto of Japan. For up-to-date scoring, visit the WPC19 web site.
|
|||||
Jan Mrozowski Repeats as World Sudoku Champion
Philadelphia, USA (May 1, 2010) Jan Mrozowski of Poland successfully defended his World Sudoku Championship title this weekend. Germany now holds both the World Sudoku Championship and the WPC title. The individual competition had a puzzle decathlon theme, presenting standard sudoku and sudoku variants over 10 distinct events. For example the 100m event was a collection of relatively easy puzzles allowing the competitors to sprint; and the 110m hurdles had standard grids but were designed so that only one digit that could be logically deduced, isolating the typical sticking point, or hurdle, that solvers frequently encounter.
The finals were hosted by Thomas Snyder and Wei-Hwa Huang, the designers of the championship puzzles. The finalists' papers were displayed live on a large screen as the audience was treated to Thomas' and Wei-Hwa's expert commentary during the 60-minute final. Jan Mrozowski was the leader and heavy favorite going into the final round, earning an 8-minute advantage based on his Decathlon performance. Despite losing his entire advantage to Jakub Ondroušek of the Czech Republic due to mistakes on the Killer and Consecutive puzzles, Jan rallied and held on to win his second consecutive championship, and earned the title of "World's Greatest Sudoku Solver!" Jakub Ondroušek finished second, Hideaki Jo of Japan was third, and Florian Kirch of Germany was fourth. In team competition, Japan held a small lead over the Czech Republic and Germany going into the final team round (no one was aware of this due to scoring lag), but they were unable to complete the round and hold their lead. Instead the title went Germany, who catapulted into first place by finishing the round nine minutes ahead of the second place Czech team. See the WSC 2010 home page for a scoring summary and a full list of individual and team participants (linked Google spreadsheet). Team USA would like to thank the Philadelphia Inquirer for its generous contributions to the event. Other sponsors include the Philadelphia Courtyard Marriott, Capcom, and Seven Footer Press. The organizers are particularly indebted to the puzzle designers, Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder, without whom a competition of this quality simply could not have happened. Wei-Hwa also gets credit for most of the graphic work, including the WSC5 logo and the Decathlon icons. |
|||||
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 1999-2011 U.S. Puzzle Championship | |||||
