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Conceptis Co-sponsors World Puzzle Championship fourth year in a rowMonday, October 6, 2003
As in 2000, 2001 and 2002, Conceptis Puzzles will co-sponsor the World Puzzle Championship once again. In addition, Conceptis Puzzles will contribute all three types of picture-forming logic puzzles – PAP, LAP, and FAP - to be used in different parts of the competitions. The upcoming 12th World Puzzle Championship 2003 will be held in Arnhem, the Netherlands from October 14 through October 19. This would be the second time the Netherlands hosts this event, following the 5th championship held in Utrecht in 1996. As usual, both individual and team competitions will be taking place containing a number of familiar parts. In addition, as in the championships held in Stamford and Oulu, the individual competition will climax in a play-off amongst the highest-ranking participants. According to an official announcement from the World Puzzle Federation there will also be "some new and surprising items" during "two and a half days of top-quality puzzling". In addition, the puzzles from the finals as well as those from the Championship's qualifying test will be made available (downloadable) on the Internet after the Championship will be over. On last year's championship, which was held in Oulu, Finland, The Japanese team was officially announced as the best puzzle-solving team in the world, while Niels Roest from the Netherlands was declared as the new top puzzle-solving champion in the world. One round of team solving was held at the Oulu Art Museum, where an exhibit, timed to coincide with the WPC, showed hundreds of manipulative puzzles from around the world. According to Helene Hovanec, coordinator of the 1st and 9th WPC as well as the Judging Panel Chairwoman from 1993 to 1997, "the highlight of this round was a Conceptis creation where the four-person teams had to manually assemble a Paint-by-Numbers puzzle using tiled squares". The 20x20 five-color puzzle with a picture of a reindeer was to be solved on a table top using colored tiles, each about 3cm by 3cm in size. "For those addicts whose Paint-by-Numbers skills have never been tested in this manner" Hovanec adds, "the physical creation of a Paint-by-Numbers puzzle was a very different experience from the pencil-and-paper variety. The teams that solved the puzzle quickly were those who were super-organized and divided up the tasks needed to complete the puzzle and discover a picture…" (You can read more about the 11th World Puzzle Championship in this report by Helene Hovanec). The World Puzzle FederationThe World Puzzle Federation is an international organization dedicated to puzzles. It follows the Olympic standard, and brings together puzzlers from around the world for the annual World Puzzle Championship. The WPC is much more than a solving fest for the attendees. The high quality of the original puzzles and the joy of competition are major attractions to all who attend and by now many in the group have formed lifelong friendships. While the puzzlers may not see each other between championships, they like each other, enjoy each other's company, and feel connected through their love of puzzles. Related resources |
