Puzzled in Beijing: Pictures from the 2013 World Sudoku and World Puzzle Championships

• by
• Gil Galanti, Conceptis Puzzles

Monday, October 28, 2013

Conceptis co-sponsored and contributed puzzles to the 8th World Sudoku Championship and 22nd World Puzzle Championship, 2013. The following is a photo-review of the competitions which took place in Beijing, China.

The live broadcast camera operators of China’s national TV were clearly very happy. It was magic hour time and the light of the setting sun was spectacularly perfectly shining on the huge square behind the 3 renaissance buildings of Chateau Laffitte Hotel in the Changping District. The red Da Tanggu, a traditional barrel-shaped Chinese drum from the 19th century, was so big that even the seven people standing around it could barely surround half of it.

When the drumsticks hit the drumhead and confetti streamers were thrown, the cue for the beginning of the 8th World Sudoku Championship and the 22nd World Puzzle Championship in Beijing was given and the battle begun.

CHAPTER 1: THE 8TH WORLD SUDOKU CHAMPIONSHIP

237 participants from 35 countries gathered for the 8th World Sudoku Championship to test their ability in solving Sudoku puzzles quickly and correctly, battling for the crown of the world’s best player and best solving team for the year of 2013.

There were 11 preliminary rounds in the competition including 3 team competitions where four contestants from each team participate and 8 rounds for individuals where all officially-registered players participated. Puzzle types included classic 4x4, 6x6 and 9x9 Sudoku as well as 18 Sudoku variations such as Pyramid Sudoku, Property Sudoku, Consecutive and Non-Consecutive Sudoku, ISO Sudoku, Six Point Star Sudoku, Tight Fit Sudoku, Ring Sudoku and other popular Sudoku variants.

In the Individual Competition, ranking was based on the overall scores from the 8 individual rounds. In the Team competition, ranking was based on the combined total scores of the four team individuals in the 8 individual rounds and the total scores of the three team rounds.

The Semi-Finals: 9 Rows of Desks

9 rows of desks were set up in the semi-finals with one puzzle in each row - three sets of puzzles and three puzzles in each set, including one classic Sudoku and two variants. The number of desks decreased in each row. Hence, participants started from the back row and worked their way to the front on a ‘first come first serve’ basis. Each time a participant finished a puzzle he or she raised a hand. After a judge confirmed that the puzzle was solved correctly participants were allowed to move one row ahead. Whenever all desks in a row were occupied remaining participants were eliminated.

On Tuesday, October 15, after two days and eleven team and individual power-solving rounds, hundreds of people attended the Fontainebleau Hall in the Chateau Laffitte Hotel and the semi-final competition began. The 10 highest-scoring contestants competed for the two coveted positions in the finals.

At precisely 16:45, Jin Ce, a 16 years old Chinese teenager from Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School in Zhejiang province, managed to overcome Kota Morinishi from Japan in the final individual playoff and became the world Sudoku champion of 2013. Jakub Ondroušek from the Czech Republic was placed the 3rd best Sudoku solver for this year.

A Significant Rise in Interest

"This was the second time I had competed in a world-class Sudoku game, after last year in Croatia, where I ranked 10th," said Ce in an interview to the China Daily newspaper. "I thought I would rank the same and make it to the top ten. I never expected to win the world champion title - Sudoku is just a hobby to me."

In the 8th Sudoku Championship team competition, where each country's players share the set of puzzles according to their personal skills, the top three where China with 7,765 points, followed by Czech Republic with 7,032 points and Japan with 6,841 points.

The Chinese national Sudoku team started competing in the championship in 2007 and has made impressive progress. "The game didn't come to China until about six years ago, even though it had been a popular pastime in developed countries for a long time” said Chen Cen, chief organizer and referee of the championship. “But China has seen a significant rise in interest in the game in recent years, especially among teenagers”.

According to Chen, Jin Ce is far from being a ‘one of a kind’ talent. More than 50 schools in Beijing are introducing Sudoku classes and the Beijing Sudoku Union has set up a number of competitions in primary schools and colleges to promote the game. "We have also discovered a lot of young talent in these competitions, all of whom could likely be part of the national team in the future."

For a complete list of puzzles types used in the competition as well as puzzle samples, puzzle rules and more info see the Instruction Booklet for the 8th World Sudoku Championship (PDF).

Top 10 Individual Results

• 1. Jin Ce: China
• 2. Kota Morinishi: Japan
• 3. Jakub Ondroušek: Czech Republic
• 4. Jan Mrozowski: Poland
• 5. Sun Cheran: China
• 6. Hideaki Jo: Japan
• 7. Kwak Seung-Jae: Korea
• 8. Tiit Vunk: Estonia
• 9. Bastien Vial-Jaime: France
• 10. Jan Novotny: Czech Republic

Top 10 Teams Results

• 1. China: 7,765 points
• 2. Czech Republic: 7,032 points
• 3. Japan: 6,841 points
• 4. France: 6,699 points
• 5. Slovakia: 5,892 points
• 6. Poland: 5,730 points
• 7. Germany: 5,676 points
• 8. India: 5,557 points
• 9. U.S.: 5,425 points
• 10. Thailand: 4,939 points

Top 3 Individual Up To 18 Years Old

For the first time special prizes were awarded to the top 3 competitors up to 18 years old. The winners in this category were as follows.

• 1. Jin Ce (China)
• 2. Sun Cheran (China)
• 3. Qiu Yanzhe (China)

Top 3 Individual Above 50 Years Old

For the first time special prizes were awarded to the top 3 competitors above 50 years old. The winners in this category were as follows.

• 1. Henning Kalsgaard Poulsen (Denmark)
• 2. Liang Yue (China)
• 3. Stefano Forcolin (Italy)

CHAPTER 2: THE 22ND WORLD PUZZLE CHAMPIONSHIP

The 22nd World Puzzle championship began with five individual rounds in the morning of Monday, October 16 and took place in the Fontainebleau Hall of Chateau Laffitte Hotel. There were 14 rounds in the main competition during 2 consecutive days, with an additional round for the final playoff on the 3rd day.

Rounds 1, 13 and 14 were dedicated to the team competition, where teams of four competitors participated. Ranking was based on the combined total scores of the four members of the team in the individual rounds and the total scores of the three team rounds. The remaining 11 rounds were individual ones, where ranking was based on the overall rounds scores.

Around The World in 80 Puzzles

Rounds 4-7 of the main event contained a special puzzle assortment as an innovative competition structure which was titled “Around the world in 80 puzzles” with all puzzles provided by four different international teams of authors from around the world.

The rounds included dozens of puzzle types such as Tents and trees, Easy as ABCDE and Magnets (Round 4, “Dutch Delight”, created by Bram de Laat, Hans Eendebak, Tim Peeters and Richard Stolk), Gapped Kakuro, Skyscraper Pentomino and Word Nurikabe (Round 5, “Indian Intrigue”, by Prasanna Seshadri and Amit Sowani) Yajilin and Doubled Yajilin, Battleships and Doubled Battleships and Spiral Galaxies and Doubled Spiral Galaxies (Round 6, “Doubled Decathlon” by Thomas Snyder, Wei-Hwa Huang and Palmer Mebane) and Masyu, Password Path and Odd/Even Tapa (Round 7, “Serbian Snacks”, by Nikola Zivanovic, Branko Ceranic, Cedomir Milanovic and Zoran Tanasic).

The Semi-Final

The top 10 A-team individual round scorers entered the semi-finals with participants starting from the back row and working their way to the front. Once a participant finished a puzzle, they raised their hand to signal completion and the judges were given one minute to check the answer. If the solution was correct the solver could move to the next desk.

There were 10 rows of desks with one puzzle on each row and the number of desks in each row decreased from 10 desks to start with in the four back rows, 7 desks starting from the 5th puzzle in the three middle rows and 5 desks starting from the 8th puzzle in the three front rows. Same as in the Sudoku Championship, the desks were taken on a ‘first come first serve’ basis so that when all desks in a certain row were occupied, the remaining participants were removed from the competition.

In the semi-finals, former world champion Palmer Mebane from USA earned himself a 5 minute head start while Thomas Snyder, also a former U.S. champion, quickly moved into second place gaining a 2 minute lead over German Ulrich Voigt. However, a mistake made by Snyder in his last puzzle enabled Voigt to win his sit in the final.

The Final

5 puzzles were set up to be solved in the play-offs, which were held on billboards in front of an audience and broadcasted live on the Chinese national TV. The puzzles were selected by Mebane and Voigt from an initial pool of 10. During the selection process each participant picked one puzzle from the pool and eliminated another puzzle. The choice alternated between the two finalists and the finals were carried out in the same order as the puzzles were picked.

In each round Mebane and Voigt started solving the puzzle simultaneously. Once a participant finished he raised his hand to signal completion and turned away while the judge checked the answer. The participant who was the first to earn 3 points became the champion.

The finals were set as a 5 puzzle match between Mebane and Voigt. Not surprisingly, Mebane, who seemed to have the upper hand throughout the entire competition, won the first round. However, Voigt was slightly faster than Mebane with the next three puzzles. Eventually Voigt was the first to earn 3 points and won the individual World Puzzle Champion title for the 9th time.

In the team competition the strong U.S. team who led throughout the preliminary rounds won the championship’s first place title for the 14th time followed by the German and Japanese teams in the second and third place.

For a complete list of puzzles types used in the competition as well as puzzle samples, puzzle rules and more info see the Instruction Booklet for the 22nd World Puzzle Championship (PDF).

Top 10 Individual Results

• 1. Ulrich Voigt (Germany)
• 2. Palmer Mebane (USA)
• 3. Thomas Snyder (USA)
• 4. Bram de Laat (The Netherlands)
• 5. Hideaki Jo (Japan)
• 6. Qiu Yanzhe (China)
• 7. William Blatt (USA)
• 8. Kota Morinishi (Japan)
• 9. Sebastian Matschke (Germany)
• 10. Peter Hudák (Slovakia)

Top 10 Team Results

• 1. USA
• 2. Germany
• 3. Japan
• 4. Slovakia
• 5. Poland
• 6. Great Britain
• 7. Turkey
• 8. Czech Republic
• 9. Canada
• 10. China

Top 3 Individual Up To 18 Years Old

For the first time special prizes were awarded to the top 3 competitors up to 18 years old. The winners in this category were as follows.

• 1. QIU Yanzhe (China)
• 2. Bahyl Jakub (Slovakia)
• 3. Hromcová Zuzana (Slovakia)

Top 3 Individual Above 50 Years Old

For the first time special prizes were awarded to the top 3 competitors above years old. The winners in this category were as follows.

• 1. Stefano Forcolin (Italy)
• 2. Nick Baxter (USA)
• 3. Jouni Juhani Särkijärvi (Finland)

Puzzle Designers

22 puzzle designers from 7 countries created the puzzles which were used during the 22nd World Puzzle Championship. The following is the complete list of their names and country origins (sorted in alphabetical order):

• Amit Sowani (India)
• Bram de Laat (The Netherlands)
• Branko Ceranic (Serbia)
• Cedomir Milanovic (Serbia)
• Cen Chen (China)
• Conceptis Puzzles (Israel)
• Gyula Slenker (Hungary)
• Hans Eendebak (The Netherlands)
• Karoly Kresz (Hungary)
• Laszlo Mero (Hungary)
• Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia)
• Pal Madarassy (Hungary)
• Palmer Mebane (USA)
• Prasanna Seshadri (India)
• Richard Stolk (The Netherlands)
• Thomas Snyder (USA)
• Tim Peeters (The Netherlands)
• Wei-Hwa Huang (USA)
• Zoltan Horvath (Hungary)
• Zoltan Nemeth (Hungary)
• Zoran Tanasic (Serbia)
• Zsuzsa Karolyi (Hungary)

Sponsoring Companies

There were 5 companies amongst the sponsors list of the 8th World Sudoku Championship and the 22nd World Puzzle Championship. These companies include:

• Heilongjiang Zhongmeng-Tianlong Forest Foods Company (China)
• Beijing Saidu Advertising (China)
• Xueersi (China)
• Shanghai Meidiqi writing tool (China)
• Conceptis Puzzles (Israel)

Sources

• The 8th World Sudoku Championship Instruction Booklet
• The 22nd World Puzzle Championship Instruction Booklet
• Around the world in 80 puzzles Instruction Booklet
• wscwpc2013.sudoku.org.cn
• chinadaily.com.cn
• wpc.puzzles.com

About the Author

Gil Galanti is marketing manager at Conceptis, a writer and photographer. He specializes in cyber culture and has published several articles on the subject. Gil holds a B.A. degree in Social Science and Communication from the Open University, Israel and a Diploma in Journalism from Koteret, School of Journalism and Communications in Tel-Aviv.

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