News About Team USA 
and the World Puzzle Championship

Thomas Snyder wins 1st U.S. Sudoku Championship



ELIZABETH ROBERTSON/INQUIRER

Philadelphia, USA (October 20, 2007) Thomas Snyder is on a roll, winning his third major puzzle championship of the year. This time it was the U.S. National Sudoku Championship, a live event attended by nearly 900 contestants and  over 150 spectators.

Participants competed one of three skill categories: beginner, intermediate, or expert. For each division, the first person finished in each of three qualifying rounds qualified for the on-stage finals.

By winning the expert playoff, Thomas won $10,000 and a trip to the 3rd World Sudoku Championship in India. Ron Osher won the intermediate division, and Lori DesRuisseaux won the beginner division.

The U.S. Sudoku National Championship was sponsored by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and hosted by Will Shortz. All the puzzles used were designed by U.S. Team member Wei-Hwa Huang. For for more details, read the Phili.com article.

Team USA Wins 2007 World Puzzle Championship

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (October 10, 2007) The US Puzzle Team won its 10th team title at the World Puzzle Championship. Individually, the Americas were also very impressive—after the individual rounds, Thomas Snyder was 1st, Roger Barkan was 4th, Wei-Hwa Huang was 6th, and Zack Butler was 12th. Only Thomas made it to the final round of the playoffs, and finished second place overall.

Complete scoring details are available at the WPF web site.

Zack Butler, Roger Barkan, Wei-Hwa Huang, and Thomas Snyder solving the Multi-Sudoku puzzle by assembling 81 little pieces that solve three Sudoku puzzles simultaneously.

Thomas Snyder Wins 2007 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship

Mountain View, USA (June 20, 2007) Thomas Snyder solved 19 of 20 puzzles, scoring 350 points, and successfully defended his title of U.S. Puzzle Championship. Wei-Hwa Huang also solved 19 puzzles for 345 points, repeating as runner-up. Third place was Zack Butler with 340 points, and will join Roger Barkan on the US Team at the WPC in Rio de Janeiro. Team alternates are Jonathan Rivet with 315 points, and Dan Katz with 295 points.

Participants represented 42 countries besides the United States, and the test was used to help select team members for Canada, Italy and the UK. The top Canadian scores were: Byron Calver (280), Karen New (221), Derek Kisman (215), and John Wetmiller (180). The top Italian scores were: Gabriele Simionato (165), Marco Gaion (165), Stefano Forcolin (160), and Alberto Fabris (150). The top UK scores were: Michael Collins and Nick Gardner (200), Mark Walmsley (195), and Simon Anthony (183).

The top international scores were: Vlad Klyachin of Russia (295), Michal Karwanski of Poland (270), Aziz Ateţ of Turkey (260), Bram De Laat of Netherlands (255), Hideaki Jo of Japan (309), Jana Tylova of Czech Republic (246), and Shinichi Aoki of Japan (245).

Test problems, solutions, statistics, and individual scores are available on the 2007 Summary Page.

Thanks go to the puzzles designers: Craig Kasper, Michael Rios, Dave Tuller, Patrick Merrill, Sidney Kravitz, Mark Steere, Adam R. Wood, Moshe Rubin, Scott Kim, Nancy Schuster, Glenn Iba, Shawn Kennedy, and Eric Friedman.

Thomas Snyder wins World Sudoku Championship
Japan beats USA for team title

Prague, Czech Republic (March 31, 2007)  Competitors from 32 countries gathered in Prague this weekend for the 2nd World Sudoku Championship.

After two days of solving more than fifty sudoku puzzles and countless variations, American Thomas Snyder led the group of eight top solvers into the playoff rounds. Each contestant sat at a table with an overhead camera, so that live puzzle solving could be viewed on a large projection screen and also to a world-wide audience on the Internet!

Both Thomas and Yuhei Kusui of Japan breezed through the quarter- and semi-finals, setting up a showdown final. There Thomas solved both final puzzles to win the individual championship title. (Try the final puzzle.)

Japan won the team title, fending off a late rally by the US team. Other members of the US team were Wei-Hwa Huang, Grayson Holmes, Jonathan Rivet, Jim Schneider, and Jason Zuffranieri.

Czech president Václav Klaus attended the playoffs and presented the awards.

You can follow the event progress with streaming video, online scoring, and the official Sudoku'07 web site.

Czech Republic president Václav Klaus honors the top three finalists:
Peter Hudák (3rd, Slovakia), Yuhei Kusui (2nd, Japan) ,Thomas Snyder (1st, USA).

EPSN Magazine Heavy Metal Recap of 2006

ESPN Magazine (January 1, 2007) The ESPN Magazine recap of outstanding athletes of 2006 includes the US Puzzle Team, winners of the 2006 World Puzzle Championship-that's us with the tiny trophy in the lower-right corner! Click the image for a closer look.


Coutesy: ESPN Magazine, Photo: various

Team USA Wins 2006 World Puzzle Championship

Borovets, Bulgaria (October 11, 2006) The US Puzzle Team won its 9th team title at the World Puzzle Championship. Team members turned in some very impressive individual performances: Wei-Hwa Huang came in 2nd place, Thomas Snyder came in 4th, Roger Barkan came in 5th, and Zack Butler anchored the team in 34th place.

Complete scoring details are available at the official 2006 WPC web site.

Roger Barkan, Zack Butler, Thomas Snyder, and Wei-Hwa Huang solving the MetaTour puzzle by assembling and solving four Sudoku-like puzzles from 36 puzzle pieces (the only team to accomplish the task).

Thomas Snyder Wins 2006 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship

Mountain View, USA (June 21, 2006) Thomas Snyder, a chemistry graduate student at Harvard, solved 22 out of 23 puzzles, scoring 370 out of a possible 385 points, to win the 2006 U.S. Puzzle Championship title. Thomas needs more time in the lab since, ironically, it was the Atomic Fusion puzzle that kept him from synthesizing a perfect score!

Thomas finished just one point ahead of Wei-Hwa Huang, who also solved 22 of 23 puzzles. Zack Butler was third place with 353 points, Jonathan Rivet was fourth place with 350 points, and Dan Katz was fifth place with 305 points. Thomas, Wei-Hwa, and Zack will be joined by Roger Barkan in representing the US at the World Puzzle Championship in Bulgaria in October, 2006.

The top Canadian scores were very close: Karen Andrien (282), Terry Newton (279), Byron Calver (278), and Derek Kisman (263).

The top international scores were: Ulrich Voigt of Germany (335), Denis Auroux of France (333), Taro Arimatsu of Japan (320), and Andrey Bogdanov of Russia (309).

Solutions are available on the 2006 Summary Page. Individual scoring summaries are now available.

Thanks go to the puzzles designers: Craig Kasper, Erich Friedman, Michael Rios, Cihan Altay, Patrick Merrell, Shawn Kennedy, Dave Tuller, Bruce Oberg, Glenn Iba, Ken Duisenberg, Moshe Rubin, Nancy Schuster, and Scott Kim.

Jana Tylova wins World Sudoku Championship
Americans place second and third

Lucca, Italy, (March 11, 2006) Jana Tylova, from the Czech Republic, won the 1st World Sudoku Championship by outlasting eight other contenders in a seven-round "knock-out" playoff.

Jana Tylova congratulated by Wayne Gould

After the first day of competition, Americans Thomas Snyder and Wei-Hwa Huang led the field, and cruised through the playoffs to reach the final round. (Other team members—Ron Osher, Jim Schneider, Kirstin Boes, and Grayson Holmes did well, but did not qualify for the 9-person final round on Saturday.)

Thomas Snyder Wei-Hwa Huang

The most awesome moment of the competition was Thomas' performance in the penultimate puzzle, a Toroidal Sudoku. To the amazement of the organizers, he finished this very difficult puzzle just seconds before the 15-minute time limit, while the other three contestants were still stumped—each having filled in just one square! Also of note: the person eliminated in that round was none other than Tetsuya Nishio, the puzzle magazine editor who first introduced Sudoku puzzles to Japan 22 years ago!

Thanks to the Riccardo Albini and the rest of the Italian host committee for putting on a fabulous event.

US Puzzle Team supported by:

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