Search This Blog

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.

Indian Sudoku Championship 2011

The Indian Sudoku Championship 2011 will consist of 14 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 11-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 14 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, Chennai, 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.

Download Instruction Booklet (Online Qualification)
Download Puzzle Booklet (Online Qualification)

The regional rounds went really well and it was nice to see so many participants in the online round too.

List of Qualifiers

The national finals was held on 11th 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 Sudoku Championship (and the Indian Puzzle 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

Gaurav Korde: Has been away for a while, but a great performance in Beijing shows how he can pull himself at critical times.
Rakesh Rai: Has been very consistent and I believed him to be the dark horse.
Rishi Puri: Last year's runner-up, who has been in tremendous form lately with his recent exploits in Beijing.
Ritesh Gupta: 3-time national champion would be raring to get his title back.
Sumit Bothra: Out of practise, but can deliver when needed.
Tejal Phatak: Has been consistently rising and offline events are her strength.

It was a big disappointment when Rishi had to cancel his trip. His absence at the finals meant a pillar went missing. Some people felt I should've been happy since a big contender of the title had pulled out. But I like competition and I've always enjoyed a fight, irrespective of the result. Adding to Rishi's absence, Rakesh and Jaipal too pulled out at the last moment thus thinning the competition to a great extent. I was very disappointed but I couldn't do much about it.

11th June, 2011
The competition hall was huge and as Sumit mentioned 'It gave the feel of a puzzle championship'. I felt comfortable and I was hoping to make it in the Indian team at least, if not win the championship.

Round 1
Download Puzzle Booklet
It was a perfect beginning for me. I was able to finish the round with a 1-minute time bonus. I was shell-shocked when the results came out to see I already had a 95-point lead over 2nd place Tejal and a 190-point lead over 3rd place Ritesh.

Round 2
Download Puzzle Booklet
I finished 6 of the 7 sudokus in 50 minutes and had 10 minutes to complete Odd-Even Frame. It was disappointing to miss the last one, but good enough to top the round and extend my lead.

Round 3
Download Puzzle Booklet
I never expected to complete this round, but I had a big advantage by finishing Equal Sum and Multiplication Table within 25 minutes. I even checked every 2x2 region of Equal Sum to make sure I didn't go wrong. I finished all the sudokus with a 5-minute bonus and this was when I was sure of retaining my ISC title.

Round 4
Download Puzzle Booklet
I wanted to win ISC by topping all four rounds and it went exactly as I would've liked. I spent more than 10 minutes on the 'very difficult' Touchy but couldn't crack it. I got the first Classic wrong with a silly error, but I topped the round with 350, just 20 more than Tejal!


Results

1. Rohan Rao (Mumbai) - 1895
2. Ritesh Gupta (Delhi) - 1155
3. Sumit Bothra (Kolkata) - 1140
4. Tejal Phatak (Mumbai) - 1105
5. Gaurav Korde (Mumbai) - 970
6. Prasanna Seshadri (Mumbai) - 765
7. Harmeet Singh (Bengaluru) - 740
8. Himanshu Mittal (Delhi) - 725
9. Akash Doulani (Kolkata) - 710
10. Rajesh Kumar (Bengaluru) - 670

Complete Results

Sumit Bothra and Deb Mohanty

Ritesh Gupta and Deb Mohanty

Rohan Rao and Deb Mohanty

Relieved, excited and happy, I won ISC 2011 and retained my title. I knew we were going to be given certificates but I had no idea there were trophies for the top 3. The certificates and trophies were both wonderful!

Looking at the results, Gaurav Korde had a disappointing day. Most of us expected him to be in the top 3. Tejal Phatak performed extremely well and so did debutant Prasanna Seshadri. Harmeet Singh had a fantastic weekend, too.

The sudokus were exceptionally good, especially Round 3. I felt the 6x6 Linked Sudokus of Round 1 were slightly tougher than what it should've been.
I liked Odd-Even View from Round 2, Mulitplication Table from Round 3 and Classic-Diagonal from Round 4.
All the rounds were well-timed, without any problems.

It was a wonderful event, had excellent puzzles, was organised infallibly and ended on a successful note.

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. Not only did he organise the event, he created every one of the sudokus of the championship. I wonder how he managed to do this all by himself. He must be super-man!

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.

Logic Masters India - June 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the June 2011 Puzzle Test 'Fillomino-Fillia'. It will be held on 4th-5th June, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Grant Fikes (mathgrant) and Palmer Mebane (mellowmelon).

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

Logic Masters India - May 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the May 2011 Sudoku Test 'Something Is Missing'. It was held on 28th-29th May, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Jakub Hrazdira.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Non-Consecutive Sudoku
2. Kropki Sudoku
3. Jigsaw Sudoku
4. Toroidal Sudoku
5. Number X Is Alive Sudoku
6. Incomplete Sums Sudoku
7. Draw A Jigsaw Sudoku
8. Missing Digit Sudoku
9. Hidden Sum Blackout Sudoku
10. Instructionless Sudoku

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 437
2. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 400
3. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 380
4. Michael Ley (Germany) - 380
5. Yuhei Kusui (Japan) - 370
6. Sylvain Caudmont (France) - 335
7. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 330
8. Psyho (Poland) - 330
9. Richard Hoffer (USA) - 320
10. David McNeill (UK) - 320

Best Indians

18. Rakesh Rai - 260
21. Rohan Rao - 240
45. Prasanna Seshadri - 145
46. Utkaarsh Somaiya - 145
64. Harmeet Singh - 115

Complete Results

Another tough set from Jakub. Beautifully constructed sudokus. Instructionless was lovely. I got the logic in about 20 seconds. The concept of 'missing' was used very neatly. Thanks Jakub for another exciting contest.