Logic Masters India - Screen Test 2

Logic Masters India announces the second edition of Screen Test. It will be held on 1st-4th November.

I authored last year's Screen Test 1 with Deb Mohanty. This year, I authored it alone. I learnt a lot from last year and was quite happy with the response. I'm hoping this time it turns out to be better and bigger since there are some changes that have been made based on the feedback.

Championship Page
Download Screen Test Guide
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For new-comers as well as regulars, it is very important to read through the Screen Test Guide and go through the examples on the webpage before starting the test to have maximum benefit of the system.

You may ask any queries on the forum or here.

I hope you enjoy the puzzles and relish the 35-minute puzzle-ride!

Logic Masters India - October 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the October 2011 Puzzle Test 'Double Decathlon'. It will be held on 15th-16th October, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Thomas Snyder. You will find a lot of practise puzzles on his blog 'The Art Of Puzzles'.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password will be available when you start the test.
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Results will be declared on 17th October.

Logic Masters India - October 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the October 2011 Sudoku Test 'A or B'. It will be held on 1st-2nd October, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Deb Mohanty.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password will be available when you start the test.
Forum

The list of sudokus that will appear in the test are:

Odd Sudoku
Extra Region Sudoku
Greater Sudoku
Lesser Sudoku
Even Sudoku
Small Neighbours Sudoku
Sequence Sudoku
Palindrome Sudoku
Marked Quadro Sudoku
Multiplication Table Sudoku
Neighbouring Sudoku
Sum 10 Sudoku
Multiple Sudoku
Touchy Sudoku
Antiknight Sudoku
XV Sudoku
Kropki Sudoku
Consecutive Sudoku
Fiver Sudoku
Skyscraper Sudoku
Outside Sudoku
Odd/Even View Sudoku

Please read the instructions carefully. This is a different type of sudoku test.

Results will be declared on 3rd October.

US Sudoku Championship 2011

The US Sudoku Championship 2011 was held on 24th September, 2011.

View Championship Page

You can download the booklets from the website.

USA Results


1. Jonathan Rivet - 255
2. Jason Zuffranieri - 230
3. Jim Schneider - 224

International Results


1. Branko Ceranic (Serbia) - 289.29
2. Bastien Vial-Jaime (France) - 280
3. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 275
4. Ko Okamoto (Japan) - 260.17
5. Rohan Rao (India) - 260

Complete Results

Logic Masters India - September 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the September Sudoku Test 'Crazy Arrows'. It was held on 10th-11th September, 2011.
I am the author!

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is CrazyzarCArrowsworrA
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The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

0-9 Arrow Sudoku
Count Arrow Sudoku
Difference Arrow Sudoku
Incomplete Arrow Sudoku
Missing Arrow Sudoku
Parted Arrow Sudoku
Product Arrow Sudoku
Skyscraper Arrow Sudoku
Sum Arrow Sudoku
Symmetric Arrow Sudoku
Wrong Arrow Sudoku

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 925
2. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 805
3. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 760
4. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 740
5. Branko Ceranic (Serbia) - 715
6. Sinchai R (Thailand) - 700
7. Zafer Huseyin Ergan (Turkey) - 680
8. Sylvain Caudmont (France) - 660
9. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 635
10. Peter Hudak (Slovakia) - 635

Best Indians

32. Rakesh Rai - 485
34. Amit Sowani - 465
42. Jaipal Reddy - 410
44. Sudhir Shankar Raman - 400
56. Rajesh Kumar - 350

Complete Results

Congrats to Thomas for winning Crazy Arrows with a big lead. Congrats to Nikola and Kota for 2nd and 3rd respectively.

I got the idea of Crazy Arrows last year, and I'm glad I could finally conduct this test. The test was tough, and some of the sudokus were very challenging for players.

0-9 was my favourite variation of this set, and also was the first variant that I had thought of.

Count was the easiest sudoku of the set and 90% of the players solved it.

Difference was difficult to start, but once you get few numbers correctly, the grid solves quickly.

Incomplete was another easy sudoku and this was Deb's idea that I worked on.

Missing was the toughest of the set. Guesswork was needed in multiple places and only 5 players were able to solve it. This is now the least solved individual sudoku on LMI so far. Maybe you can try to crack it!

Parted was not easy. After getting a few initial numbers, there is a little guesswork required.

Product was one of my favourite sudokus. The idea was taken from USA where it appeared in WSC 2010.

Skyscraper was relatively easy compared to the other sudokus.

Sum 1 was tough. As Jason mentioned in his post on LMI, it had a very 'Killer feeling'.

Sum 2 was my favourite. And it also is the favourite of the players. Most people commented on this grid and it has the maximum rating too, so, I consider this the cream of the set.

Symmetric was the one sudoku that couldn't make this test a neat one. It was worth 75 points and I apologize for the mistake on my part. It was much tougher and deserved a lot more points. It was also very difficult and a lot of players might've been affected by this and I regret the mistake.

Wrong was one of my top 3 sudokus of the set. Many players might have had a hiccough while solving when seeing a '9' on an arrow and a '1' in a circle. But I guess most of the players realised that it does work that way :-)

I thank all the participants for removing time and participating in Crazy Arrows and I hope you'll enjoyed at least a few of the sudokus. Hope to see you again in 'Crazier Arrows'!

Logic Masters India - September 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the September 2011 Puzzle Test 'Sprint Test'. It was held on 3rd-4th September, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Bastien Vial-Jaime (Ours Brun).

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is SroSis201246
Forum

The list of puzzles that appeared in the test are:

Akari
Fillomino
Fortress
Galaxies
Heyawacky
Horse Snake
LITS
Masyu
Nurikabe
Pointing Evens Sudoku
Slitherlink
Snail
Star Battle
Tapa
Yajilin

Results

1. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 348
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 345
3. Ko Okamoto (Japan) - 336
4. Nagata Yuta (Japan) - 312
5. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 306
6. Psyho (Poland) - 306
7. Zoltan Horvath (Hungary) - 297
8. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 288
9. Phillip Edwards (Australia) - 287
10. Michael Ley (Germany) - 285

Best Indians

46. Rakesh Rai - 180
49. Rohan Rao - 175
72. Amit Sowani - 140
97. Jaipal Reddy - 115
112. Harmeet Singh - 105

Complete Results

Another new dimension to LMI! A fast-paced test where every second counts. Puzzles were excellent. Full credit to Bastien for this fantastic set.
You make one error, and you lose chunks of relative time. Its quite disappointing that I wasn't able to finish all the 15 puzzles, especially when there are players who do it in half your time.
Congrats to Palmer and Thomas (I guess you'll are continuing the battle here too) and the Japanese for their excellent results.

Sudokucup 6 (Part 2)

The sixth Sudokucup was held in two parts. Sudokucup 6 Part 1 was held on 23rd-24th July, 2011.
Sudokucup 6 Part 2 was held on 3rd-4th September, 2011.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is KNASUQ91?3JMEP


The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Classic Sudoku
2. Diagonal Sudoku
3. Irregular Sudoku
4. Extra Region Sudoku
5. Antiknight Sudoku
6. Sequences Sudoku
7. Kropki Sudoku
8. All Even All Odd Sudoku
9. Surprise Sudoku
10. Clock-Faces Sudoku
11. More-Less Sudoku
12. Arrow Sudoku
13. Little Killer Sudoku
14. Decimal Killer Sudoku

Results

1. Jakub Ondrousek (Czech Republic) - 300 (01:10)
2. Jan Mrozowski (Czech Republic) - 300 (01:17)
3. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) - 300 (01:22)
4. Michael Ley (Germany) - 300 (01:24)
5. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 300 (01:25)
6. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 300 (01:27)
7. Branko Ceranic (Serbia) - 300 (01:30)
8. Rishi Puri (India) - 300 (01:35)
9. Chen Cen (China) - 300 (01:36)
10. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 300 (01:38)

Best Indians

8. Rishi Puri - 300 (01:35)
15. Rohan Rao - 300 (01:46)
58. Jaipal Reddy - 227
69. Prasanna Seshadri - 211
83. Rakesh Rai - 171

Complete Results

Sudokucup 6 Part 2 was definitely much easier than Part 1. 27 Players finished all sudokus within the 2 hours compared to just 7 in Part 1.

Now that both parts of SC6 are over, I wonder who is the winner of 'Sudokucup 6'?

US Puzzle Championship 2011

The 2011 US Puzzle Championship was held on 27th August, 2011.

View Championship Page

USA Results

1. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 415
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 349
3. William Blatt (USA) - 309

Complete Results

This was my first 'complete' USPC. Since it is midnight in India during USPC, I dozed off last two years.

Congrats to Palmer Mebane for ending Thomas Snyder's five-year reign at the USPC! Both of them have been performing consistently well in championships throughout the year, and I'm sure they would be among the top guns at the WPC in Hungary.

You can read more about the championship on the champions' blogs:
Thomas Snyder's views
Palmer Mebane's views

Looking forward to meet you'll and your team in Hungary.

Logic Masters India - August 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the August 2011 Puzzle Test 'Japanese Puzzle Land'. It was held on 20th-21st August, 2011.
The authors of the puzzles are Yosuke Imai, Atsumi Hirose, Takeya Saikachi and Daisuke Takei.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Download Solution Booklet
Forum

The list of puzzles that appeared in the test are:

Sudoku
Kakuro
Fillomino
Numberlink
Slitherlink
Masyu
Heyawake
Akari
Shikaku
Hitori
Shakashaka
Mochikoro
Yajilin

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 550
2. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 434
3. Tarotaro (Japan) - 426
4. Endo Ken (Japan) - 426
5. Volxa (Japan) - 424
6. Ko Okamoto (Japan) - 421
7. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 410
8. Shinichi Aoki (Japan) - 398
9. Psyho (Poland) - 381
10. Yukkuri (Japan) - 356

Best Indians

37. Rakesh Rai - 266
58. Rohan Rao - 219
87. Rajesh Kumar - 178
101. Amit Sowani - 160
105. Harmeet Singh - 150

Complete Results

Excellent set of puzzles. For the first time, Japanese authored an LMI and test and what a huge success! It saw maximum number of participants in an LMI test!
Congrats to the Japanese authors and also to the Japanese participants who had some tremendous results. And needless to say, congrats to Thomas for winning yet another LMI test.

Rules of 'Heyawake'

Blacken some cells so that all remaining cells are connected orthogonally. No two black cells can share an edge. Any single horizontal or vertical line of white cells cannot traverse more than one thick line. Numbers indicate the amount of black cells in that region.

EXAMPLE:


UNIQUE SOLUTION:

Logic Masters India - August 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the August Sudoku Test 'Sudoku City'. It was held on 6th-7th August, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Nikola Zivanovic.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is SkyIsTheLIMIT
Forum

Results

1. Yuhei Kusui (Japan) - 93
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 83
3. Branko Ceranic (Serbia) - 81
4. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 79
5. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic) - 79
6. WaterlooMathie (Canada) - 77
7. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 77
8. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 73
9. Bastien Vial-Jaime (France) - 71
10. Rohan Rao (India) - 71

Best Indians

10. Rohan Rao - 71
17. Rakesh Rai - 57
53. Neeraj Mehrotra - 33
54. Harmeet Singh - 32
83. Prasanna Seshadri - 22

Complete Results

Before
Skyscraper Sudoku variants. This promises to be an exciting contest. The variation look good and Nikola has never disappointed me :-)
I'm been performing below par in the last couple of tests, maybe I can redeem with this one.


After
What a city! Nikola has proved he's the best architect among puzzlers by building this beautiful city. I'm sure most citizens who entered the city did not want to leave!

Logic Masters India - July 2011 Puzzle Test 2

Logic Masters India announces the July Puzzle Test 2 'Magic Cube'. It was held on 29th-30th July, 2011.
The authors of the puzzles are the puzzle-makers of the 20th World Puzzle Championship (which will be held in November).

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is WPCandWSCinHungary2011
Forum

The list of puzzles that appeared in the test are: (In cube format)

1. Magic Snail
2. Hitori
3. Cave
4. Dutch Loop
5. Sudoku
6. Capsules
7. Heyawake
8. Fillomino
9. Slalom
10. Star Battle
11. Crosswords

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 1226
2. Ko Okamoto (Japan) - 1085
3. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 1080
4. Peter Hudak (Slovakia) - 1065
5. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 1045
6. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 950
7. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 935
8. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 900
9. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 845
10. Shinichi Aoki (Japan) - 825

Best Indians

56. Rohan Rao - 510
68. Rajesh Kumar - 460
73. Rakesh Rai - 440
75. Amit Sowani - 430
79. Swaroop Guggilam - 420

Complete Results

Thanks to all the organisers of this test and the WPC for having this test. It is a very good set of puzzles, especially for those who will be present in Hungary for the WPC.

Sudokucup 6 (Part 1)

The sixth Sudokucup will be held in two parts. Part 1 was held on 23rd-24th July, 2011. Players can participate in any one or both the parts.
The author of the puzzles is Jan Novotny.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is UWA61GA!711EXK

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Classic Sudoku
2. Diagonal Sudoku
3. Irregular Sudoku
4. Extra Region Sudoku
5. Antiknight Sudoku
6. Sequences Sudoku
7. Kropki Sudoku
8. All Even All Odd Sudoku
9. Surprise Sudoku
10. Clock-Faces Sudoku
11. More-Less Sudoku
12. Arrow Sudoku
13. Little Killer Sudoku
14. Decimal Killer Sudoku

Results

1. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 300 (01:10)
2. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 300 (01:35)
3. Minfang Lin (China) - 300 (01:46)
4. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 300 (01:49)
5. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 300 (01:52)
5. Bastien Vial-Jaime (France) - 300 (01:52)
7. SJ Kwak (South Korea) - 300 (01:55)
8. Vincent Bertrand (Belgium) - 286
9. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic) - 274
10. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 273

Best Indians

14. Rohan Rao - 260
51. Rakesh Rai - 171
78. Prasanna Seshadri - 121
79. Akash Doulani - 121
80. Neeraj Mehrotra - 121

Complete Results

Logic Masters India - July 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the July Sudoku Test 'Fivefold'. It was held on 16th-17th July, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Serkan Yurekli.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is inthememoryofmyFather
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Classic Sudoku (Solving Techniques)
2. Extra Region Sudoku
3. Outside Sudoku
4. Pandigital Sudoku
5. Distance Sudoku
6. Quadruple Sudoku
7. Crossnumber Sudoku
8. Number 5 Still Alive Sudoku
9. Numeral Sudoku
10. Odd Sum Sudoku
11. Quad Max Sudoku
12. Group Sum Sudoku
13. Musketry Sudoku
14. Killer Sudoku (Solving Techniques)
15. Triangles Sudoku
16. Odd-Even-Big-Small Sudoku
17. Thermometer Sudoku
18. Just One Cell Sudoku
19. Double Diagonal Sudoku

Results

1. Rishi Puri (India) - 1061.8
2. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 1022.0
3. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 990.5
4. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 973.2
5. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 972.4
6. Seungjae Kwak (South Korea) - 851.7
7. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 787.5
8. Don3232 (Taiwan) - 772.5
9. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 762.3
10. Vincent Bertrand (Belgium) - 745.6

Best Indians

1. Rishi Puri - 1061.8
11. Rohan Rao - 741.6
46. Tejal Phatak - 442.2
72. Rakesh Rai - 380.0
77. Himanshu Mittal - 367.0

Before
These sudoku types have been taken from the last five World Sudoku Championships. The set features many of my favourite sudoku types and I would be disappointed if I do not perform well.
Good luck to all participants!

After
Beautiful test. I think every sudoku had its own charm in solving and thats the mark of a good author.
I personally liked Group Sum and Quadruple the best of the set. I'm sure now everyone considers Serkan as a great sudoku author as well!
How about a Serkan Screen Test next?

Logic Masters India - July 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the July Puzzle Test 'Nikoli Selection 2'.
The author of the puzzles is Tom Collyer.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet 1
Download Puzzle Booklet 2 (Marathon Puzzles)
Password is Fi3VenOcee
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The list of puzzles that will appear in the test are:

1. Akari
2. Fillomino
3. Hashiwokakero
4. Heyawake
5. Hitori
6. Kakuro
7. LITS
8. Masyu
9. Numberlink
10. Nurikabe
11. Ripple Effect
12. Shikaku
13. Slitherlink
14. Sudoku
15. Suraromu
16. Yajilin

Results

1. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 492
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 431
3. Nagata Yuta (Japan) - 352
4. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 330
5. Tarotaro (Japan) - 320
6. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 315
7. Volxa (Japan) - 311
8. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 310
9. Psyho (Poland) - 310
10. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 298

Best Indians

43. Rohan Rao - 215
84. Amit Sowani - 150
94. Rajesh Kumar - 140
100. Swaroop Guggilam - 130
115. Harmeet Singh - 105

Complete Results
There were totally 168 participants.

Before
This is the second set of Nikoli Selection on LMI. Tom Collyer had authored Nikoli Selection 1 in October 2010.
You will find lots of practise puzzles on Tom Collyer's Blog 'Detuned Radio'

This test will be very similar to the previous one with the format and puzzles the same. Hopefully, it will be a better than last time :-)
Looking forward to this test and good luck to all participants!

After
Very nice set of puzzles! Enjoyed every one of them.
Slitherlink and Kakuro were well-constructed, I lost a little time in these two puzzles.
Hitori and Sudoku were easy.
Nurikabe is a puzzle that I struggle in very often, but this time, I got it fairly quick. I guess I'm making some progress.
Numberlink is always fun.
Suraromu! The exclamation says it all! This is my choice of the best puzzle of the set. Brilliantly thought and beautifully executed, perfect for a Suraromu puzzle. Being a little experienced, I quickly realised how the top-left corner would be with straight lines and the rest just followed.
This is the first time I solved a Yajilin puzzle in a contest!
Fillomino was tricky while Akari was simple.
Masyu was the puzzle that realised snatched my chances of finishing all the 16 main puzzles. I dont know how I went wrong, but I had to erase thrice.
Ripple Effect is very enjoyable to me, I like the concept a lot.
Hashi and Rectangles were both tricky, and had some nice solving steps.

I'll solve the marathon puzzles on another lazy Sunday evening.
Overall, a good contest, with some really good puzzles.

Congrats to Hideaki Jo, who finished all the 16 main puzzles and the 3 marathon puzzles! With WPC coming soon, players have already started to make a mark!

Solving Star Battle: (Solved Example 1)

Take a look at Puzzle No.189

Each region is represented by an alphabet for convenience. Refer to this while reading through.

Using Region E, R5C7 can be eliminated. Using region F, R6C5, R6C6 and R8C5 can be eliminated. Using region H, R7C2 and R6C3 can be eliminated.

Observe regions G,F and H. If R6C8 is a star, the both stars of region G will be in the 8th row, which results in stars in R7C1 and R7C3 for region H leading to a contradiction in Region F. Hence, R6C8 is NOT a star.

Now the puzzle becomes very easy. Using Region E, R4C7 can be eliminated. One out of R4C6 and R5C6 has to be a star and hence R4C5 and R5C5 is eliminated.

Using Region F, we get a star in R7C6. All adjacent cells is eliminated.

Using Column 7, we get stars in R1C7 and R3C7, followed by stars in R5C6 and R5C8. After eliminating the remaining cells of row 5, you should be able to finish the puzzle.

Other Solving Techniques

Logic Masters India - June 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the June 2011 Sudoku Test 'Logidoku'. It was held on 18th-19th June, 2011.
The authors of the puzzles are Zuzka Hromcova (zuziik) and Matus Demiger (greenhorn).

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is uKODiGOL
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Battleship Sudoku
2. Domino Sudoku
3. Easy As ABC Sudoku
4. Fence Sudoku
5. Japanese Sums Sudoku
6. Kakuro Sudoku
7. Kropki Sudoku
8. Pairs Sudoku
9. Skyscrapers Sudoku
10. Tapa Sudoku

Results

1. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 348
2. Michael Ley (Germany) - 260
3. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 260
4. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 257
5. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 250
6. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic) - 233
7. Seungjae Kwak (South Korea) - 231
8. Takuya Sugimoto (Japan) - 230
9. Psyho (Poland) - 222
10. Zoltan Horvath (Hungary) - 222

Best Indians

11. Rohan Rao - 215
50. Tejal Phatak - 120
55. Harmeet Singh - 115
59. Swaroop Guggilam - 112
77. Rakesh Rai - 88

Complete Results

Before
Looks to be an interesting set. Puzzles combined with sudokus would be advantageous to players who are comfortable with puzzles. Lets see if the results prove it.

After
A very nice set of sudokus (or puzzles!). I loved the Tapa 9x9 and the Easy As ABC 9x9.
Congrats to Nikola for the big victory! It is very rare to see Thomas not in the top 3. Congrats to Michael and Ulrich for a close fought 2nd and 3rd.

Indian Puzzle Championship 2011

The Indian Puzzle Championship 2011 will consist of 13 regional rounds held in the months of January to March 2011. The top 3 from each of these regional rounds will be invited for the national finals on 12-Jun-2011. The team which will represent India at the World Sudoku Championship will be selected on the basis of the performance in the Indian Sudoku Championship National Final.

Championship Page
Forum

There are several ways in which you could qualify for a position in the National Finals.

You could be amongst the top 3 at one of the regional rounds.
You could be amongst the top 15 from the Online Qualifying round which will be held on date.

The 13 regional rounds will be held as a part of the college festivals in reputed colleges in different colleges across the country. The regional rounds will be held in the cities of Mumbai, Kharagpur, Rourkela, Goa, Guwahati, Bangalore, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Bhopal, Delhi, Roorkee and Pilani in the months from January to March. The regional round finals will be held between the top 60 participants from the region. The 60 finalists will be selected from Regional Prelims which will be open to all participants. For more details regarding the venue and dates of the regional round nearest to you please have a look at the Schedule.

The national finals was held on 12th June at Community Hall inside DRDO Complex, CV Raman Nagar, Bengaluru (Bangalore).

Download Instruction Booklet

10th June, 2011
I took a flight to Bengaluru and reached Rajesh's house around 6pm. After a brief nap, I spent some time with Rajesh's family and relaxed. Last year, I won the Indian Puzzle Championship (and the Indian Sudoku Championship) and going into this year's finals being the defending champion was not the easiest thing for me. There were a lot of first-timers due to the regional rounds and the regular group of good players were anyways there. These were my thoughts about some of the players

Amit Sowani: Has been itching to get back to participation after creating puzzles for previous IPCs. He has been the best performing Indian at WPC and could win the title this time.
Rajesh Kumar: 5-time national champion is a force that could shake me down. I considered him to be my biggest threat.
Rakesh Rai: Has been consistent and has beaten me in LMI Monthly Puzzle Tests. He could've been the dark horse.
Ritesh Gupta: Does not enjoy solving puzzles as much as sudoku but you can never count him out.
Tejal Phatak: Has been consistent and was part of the team last year.

Unfortunately, Amit could not make it to the event. Rakesh pulled out too. And, as expected, it turned out to be a battle between Rajesh and me (like last year), where I won IPC 2010 by just 40 points.

11th June, 2011
Indian Sudoku Championship

12th June, 2011
I was hoping to be in the Indian team at least, if not win the championship. The finals had a lot of new variations, so I was confident of making it in the top 3.

Round 1
Download Puzzle Booklet
This was a Sprint Round and we had to solve as many puzzles as possible in 60 minutes. It was a modest start by me as I could solve 13 whereas Rajesh solved 15 and took an 80-point lead.

Round 2
I had to do well in this round. And I did. I solved 4 puzzles worth 340 points and Rajesh solved 1 puzzle worth 120 points. 220 points more than Rajesh! Now, the IPC title was almost surely mine. But, one puzzle turned out to be incorrect. Both Rajesh and me spent time on the puzzle. The round had to be cancelled and it was the fairest possible decision. Of course, it was disadvantageous to me foregoing such a big lead, but then there was nothing I could do.

Round 3
Download Puzzle Booklet
The decider round. Rajesh had 80 points more than me. I had to come up with something spectacular to win. The round timing was increased from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. When the round started, my heart starting beating very fast and I started to get nervous. I really wanted to win. With confidence, speed and accuracy, I put all my puzzling skills into action and it did result in an extremely important performance. I completed all the 20 puzzles in 86 minutes, thus getting a 40 point time bonus. I couldn't have ended it better. I never ever thought I would be able to complete the round. I scored 740 and had a comfortable lead over Rajesh's 415 in the final round.

Results

1. Rohan Rao (Mumbai) - 1020
2. Rajesh Kumar (Bengaluru) - 775
3. Harmeet Singh (Bengaluru) - 555
4. Sumit Bothra (Kolkata) - 460
5. Ritesh Gupta (Delhi) - 460
6. Rajib Borah (Mumbai) - 445
7. Swaroop Guggilam (Mumbai) - 425
8. Tejal Phatak (Mumbai) - 405
9. Zalak Ghetia (Bengaluru) - 350
10. Prasanna Seshadri (Mumbai) - 350

Complete Results

I won IPC again. I won ISC and IPC in the same year again. So, that makes it four titles on a trot. I'm very happy and I've worked hard for this. I thank my family and friends for all the support.

As for the results, it may look like I won with a comfortable 245-point lead, but it was closer than it looks. Rajesh likes competing and he complimented me. His words 'I tried giving you a fight, but you were unbeatable today' mean a lot to me. Harmeet Singh's performance got lost in our battle, but I must say, a terrific performance by him. He could well be a contender for the title next year. Sumit and Ritesh had modest performances and always seem to be ranked one after the other!

Rajib Borah had an excellent Round 3 and had he done better in Round 1, he would surely have been ranked higher. Swaroop Guggilam almost made it to the top 4 with a good Round 1 and Round 3. A few silly mistakes cost him a few points and was pulled down to 7th. Tejal Phatak and Zalak Ghetia were the best performing women.

The puzzles were beautiful, some of them created by Foreign Puzzlers. It was organised very well, and ended successfully.

The entire event was co-ordinated by one man, Deb Mohanty, who spent a lot of time and effort in ensuring the success of the event.

Credits

I thank Rajesh Kumar, Deb Mohanty and their families for giving me accomodation. Special thanks to Deb Mohanty and his team (view credits) for organising this wonderful event which went very smoothly and was a huge success.