Fifth World Sudoku Championship

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Overview

The Fifth World Sudoku Championship will be held April 29 - May 2, 2010 in Philadelphia, USA.

Tentative Schedule

Thursday, April 29th, 2010: Arrival Day

  • 1830-2100: Welcome Reception
  • 2130-2230: Q&A Session

Friday, April 30th, 2010: Competition Day 1

  • 0900-1300: Free Time (self-guided tourism, lunch)
  • 1315-1700: Individual Rounds, Day 1
  • 1715-1845: Team Rounds, Day 1
  • 1930-2200: Dinner and Game Night

Saturday, May 1st, 2010: Competition Day 2

  • 0830-1230: Individual Rounds, Day 2
  • 1230-1330: Lunch
  • 1400-1630: Team Rounds, Day 2
  • 1730-1845: SUper DOKUthalon Playoffs
  • 1930-2230: Dinner, Awards

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010: Departure Day

  • Departure

Rounds

The Championship will last for sixteen rounds, ten individual rounds, five team rounds, and the individual finals. There will also be a few exhibition/contest rounds during "game night" on the first evening of the competition. The format of the individual rounds, and the puzzles used, are described below.

Overall competition rules are not yet available.

Individual Rounds

The individual rounds are thematically connected to the [Olympic Decathlon]. There are five events each on two consecutive days. The first day is focused on speed and "left-brain" skills such as arithmetic; the second day is focused on endurance and "right-brain" skills such as geometric relationships.

The overall winner of the Olympic Decathlon is called the "World's Greatest Athlete"; accordingly, we might call the winner of the Sudoku Decathlon to be the "World's Greatest Sudoku Solver" (WGSS).

There are four "track events"; these are represented by standard Sudoku; the main variance is in difficulty and length.

The six "field events" are represented by Sudoku Variants. The first puzzle in each round will be a commonly-known variant; the others may or may not be well-known variants, and often will include variants especially designed for this competition.

Day 1

Day 2

  • 110 meter hurdles (20 minutes) : This round has only Just One Cell Sudoku puzzles.
    • 20 puzzles (10 Just One Cell "Compositions", 5 "Basic Studies", and 5 "Advanced Studies" as defined on the rules page)
  • 1500 meters (35 minutes) : This round has standard Sudoku puzzles that require very difficult techniques, including Y-Wing, Simple Coloring, Swordfish, and even more advanced ones as demonstrated here. Most solvers -- even the WGSS -- will probably end up using bifurcation on these puzzles.
    • 9 puzzles

Team Rounds

The team rounds will cover themes that are not as well-covered in the individual rounds.

  1. Weakest Link (40 minutes)
  2. Number Place (42 minutes)
  3. Jigsaw Sudoku (30 minutes)
  4. Track & Field Relay (40 minutes)
  5. Pentathlon (40 minutes)


Team Round 1: Weakest Link

This round features classic sudoku with shared regions between the puzzles. The round starts with team members solving a puzzle alone; when this is judged correct, they are allowed to transition to the team part and will receive additional puzzles depending on how many team members are already at this team part. If an individual puzzle is twice judged as incorrect, then that individual is excluded from the team part.

The individual puzzle is a Triple-Double Sudoku. The team puzzle is an extended variation with 4 linked puzzles; in the team puzzle each grid has three shaded nonets and exactly one nonet is shared with each of the other three puzzles. The first team member to complete the individual part gets 2 of the linked puzzles at the team desk; each subsequent member gets one more.

Instructions for Triple-Quadruple Sudoku: Follow Sudoku Rules. This puzzle (as well as the other three puzzles) has three shaded regions. Each region will exactly correspond with one of the three shaded regions in each of the other three puzzles.

Scoring:

  • For each individual grid, 25 points if perfectly solved, otherwise 0 points.
  • For each team grid, 200 points if perfectly solved; otherwise, minus 20 points (from 200) for each cell that is incorrect or empty, but no less than 0 points.

Six individual grids plus four team grids is 950 points for the entire round.

Team Round 2: Number Place

In this round, the team must work together to solve 6 standard Sudoku puzzles without any writing implements to make notes or any methods to erase.

Each player will sit at an individual desk and may not communicate with the other team members. Each desk will have a puzzle on it. Each team member will be supplied with a sheet of colored stickers bearing the numbers from 1 to 9, with different colors for each solver. The puzzles will also have three regions shaded in the same colors as the stickers. Team members must only place digits/stickers in the regions belonging to their color and cannot remove stickers but can, if necessary, place a sticker over another one of the same color in an appropriate region. Each player will have only one extra sticker for each digit (9 total extra stickers for the entire round), so the opportunity to correct mistakes is very limited. Partial credit will be given for incomplete grids.

The round will start with 3 puzzles, one in front of each individual solver. After 90 seconds, an announcement/sound will indicate that the puzzle should be passed to the next team member on the right. This continues until a puzzle is declared finished and turned in. Whenever a puzzle is turned in, a new puzzle will be given to the solver at that desk to begin on, for a total of six puzzles in the round.

The following example shows how the grids will appear and gives the state the grid might resemble after the first few passes starting from GREEN, then BLUE, then RED, then back to GREEN and so on.

Instructions: You have 90 seconds to work on this puzzle. You may only put your own stickers in the region of your color. If the entire puzzle is completed, you may turn it in and start on a new puzzle if there is one. At the end of 90 seconds, pass this puzzle to your next teammate.

Scoring:

  • Puzzle Blue: 250 if perfect, otherwise 4 points per correct sticker.
  • Puzzle Green: 100 if perfect, otherwise 1 points per correct sticker.
  • Puzzle Red: 100 if perfect, otherwise 1 points per correct sticker.
  • Puzzle 4: 200 if perfect, otherwise 3 points per correct sticker.
  • Puzzle 5: 150 if perfect, otherwise 2 points per correct sticker.
  • Puzzle 6: 200 if perfect, otherwise 3 points per correct sticker.

Total: 1000 points.

Team Round 3: Jigsaw Sudoku

Full Instructions:

You are given a set of 36 colored nonomino pieces and four grids.

  • 32 of the pieces are physically cut out of cardboard. 4 pieces are pre-printed on the grids.
  • The nonominos come in four different shapes. All nonominoes of the same shape are identically colored.
  • Each nonomino has four cells labeled with numbers. The labeled cells are the same (mirror image) when the pieces is flipped over.

You must discover how to place the 32 physical pieces (8 per grid) onto the grids so that no nonominoes overlap and the resulting grids form a valid 9x9 Irregular Sudoku. Placing the pieces is subject to the following constraints:

  • Only two colors (two types of nonomino) are used in any grid.
  • One of the grids must have a rotationally symmetric arrangement of nonomino shapes (but the numbers will not be symmetric).

Across all puzzles, there is only one way to place the 32 pieces that satisfies these constraints (so when your team finds a valid arrangement that uses all 32 pieces, including one grid being symmetrical, you should not need to worry about there being alternate tilings).

You must then use the numbers indicated on the pieces to reconstruct the Irregular Sudoku grids, and then solve these puzzles following Irregular Sudoku rules. You can solve the puzzles in one of two ways:

  • Draw clearly the piece shapes on the grid, copy the given digits from the pieces to the grid, then solve the puzzle on the grid; or
  • Put the pieces on the grid, and then solve the puzzle directly on the pieces.

(We think that the first option is better, but we will accept solutions in the second form.)

The following example demonstrates the assembly of a single grid with one fixed nonomino and 8 jigsaw pieces. The solution is shown for both the assembly, and for the irregular sudoku that is formed.

Abbreviated Instructions (seen on team sheet): See Instruction Booklet for detailed instructions. Place the 32 physical pieces (8 per grid) onto the grid so that no nonominoes overlap and the resulting grids form a valid 9x9 Irregular Sudoku.

  • Only two colors (two types of nonomino) are used in any grid.
  • One of the grids must have a rotationally symmetric arrangement of nonomino shapes (but the numbers will not be symmetric).

After you have determined where all the pieces go, solve the Irregular Sudoku.

Scoring: For each grid:

  • 50 points if grid assembly is correct, 0 points if grid assembly is not correct.
  • 150 points if all numbers are correctly placed; otherwise, minus 20 points (from 150) for each cell that is incorrect or empty, but no less than 0 points.

800 points total. (A grid with all numbers correctly placed but an incorrect grid assembly is worth 150 points.)

Team Round 4: Track and Field Relay

One team member starts alone at the table with a track puzzle, an easy-moderate standard sudoku. The other two team members sit together with a field puzzle: a 9x9 puzzle from one of the Field Rounds. The included puzzles (which are represented by 6x6 versions in the individual rounds) are Integer Division Sudoku, Countdown Sudoku, Skyscrapers Sudoku, Double Irregular Sudoku, Morse Sudoku, Weave Sudoku.

At the start of the round, both the individual and pair set to work on their puzzles. When both puzzles are finished, the two grids are turned in and the proctors will deliver a new track puzzle and the next field puzzle to the respective desks. Individuals will change positions by moving one chair to the right to alternate roles. Across all 6 stages of the relay, a team member will have worked alone on a Track puzzle 2 times and on a Field puzzle with another team member 4 times.

The following diagram shows how the round order and position swapping will occur.

Scoring: For each stage, 160 points if both puzzles are correct; otherwise, minus 20 points (from 160) for each cell that is incorrect or empty, but no less than 0 points. 960 points total.

Team Round 5: Pentathlon

A "Relay" page plus four puzzles.

Relay Instructions: The other four puzzles in this round are all harder forms of variants seen in the Individual rounds. Each pair of puzzles has four lettered cells in common, as indicated on this page. Fill in the common cells on this page. (Each puzzle has a unique solution, even ignoring the connections on this page.)

The four puzzles are:

The following example and solution (constructed for the 2009 Czech National Sudoku Championship by Wei-Hwa Huang) demonstrates the general concept with a few changes. In the example the grids are in 4 different colors; at the WSC the grids will all be white except for the cells which are shared between grids (the passing will also be indicated on the separate Relay sheet). In the example, 5 pairs of numbers are shared between each grid; at the WSC only 4 pairs of numbers will be shared between each grid. Also, the example uses different puzzles; specifically, the example uses Donut Sudoku and Morse Sudoku instead of Deficit Sudoku and S as in Sudoku.

Scoring:

  • 200 points if all 24 numbers on the Relay sheet are correct; otherwise, 5 points per correct number, minus 10 points per incorrect number (but no less than 0 points for the relay sheet).
  • For each other puzzle, 200 points if the puzzle is solved; otherwise, minus 20 points (from 200) for each cell that is incorrect or empty, but no less than 0 points.

Individual Playoffs: SUper DOKUthalon

The playoff qualifiers will be invited on stage to play the SUper DOKUthlon, which consists of 10 puzzles, one in the style of each of the rounds:

  1. 100 meters: Standard Sudoku, easy difficulty
  2. Long Jump: Killer Sudoku
  3. Shot Put: 0-9 Sudoku
  4. High Jump: Consecutive Sudoku
  5. 400 meters: Standard Sudoku, medium difficulty
  6. 110 meter hurdles: Just One Cell Sudoku - "Basic Study"
  7. Discus: Diagonal Sudoku
  8. Pole Vault: Digital Sudoku
  9. Javelin: Irregular Sudoku
  10. 1500 meters: Standard Sudoku, hard difficulty
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