WPF Sudoku Grand Prix 2013

The World Puzzle Federation is organizing its first online sudoku event. It consists of eight contests organized by WPF members from eight countries.

You can find all information (and rules/regulations) regarding the event on the Official Webpage

Contest 1: Czech Republic (25th-27th January, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 2: India (9th-11th February, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 3: Germany (23rd-24th February, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 4: Serbia (20th-22nd April, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 5: UK (10th-13th May, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 6: USA (25th-28th May, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 7: Turkey (22nd-24th June, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Contest 8: Italy (29th June - 1st July, 2013)
Webpage
Results

Overall Results (After 8 Rounds)

On a personal note, many of you would've noticed my sudden absence and minimal participation in recent championships. I am taking a break from solving puzzles/sudoku. I will continue creating and authoring puzzles but I will participate only in the WPF GP 2013, the Indian National Championships and World Championships 2013.
Hoping to get back full-fledged by early 2014.

World Sudoku Championship 2012

The 7th World Sudoku Championship was held from 1st-3rd October, 2012 at Kraljevica, Croatia.

Championship Page

The Indian team was selected from the Indian Sudoku Championship 2012 and I had hinted this team is probably the best four in India presently (considering Rishi is not in India).

Indian Team
Rohan Rao
Sumit Bothra
Gaurav Korde
Rakesh Rai

Unofficial
Prasanna Seshadri

Captain
Amit Sowani

Download WSC Instruction Booklet

The first thought on seeing the IB was "This is going to be exhausting". 7 Individual Rounds + 2 Team Rounds in a day is a bit too much in my opinion.

Regarding the rounds and the puzzles, 5 of the 7 rounds were based on some linking between the puzzles. Most of the sudokus were well-known types or minor tweaks to common variations, so not much of 'new variations' to look forward to.

I finished 12th at last year's World Sudoku Championship missing the playoffs by 2 ranks. This year, only the top 8 qualify for playoffs and that was my goal.

Another surprise was defending champion Thomas Snyder's decision to not participate in the WSC as his focus and goal was to win the WPC and thus be the first player to win the WSC as well as WPC.

Part 1: Pinnochio
It was a decent start. I could solve all but one sudoku though I had 5+ mins for the last one.

Part 2: Smurfs
This was the big round. Maximum points. Triplets of sudokus linked with a pair of common cells. It was quite messy trying to look at three grids simultaneously considering the sudokus were not on the same page. A lot of turning of pages was required. It got quite irritating after a while, but it turned out to be a good round for me.
I would have preferred to have smaller sized grids, but each triplet on one page.

Part 3: Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
Another linked round which was not very good. 7 mini sudokus and 1 big tough sudoku. The last sudoku was worth 30 points which is quite big considering the rest and most of the scores read 60 or 90+ thus giving a large point advantage to those 4~5 players who were able to solve the big one. I went for the kill attempting the 30-pointer as soon as I figured the missing clues, but fell short on time. That also lead one of my minis to remain incomplete.

Part 4: The Muppet Show
Again, flipping of pages to identify the codes of the cartoons, and then solving the Irregular Sudokus. I thought this was a bad-themed round. There was hardly any 'solving' required to figure out the codes, it was more like just flipping through all the grids and eliminating the possibilities using standard row/column/region constraints. An average round for me.

Part 5: Professor Balthazaar
This was a good round for me even though I missed the high-pointers.

Part 6: Disneyland
I've always had one bad round at every WSC and this time it was Round 6. I kept making solving errors in one puzzle after another and this round pulled me down to 11th place.

Part 7: TNT
Even though the scores weren't out (I didn't know I was 11th before this round), I had a feeling my rank was somewhere between 8th and 15th. It was a tough chance to make it to playoffs but possible if I had an extremely good round and some of the other competitors miss out.
And it turned out to be a dream round. I finished 5th (But got time bonus of 4th place because one of the top four would've turned in incorrect solutions, I think it was Jan) and all the other results went my way.

So, I finished 8th. I made it to the playoffs. The first Indian to rank in the top 10 and the first Indian to make it to a WSC playoffs (I don't consider 2009 WSC as a valid 'playoff'). It felt great, and I was extremely happy.

Playoffs
The playoffs format was a one-on-one quarterfinal followed by semi-final and final. I was up against 1st-placed Kota Morinishi (Japan). The one good thing about being 8th in the playoffs is, you can't get worse! So, I had nothing to lose. The sudokus to be solved during the playoffs were to be chosen by the higher ranked player 1st and then the lower ranked player from among three pools. All the top players obviously chose from the non-Classic pools, so there was not much choice for me

1st Kota Morinishi (Japan) vs 8th Rohan Rao (India)
Mine was the first playoff. An Irregular Sudoku which Kota beat me easily followed by a Medium Classic which he beat me again. 2-0 to Kota and he qualified for the semi-final.

4th Jakub Ondrousek (Czech Republic) vs 5th Hideaki Jo (Japan)
Hideaki won the first, Jakub won the second and Hideaki convincingly won the third and advanced to the semi-final against Kota.

3rd Tiit Vunk (Estonia) vs 6th Bastien Vial-Jaime (France)
Tiit won 2-1 but it was a close fight.

2nd Jan Mrozowski (Poland) vs 7th Chen Cen (China)
Jan won easily 2-0 to setup the semi-final against Tiit.

Semi-Final 1: Kota Morinishi (Japan) vs Hideaki Jo (Japan)
An all-Japan semis which Kota sweeped.

Semi-Final 2: Jan Mrozowski (Poland) vs Tiit Vunk (Estonia)
Tiit made some silly errors and Jan outclassed him.

Final: Kota Morinishi (Japan) vs Jan Mrozowski (Poland)
A best-of-5 finals which Jan won 3-1.

Individual Results

1. Jan Mrozowski (Poland)
2. Kota Morinishi (Japan)
3. Hideaki Jo (Japan)
4. Tiit Vunk (Estonia)
5. Jakub Ondrousek (Czech Republic)
6. Bastien Vial-Jaime (France)
7. Chen Cen (China)
8. Rohan Rao (India)

Complete Results

Team Results

1. Japan
2. Czech Republic
3. China
4. Germany
5. France
6. Slovakia
7. India
8. Hungary
9. Poland
10. USA

Complete Results

Indian Results

8. Rohan Rao
32. Gaurav Korde
37. Rakesh Rai
51. Sumit Bothra

39. Prasanna Seshadri (unofficial)

It was nice meeting up with everyone again and it was a dream-come-true to make it to the playoffs. The team also performed well to get 7th which equalled our 2008's 7th rank.

The sudokus were tough, which is very evident from the scores. They were fun but could have been better at a couple of places. I am not completely in favour of the playoff format used. I would never suggest a one-on-one system when the entire time you are playing against all participants simultaneously. Solving on a board is never the same as solving on paper. It may be nice for the audience but is it really the best way for solvers? Why not have the same grids on paper and use a camera, like in WSC 2010. Most of the top solvers use a lot of pencilmarks (and guesswork at times) which is not feasible on huge flex sheets. The concept of an eraser is lost.

Congrats to Jan Mrozowski who wins his third WSC title to equal Thomas's record. Good performance by Kota Morinishi and Hideaki Jo and the Japanese team for an amazing result.

Apart from a couple of problems, the organisers were helpful and did a good job. The results and checking was done at a fairly good pace and updates were regular. Thanks to all the Croatian organisers and hope to see more of you in future (but without cartoons please!).

As for the Indian results, Gaurav and Sumit were way below par and it was disappointing to see them perform poorly. But debutant Rakesh Rai had a phenomenal result ranked 37th. Hope to see him improve in future. I really missed Rishi (I hope you read this!) this year and I hope my dream of playing with him as part of Team India comes true sooner rather than later.

I'm looking forward to WSC 2013 which will be held in Beijing, China. Hope to see the top players there and I hope to perform even better next year :-)

Indian Sudoku Championship 2012

The Indian Sudoku Championship 2012, organised by Logic Masters India (LMI), in association with Times Of India, was held in July, 2012. Participation is free of cost and everyone is invited to participate in the event irrespective of age. There are no prerequisites/requirements for participation. Top competitors will represent India at the World Sudoku Championship 2012 which will be held in Croatia in October, 2012.

There were regional rounds in four different cities and the top four contestants from each city qualify for the national finals.

1st July, 2012: Bengaluru Regional Round
Good to see 1000+ participants.

New Article

Qualifiers

1. Jaipal Reddy
2. Rakesh Rai
3. Asha Siddaiah
4. Rajesh Kumar

Congrats to the top 4 who qualify for the national finals.
Jaipal and Asha are my WSC 2010 team-mates, Rakesh is an IPC 2012 finalist and Rajesh, one of the most experienced Indian at the World Championships.

8th July, 2012: Chennai Regional Round
Again good to have 1000+ participants.

News Article

Qualifiers

1. Sumit Bothra
2. R Thejesvini
3. Raman Garimella
4. Zalak Ghetia

Congrats to the top 4 who qualify for the national finals.
Sumit is my WSC 2011 team-mate. Nice to see Raman back. Its also good to see 2 females among the top 4.

14th July, 2012: Delhi Regional Round
Good to have 1000+ participants.

News Article

Qualifiers

1. Ritesh Gupta
2. Himani Shah
3. Akash Doulani
4. Saroj Kumar Sahu

Congrats to the top 4 who qualify for the national finals.
Ritesh, a three-time national champion, is my WSC 2009 and WSC 2010 team-mate. Nice to see Himani back after a break. Akash is an ISC 2011 finalist. Good to have another new face, Saroj Kumar Sahu.

15th July, 2012: Mumbai Regional Round
This was leading to be the toughest of the four rounds. And without doubt, it was. 1000+ participants again, but many good players and previous finalists present.

News Article

Qualifiers

1. Rohan Rao
2. Gaurav Korde
3. Dr. Omkar Hendre
4. Himanshu Mittal

Congrats to Gaurav, Omkar and Himanshu.

Due to the big pool of possible players who could make it to the top 4, it was important to do well in both the rounds. I finished the Classic round in 16mins, but after Gaurav, who finished in 14mins. I had to beat Gaurav by at least 2mins in the Variants round. I finished the Variants in 9mins whereas Gaurav took 18mins.

Gaurav and me had a good lead over the rest. Good performance by Omkar and Himanshu to make it. Manoj Arora, who stood 5th with an impressive result, missed the top 4 due to a silly mistake. Tejal Phatak, who stood 7th, being the best female performer, also missed the top 4 due to swapping of two digits.

Competition was tough, and one way or another, there had to be good players who would not qualify.

22nd July, 2012: Indian Sudoku Championship Finals
The top 16 who qualified for the national finals, battled it out for a place in the top 4.

Unlike last year where many good players could not make it to the finals, this was one that was looking to be a tough competition.

Round 1: Sprint
16 sudokus, all 6x6, classic and variants, 25 minutes. It was good start since I was the first to finish with 6 minutes left on the clock. Gaurav came in 2nd with 3 minutes left. It surely helps to start on a high when defending your title :-)

(Results were announced at the end)
Unfortunately, I made a grave mistake in one of the sudokus, and lost 30 (+60 bonus) points, a total of 90 points. Gaurav scored 280, Ritesh 250 and I, 220.

Round 2: Classics
8 Sudokus of varying difficulty, 40 minutes. I finished first again with 12 minutes on the clock. Gaurav and Sumit were close behind with 11 minutes.

Round 3: Mix
This was the make-or-break round for most players. 8 variants, 60 minutes, and 650 points. The biggest round. I was certainly disappointed in not being able to finish all sudokus with ample time in hand. I managed to shade the odd-even cells in Parity, but I kept going wrong while solving it.
Well, ironically, everyone had a bad round. Gaurav could have taken a lead but made an error in Outside, thus, pulling him down further.

Round 4: Surprise
The rules of this round was given right before the round began. Beautiful sudoku. Perfectly executed, and exceptional feedback from all players. It was just the perfect round to end the championship.
4D Sudoku: Place the 36 cells in the grid such that every row/column and 2x3 box contains each number, each alphabet, each colour and each shape exactly once.

A mechanical round which was certainly well planned and implemented. 13 of the 15 finalists managed to finish it within time, with Sumit being the fastest, 30 seconds before me.

Final Results

1. Rohan Rao (Mumbai) - 1548
2. Sumit Bothra (Kolkata) - 1475
3. Gaurav Korde (Mumbai) - 1420
4. Rakesh Rai (Chennai) - 1354

Complete Results

I won my 3rd ISC title on a trot (equaled Ritesh's hat-trick of 2007-2008-2009). I also won my 3rd IPC-ISC double. I'm happy to have won my 6th title in a row, and hope to do well at the World Sudoku Championship 2012, Croatia.

Thanks to Times Of India and Logic Masters India for organising this championship on such a huge scale. Great sudokus as usual by Amit and Deb.

Personally, this was the team I had predicted when ISC started, so I'm glad it turned out to be right as I believe we have the best four sudoku solvers of the country and we hope to improve India's performance this year.

NOTE: I will be regularly updating my blog about puzzles and championships, and will be actively participating in forum activities, but I'm taking a (much-needed) break from solving in a competitive mode.

Sudokucup 8

The 8th Sudokucup will be held on 16th-18th June, 2012.
The author of the puzzles is Vladimir Portugalov.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is ?PORSUD!36MOXC

This is a nice set of sudoku variants. Vladimir's sudokus have always been fun solving and I'm sure this one will be a complete treat.

Enjoyed this set.
Congrats to Hideaki Jo and Kota Morinishi for completing the set. Hideaki has had a good weekend as he topped LMI's Seven Samurais too.

Complete Results

Logic Masters India - April 2012 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the April 2012 Sudoku Test 'Killing Time'. It was held from 14th-16th April, 2012.
The author of the puzzles is Rishi Puri.

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

Nice to see Rishi back. This test is based on variants of Killer Sudoku.

I'm not a big fan of Killer Sudoku, but this test will surely prove to give a good insight into Killer-solving techniques.

A nice, enjoyable test. Some really nice Killer sudokus. I had trouble solving the Toroidal and the Little Killer, but otherwise the solves were good.
My favourite were Greater Than Killer and Twin Killer.


Results

World Sudoku Championship 2011

The 6th World Sudoku Championship and 20th World Puzzle Championship was held on 6th-10th November, 2011 in Eger, Hungary.

Championship Page

This is the first time the WSC and WPC was held as a combined event.

Team India
The national finals of the Indian Sudoku Championship and the Indian Puzzle Championship was held in June 2011. Unfortunately, Ritesh Gupta and Gaurav Korde were unable to attend the WSC, and Harmeet Singh was unable to attend the WPC. So, we were forced to go down the list and finally are team consisted of:

Sudoku Team
Sumit Bothra (Bengaluru)
Tejal Phatak (Mumbai)
Prasanna Seshadri (Mumbai)
Rohan Rao (Mumbai)

Puzzle Team
Rajesh Kumar (Bengaluru)
Rajib Ranjan Borah (Mumbai)
Tejal Phatak (Mumbai)
Rohan Rao (Mumbai)

I was very busy since I had three exams before my trip and have my entire end-semester examinations immediately after my trip, so I spent minimal time for puzzles. Not the best thing to do by a national champion but I was left with little choice.

Last year I stood 15th in WSC and my goal this year was to reach the top 10. I really thought I could make it this time, especially with my improvement in the LMI tests and other championship results.



6th November, 2011
We reached Eger around 6pm, rested for a while, and went for the Welcome Party. All of us were quite tired and sleepy after an 8-hour journey and being 4.5 hours behind our usual time-zone, we immediately hit the sac.


7th November, 2011
The World Sudoku Championship 2011 began.

Part 1: Wrong Puzzles
Many players were of the opinion that this is not a 'sudoku-solving' round. I was indifferent. I didn't think it was completely random, nor was I convinced it was the best round to start a WSC with.

The puzzles were a pleasant surprise. There were a good mix of grids, with various fonts, styles, sizes and overall, it was a fun round. I don't think many people would have complained after the round, but surely, it was better than expected for most players.

In terms of scores, I started very poorly with a mere 68 points in this round compared to the highest 150 by David McNeill (UK).


Part 2: Sudoku Pieces
It took me a while in understanding the puzzle when I was studying the booklet. Once it was clear, I wasn't comfortable with this. I'm not very good at these kind of sudoku rounds. When it was announced that we had to place the pieces on the sheet itself, I thought I was doomed. I just wanted the round to begin and then end, as soon as possible. I was glad this round had partial scoring.

When the round started, it was a little comforting that there were 81 clues and no empty cells. I was slow to start, but after getting a few pieces, I was quickly able to crack the grid. I was mighty pleased with myself as (I think) this was the first time I said 'Finish!' at a WSC :-)


Part 3: Easy Classics
This round went quite average for me. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) scored an exceptional 605 points.


Part 4: Halved Squares Sudoku
I had a bad feeling about this round. I did not practise at all (not even the ones of the Hungarian championship) and I was quite sure this would be one of the bad rounds.

I will not say it was good, but it went better than I expected. A below average score though.

Thomas Snyder (USA) took a considerable lead from many top players after this round.


Part 5: Sudoku Central Clues
This round was good, and I was able to move up a few ranks. I think I was 17th or 18th after this round at the end of Day 1 of Individuals.


Part 6: Circle Sudoku (Team)
The concept of this round was well thought of. The execution, even better. I always enjoy solving linked puzzles and this was very exciting. We were able to solve 4 sudokus and missed one more by a few seconds.


Part 7: Vasarely Sudoku (Team)
Another nice team round and we were quite happy we were able to finish it in time. A lot of other teams finished it too.


8th November, 2011
Day 2 of WSC. I needed all my rounds to go extremely well in order to be in the top 10. Tough chance, but possible.


Part 8: Decorated Sudoku
This was one of the big rounds. I started well and scored 465 points. Just for argument sake, I equalled Thomas Snyder (USA) in this round!


Part 9: Sprint Sudoku
A fast-paced round. I need to practise these Sprint rounds. I tend to do better in longer rounds. Probably because of my mental stamina.


Part 10: Sudoku Mix
Another big round. This round pulled me down a bit. I got stuck in Tetris and Increasing Roundabout and lost some time.


Part 11: Not Easy Classics
I got the highest score in Hard Classics in WSC 2010 in Philadelphia. Well, fluke rarely happens twice!


Part 12: 3D Sudoku
I'm not particularly good at solving Cube Sudokus, but I surprised myself and was able to solve it in time. So, second time in one WSC, I said 'Finish!'. Pretty cool!


Part 13: Weakest Link (Team)
A standard weakest link round where each player of the team solves an individual puzzle and then goes to the team table. Our team finished this round and we were confident of finishing in the top 10 in the team rankings.

WSC Playoffs
I finished 12th. Missed the playoffs by about 80 points. The playoffs consisted of a good set of players.

The format of the playoffs was interesting. Top 10 puzzlers start solving based on a time difference in proportion to their scores. The last 3 players to finish the first 3 puzzles are eliminated. Then the last 2 players to finish the next 3 puzzles are eliminated. Then a fight to the finish with the next 4 puzzles.

Thomas Snyder (USA): World Sudoku Champion 2007, 2008. He had a big lead and would surely win if the playoffs went smoothly for him.

Jan Mrozowski (Poland): World Sudoku Champion 2009, 2010. He was probably the biggest threat to Thomas.

Tiit Vunk (Estonia) and Kota Morinishi (Japan) were looking very strong in the championship.

Florian Kirch (Germany), Jan Novotny (Czech Republic), Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia), Michael Ley (Germany), Hideaki Jo (Japan) and Jakub Ondrousek (Czech Republic) complete the top 10.

The playoffs started with a shock. Jan Mrozowski was stuck on the second puzzle while everyone else proceeded. He probably had some problem on his end. Kota Morinishi was racing through the puzzles and catching up with Thomas who was always one table ahead. Thomas kept the lead and calmly finished all the puzzles. Kota finished second, and Tiit,  with a slight stumble midway finished 3rd. Hideaki, after starting 9th, finished a creditable 4th.


Playoff Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA)
2. Kota Morinishi (Japan)
3. Tiit Vunk (Estonia)


Individual Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 3760
2. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 3525
3. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) - 3459


Indian Results

12. Rohan Rao - 2983
44. Sumit Bothra - 2154
54. Tejal Phatak - 1966
71. Prasanna Seshadri - 1725
101. Rajesh Kumar - 1314

Complete Individual Results


Team Results

1. Germany - 16436
2. Czech Republic - 16181
3. USA - 14488

8. India - 11708

Complete Team Results

Overall, it was a great championship. The sudokus, the rounds, and the format and organisation was as good as it could get. With WSC and WPC combined, it involves a lot of effort and work, and the Hungarians did a wonderful job.

I am happy with my performance. Top 10 would have been ideal, but at least I was close. Maybe next time.

Congrats to Thomas Snyder for winning his 3rd WSC title. He has been very consistent throughout the year and is a deserving winner.

It was good meeting up with old friends and new ones, and I hope this trend of WSC+WPC continues.

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
Forum

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'!

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'?

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!

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 - 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 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 - 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.

Logic Masters India - April 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the April Sudoku Test. This test has been merged with the online qualification test for the Indian Sudoku Championship.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is Ki2sVeheMi
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Odd-Even Sudoku
2. Diagonal Sudoku
3. Extra Region Sudoku
4. XV Sudoku
5. Consecutive Sudoku
6. Trio Sudoku
7. Outside Sudoku
8. Inequality Sudoku
9. Irregular-Scattered Sudoku
10. Killer Sudoku
11. Product Frame Sudoku
12. Classic Sudoku

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 650
2. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 645
3. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 640
4. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 635
5. Michael Ley (Germany) - 630
6. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 625
7. Minfang Lin (China) - 620
8. Rohan Rao (India) - 615
9. Fred Stalder (Switzerland) - 610
10. Sinchai R (Thailand) - 605

Best Indians

8. Rohan Rao - 615
18. Rishi Puri - 476
26. Gaurav Korde - 404
37. Sumit Bothra - 351
39. Rakesh Rai - 348

Complete Results

Before
Here's my first test. I'm going to give my best shot at ISC and I hope to retain my title :-)

After
This is satisfying! I did not solve the test under best 'physical conditions', but an 8th place overall and Indian topper with a considerable margin is something that comforts me. Nice to see Gaurav, Sumit and others back in the ring.

Sudokus were excellent. A Trio sudoku with 6 givens caught my eye, something which I failed creating sometime back. It seemed many struggled with the Product Frame which I was lucky to get through but the only barrier I faced was Outside.

Congrats to all those who qualified and hope to have an interesting finals like last year.

Logic Masters India - March 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the March Sudoku Test 'Spring'. It was held on 26th-27th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Sylvain Caudmont, Timothy Doyle, Geoffroy Hermelin, Laurent Pierre, Frederic Stalder and Bastien Vial-Jaime.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is Carla20Bley3
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Alpha-Frame Sudoku
2. Classic Sudoku (Solving Techniques)
3. Consecutive Sudoku
4. Greater Than Killer Sudoku
5. Sudoku-Kurve
6. Arrow Sudoku
7. Sundoku
8. Extra Region Sudoku
9. Jigsaw Wordoku
10. Mixed Sudoku
11. Killer 0-8 Sudoku
12. Double Sum Sudoku

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 954
2. Michael Ley (Germany) - 946
3. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 868
4. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 846
5. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) - 841
6. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 837
7. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 835
8. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic) - 795
9. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 793
10. WaterlooMathie (Canada) - 776

Best Indians

12. Rohan Rao - 697
14. Rishi Puri - 675
18. Rakesh Rai - 575
35. Amit Sowani - 470
40. Ritesh Gupta - 440

Complete Results

Before
A very interesting set of sudokus. I liked Sundoku the best among the dozen and it will be interesting to see how it is put to good use, I'm sure the 'Francophone Authors' will live up to my expectations :-)

I've never performed well when the range of the points distribution is relatively large. Having 10 sudokus in the 0-100 point range and the other two in the 140-160 category is bound to trouble me. Some jinx I guess.

But, I'm looking forward to this test, especially since its a light weekend for me and I hope I can crack the dozen within 2hrs.

Good luck to all participants!

After
What a beautiful set of sudokus! The test was well-timed, but a little difficult for ameteur solvers. Also, no one was able to solve all sudokus correctly, which was surprised me.

Alpha Frame, Classic and Consecutive were nice and easy.
Greater than Killer was wonderfully constructed. I made a dangerous error early on while solving, 1>2>3... Was lucky to catch this goof within a minute.
Sudokukurve is one variant that I loathe. I solved it only because it was the end, and the only other variant remaining was the Killer in which I wasn't getting good progress.
Arrow and Sundoku were again nicely made, both solvable logically.
Extra Region was fantastic to solve. The use of the four-number groups (of the region and corresponding row/column) was all that was needed to crack this puzzle.
Jigsaw is again not one of favourites, especially when there are letters, but I managed to solve it without a scratch.
Mixed Sudoku was lovely. I rate it the best of this set. I just loved the way the solution went from bottom to top.
Killer 0-8 was the only puzzle I didn't solve. Didn't get any headway and it seems to be a tough one as mentioned by others in the forum.
Double Sum. This was a smile-maker and a heart-breaker. I started the test with this sudoku and solved it in about 15 minutes. I was glad with the speedy start only to be disappointed later by an error in the answer. Damn! I missed a chance to be 4th!

Overall, an amazing weekend for puzzles... great job by the authors and looking forward to the next set of sudokus as always!

UKPA Sudoku Contest 2

The 2nd UKPA Sudoku Championship was held on 12th-13th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Rishi Puri.

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

Results

1. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 705
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 675
3. Branko Ceranic (Serbia) - 620
4. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 620
5. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) - 587
6. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 584
7. Chen Cen (China) - 530
8. Caudmont (France) - 505
9. Verydao (China) - 495
10. Fred Stalder (Switzerland) - 485

Best Indians

23. Neeraj Mehrotra - 365
30. Jaipal Reddy - 330

Complete Results

I missed this contest. I've got my university exams round the corner, so had a tight weekend.
Congrats to Nikola, Thomas and Branko!

Logic Masters India - February 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the February Sudoku Test 'Double Delight'. It was held on 12th-13th February, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Rishi Puri.

View Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is DoubledJoy
View Forum

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

1. Diagonal-Nonconsecutive Sudoku
2. Jigsaw-Antiknight Sudoku
3. Diagonal-Killer Sudoku
4. Jigsaw-Killer Sudoku
5. Antiknight-Killer Sudoku
6. Nonconsecutive-Killer Sudoku
7. Jigsaw-Diagonal Sudoku
8. Disjoint-Antiknight Sudoku
9. Disjoint-Diagonal Sudoku
10. Nonconsecutive-Jigsaw Sudoku
11. Nonconsecutive-Antiknight Sudoku
12. Diagonal-Antiknight Sudoku

Results

1. WaterlooMathie (Canada) - 1035
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 1020
3. Jaku111 (Czech Republic) - 1002
4. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 1000
5. Chen Cen (China) - 935
6. Rohan Rao (India) - 930
7. Michael Ley (Germany) - 924
8. Takei Daisuke (Japan) - 920
9. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 904
10. Zafer Huseyin Ergan (Turkey) - 885

Best Indians

6. Rohan Rao - 930
21. Gaurav Korde - 765
24. Jaipal Reddy - 690
33. Harmeet Singh - 575
36. Sumit Bothra - 545

Complete Results

It was a fun test. Applying two constraints to a sudoku required a lot of concentration. In the midst of the test, I kept getting confused between the variants due to repetition. I read 'nonconsecutive' and I applied antiknight! Luckily I caught myself every time I blundered and passed it with a laugh. Its been a while since I stood in the top 10 of an LMI test, so its been a good weekend for me. Congrats to WaterlooMathie for pipping the ever-topping Snyder. Maybe Snyder will be back next month with a vengeance!