 |
| Fill the grid with digits from 1 to 4 so that every row
and column has four different digits, and each of the four regions has four
different digits. |
x^5 - 33 x^4 - 71 x^3 + 33 x^2 + 70 x
By Wei-Hwa Huang (USA)
This puzzle is a simple example of the type of puzzle I had to solve at the
World Puzzle Championships. I've been a member of the US team since 1993, when
I entered a puzzle-solving fax contest, and since then have done sufficiently
well to be reinvited to the team every year since then.
This year, the puzzle was held in the city of Brno in the Czech Republic, the
first time ever that a city has hosted the WPC twice. Coincidentally, the last
time the WPC was in Brno was also my first WPC, back in 1993.
It was not, however, the first time that a country has hosted the competition
twice. A rather poignant moment during the opening ceremonies was when the organizers
displayed a photograph taken at the first WPC in 1992 -- atop the World Trade
Center building.
Obviously, quite a lot has changed since then! In that time, the WPC has doubled
the size of its participants, from about 50 contestants to 100 contestants.
The quaint and rustical hotel that hosted us in 1993 would have been quite crowded
if it were used in 2001.
The competition itself was spread over three days, with two days of individual
competition followed by one day of team competition. One wise change from previous
years was the lack of mandatory tourist-y excursions on the days of the competition
-- after all, we were there to solve puzzles first, and tour the region second!
(Well, I was there to play games second, which I must say I satisfied quite
well.)
Not that there was a lack of excursions. On the last day, we all enjoyed a nice
tour of the city of Prague, of which sections are still sufficiently venerable
that movie-makers will often use it when filming a Victorian-era piece. I definitely
was able to appreciate more this time around; perhaps it was because I was older
and more mature? Nah, most likely it was because I knew my fellow tourists and
was more comfortable around them. (The fact that we skipped a large portion
of the historical section of the tour so that we could walk to a puzzle shop
in Prague also helped.)
The puzzles themselves did not play to my forte (or perhaps one could say that
the puzzles of past years did); although I've won the individual competition
occasionally in previous years, this year I placed 4th -- right below my fellow
teammate Zack Butler, who placed 3rd. Amusingly, this also meant the difference
between getting a trophy cup and a prize puzzle. I think I got the better part
of the deal there! First place went to Ulrich Voigt from Germany, whom with
his two wins in a row is poised to tie for the longest winning streak ever.
The American team, which placed 3rd, 4th, 10th, and 12th in the individual rounds,
easily took 1st place team, despite some small setbacks in the team competition.
I highly recommend all readers who are interested to look around on this website,
and all interested Americans to go to the
American team site (where you can also sign up to try out for next year's
team).
