Turkish Delights
or, the 1998 WPC recap, as hazily recalled by me
By Zack Butler (USA)
Yes, folks, it's that time of year again. When geeks the world over gather in
some exotic European locale to solve puzzles, drink beer, and wander around trying
not to get fleeced by locals. And when I come home and write about it.
This year, the World Puzzle Championship was contested in
Istanbul, although with the Japanese, not Turks, setting the stage
with a grand suite of puzzles - numerous rounds of standard
(excellent) pencil-and-paper logic puzzles, but also a few
mechanicals (a nice change, even for those of us fairly inept at
solving them) and a few short time-bonus rounds. And when the dust
had settled and the scoring finally complete, the U.S. team once
again came out on top, with the Japanese making their best showing
ever, finishing in second. On the individual side, American Wei-Hwa
Huang won for the third time, while I managed to overcome a
first-day stumble to finish second. (Sort of. More on that later.)
Meaning we regain possession of the Puzzle Star. (I think. I'm not
sure I actually saw anyone take it with them, and it _is_ awfully
heavy...)
The week began (after the long series of flights and meeting up
with the Dutch and Germans in the Istanbul airport and the Finns on
the bus outside it) with a grand dinner overlooking the Bosporus,
which included the opening ceremonies. (Peter Ritmeester was
particularly amusing when, pressed in to service as the Hungarian
captain, had to take their name badges to the front of the room for
the introductions.) After dinner we got to watch a belly dancer,
during which we tried to decide if her, shall we say, more-Vegas-
than-traditional style was in fact closer to the norm these
days.
The imported Seattle weather lasted into the next day, when we
were toured through some of the major tourist sites of the city.
After talking to a guy selling batteries from a briefcase next to a
couple of millenia-old obelisks, I was able to take pictures of
said obelisks. This was also when we began to learn that however
the rest of the population may behave, our Turkish tour guide was
extremely interested in keeping us on schedule. ("Okay, you have
five minutes to take pictures here, then we're going on.") Those of
us in tourist amble mode were hard pressed to keep up.
Nonetheless, an awe-inspiring (I guess that's the point, right?)
trip through the Sultanahmet mosque followed by lunch at the
Topkapi palace (home of the worlds second largest diamond and a
pair of 48 kg solid gold candlesticks), where our tour guide
managed to sneak us into the Harem (and isn't that the best way to
visit one?). Finally, a brief visit to Hagia Sophia (where a fresco
of the Virgin Mary and child Jesus now shares a wall with
Arabic-lettered stained glass). Then dinner in Kumkapi (no dot on
the "i"; we got some pronunciation lessons from our hosts), home of
many seafood restaurants and kids selling overpriced items to
tourists.
Two days of puzzles followed, both very long days capped off by
long bus rides to Asia. Apparently, even though Asia and Europe are
very close in Istanbul, in order to make the trip seem worthy of
the "intercontinental" adjective, a severe traffic jam is put in
place over the only two bridges across the Bosporus. Which meant a
2+ hour ride to dinner. Except for those of use who took trolley,
ferry and taxi to dinner Friday, about which I will only say that
drivers in Istanbul are everything they're said to be.
And on Friday, the bug hit. Or at least, Ron says it was a bug,
and he seems to know these sorts of things. Could have been food
poisioning, I suppose. Nonetheless, many competitors were a bit
incapacitated on Friday (I was lucky enough to have the worst hit
only after competition, although I didn't eat at all Friday.) The
Finns had it the worst - I won't describe Erkki's plight in detail,
only to say that he brought back memories of Pete Sampras at
Wimbledon. Playing through the pain, indeed. Results were slow in
coming, but we felt we had a moderate lead heading in to the final
team round, and hoped to avoid an incident like last year's group
choke. Which we did, it turned out - while we solved the final
puzzle (thanks mostly to Wei-Hwa), our close competitors did not,
and the victory was presumably sealed.
Which left the last day for carefree sightseeing, including a
fairly long ("OK. _Now_ only another 20 minutes.") ferry ride to
the Prince's Islands for horse-drawn carriage rides and lunch along
the water (not that most of us ate anything). We wandered around
the town and took the ferry back, ending up at the (in)famous
Covered Bazzar. Truly covered, and truly bizarre. The main street
really looks like a covered-over street, wide with real storefronts
and numbers on the shops. But back a bit, it was more like some
underground warren full of leather, rugs, and turkish delight.
Every store selling the exact same set of items as every other
store of the same type. Somewhat interesting, but it would have
also been nice to see something a bit less tourist-oriented.
We came back ("Quickly to the bus now") to the hotel to get
ready for dinner, at which we were again entertained by a variety
of folk and belly dancing (perhaps a bit too much) and a
three-piece lounge music band in which the guitar player never
moved anything besides his hands (and occasionally his eyes). Even
when playing a polka. When the busloads of other tourists showed up
(after the speech by the Turkish Minister of Culture), it became
clear that the awards would not be given out there. So we returned
to the hotel for that, with the ceremony beginning about midnight.
_After_ which they released the scores and graded papers of the
last four rounds, in one of which I was shorted 50 points. Thus the
confusion about my placing. I was willing to settle for simply
telling people I had finished in second (rather than fourth,
meaning no trophy or trip on stage), but a long discussion ensued
(hopefully not rustling too many feathers), the results of which
are that I'll be able to tell you all I finished second - with
official sanction. As will the Japanese solver who had been awarded
second, as it should be.
So, after a single celebratory beer (taking it easy on the road to recovery),
I headed off to bed for a two-hour nap before the long trip home. I think I
made it.
