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.