WPC2000: The home hotel advantage
By Zack Butler, USA
So it turns out that just going to the World Puzzle Championship
is enough to induce jet lag, even if it's in the same time zone as
the one you live in. And that must be a good thing, since the U.S.
team was once again victorious, reclaiming the Puzzle Star along
with a very nice crystal potato chip bowl. (The Dutch and German
teams got equally nice crystal candy and nut bowls,
respectively.)
A well-organized, if busy, event took place in and around
Stamford, CT, this past long weekend, and contained (for me, at
least) fewer bus rides than any of the last few championships. We
took the train in to New York for sightseeing, which was fun,
although several of us who split up from the group were surprised
to get on the 10:07 PM train back to Stamford and find the other 95
people missing... I got to see the new Rose Center and Planetarium
at the Natural History museum, which was cool, but we could have
gone to the new 3D Imax show, or hung out in Central Park with the
Australians (it was a beautiful day), or gone up the World Trade
Center or ...
Not much time to recover from the long day walking around, as
puzzling began with a 2 hour individual session at 10:00 the next
morning. I am proud to say that I won that round, and if some sort
of natural disaster (flooded basement?) had prevented the remainder
of the tournament from happening, I could have been world champion.
(We take our victories where we can.) After several rounds of less
personally helpful (but good) puzzles I dropped down to 5th
entering the new dramatic final round. The top ten finishers solved
eight puzzles in front of an audience - the puzzles were presented
on easels, with only a blank notebook for each competitor. Earning
more points in the first two days gave you more time in the final,
so whoever finished the most puzzles the fastest in the final would
win. Although this had the potential to shake up the standings,
most people stayed about the same - except for our new champion,
Ulrich Voigt of Germany, who leapfrogged the dominant Wei-Hwa Huang
by solving all eight problems correct on his first attempt.
(Wei-Hwa had completed all eight before Ulrich, but had to correct
one later.) Your intrepid reporter ended up in sixth (thanks to
Will, Helene & co. for buying trophies for the top ten!), with
fellow American Ron Osher in 9th after competing in the finals, and
rookie Alan Lemm using a good second day to end up 20th. The team
finished well ahead of the pack, thanks to Wei-Hwa, although I
would like to point out that if he had been only excellent, rather
than dominating, we still could have pulled it out...
The social scene was as always fun. Many hands of Rifki (no dot on the second
i) were played in the hotel lobby, and I almost scored above zero in one of
them (it's not my forte). Most were played after midnight, which probably had
a fair amount to do with the feelings of jet lag. I shared some Vermont microbrews
(to show the Europeans that it's not all like Budweiser), and learned how to
play Zombie Poker. We even got to see a pull-out-the-stops bar mitzvah reception
in the hotel (and lots of boys in ties running around - "well-dressed hooligans").
I did have to pass on most of the games last night, though, and a morning drive
found me back up at Dartmouth before noon. Still jet lagged.
