THE WORLD PUZZLE NEWSLETTER 12 Official publication of the World Puzzle Federation New members • The 15th WPC in Bulgaria 2006 Puzzles from the 15th WPC • The second WSC in the Czech Rebublic Puzzles from the second WSC • The 16th WPC in Brazil • Sudoku’ed Sudoku in China • Report on the 8th General Assembly of the WPF Results of the 15th WPC and the second WSC • WPF members Address: Kruislaan 419 1098 VA Amsterdam CONTENTS The Netherlands 3 New members Tel/Fax: +31.20.8884643 4 The 15th WPC in Bulgaria 2006 E-mail: by Deyan Razsadov [email protected] 6 Puzzles from the 15th WPC Internet: 10 The 2nd WSC in The Czech Republic, 2007, www.worldpuzzle.org by Vítezslav Koudelka 12 Puzzles from the second WSC 16 The 16th WPC, Brazil 2007 17 Sudoku’ed by Simon Prett 18 The Long March for Sudoku in China by George Wang 20 Report on the 8th general assembly of the WPF 22 WPC2006 team pictures and results 24 WPC2006 individual results 26 WSC2007 results 27 WPF membership criteria; list of current members 30 Solutions The WORLD PUZZLE NEWSLETTER Official publication of the World Puzzle Federation Editorial Tim Preston World Puzzle Federation The World Puzzle Federation is an as sociation of legal bodies with an interest in Copy Editors puzzles. Only one member per country can belong to the WPF. The WPF follows Nick Deller, Mark Whiteway the Olympic standard in what constitutes a country. Information on present members and criteria for membership can be found in the members section on Design pages 27-29 of this issue. Stuart Turnbull WPF Logo Design Goals of the World Puzzle Federation are: Michael Douma • to provide the means for an international exchange of puzzle ideas • to stimulate innovations in the field of puzzles Newsletter design based • to supervise the annual World Puzzle Championship (WPC) and on the model set by other puzzle activities Ivo van IJzendoorn • to foster friendship among puzzle enthusiasts world-wide Printing Chairman: Vítezslav Koudelka (Czech Republic) Printech, UK General Secretary: Peter Ritmeester (The Netherlands) The WORLD PUZZLE NEWSLETTER 12 Official publication of the World Puzzle Federation Editorial It has been another good year for the World Puzzle This is confirmed by the global interest in the WPF. Federation. The World Puzzle Championship in At the present moment, more than forty countries Borovets and the World Sudoku Championship in are represented. the Czech Republic were both well-planned and Details of both championships and well-executed events. When a country’s president information about all members can be found chooses to attend a championship, it is possible to here, along with the report of the eighth General say with some confidence that the status of puzzles Assembly of the WPF. has reached new heights. Tim Preston COLOMBIA crisis forced a postponement of a New Grupo Editorial Adria Ltda (GEA) national championship. There are Domingo Jaramillo is the Manager high hopes that it might be possible in 2008. Members Grupo Editorial Adria started out some 20 years ago with a monthly LITHUANIA In the past year, magazine called “Rojo y Negro” (Red Lithuania Puzzle Club and Black) consisting of crosswords, Vaidas Rimkus is the President the WPF received puzzles, games and humour. applications from PORTUGAL GEA is currently working on a number Fun – Comunicaçao E Eventos, LDA several countries not of puzzle magazines and is actively Georgina Lima is the Events Assistant yet represented. All promoting puzzles throughout the country and South America. It SPAIN were approved by the hopes to have a team at next year’s Ediciones Primera plana SA board. We extend a championships in Lithuania. Oscar Voltas is the Editorial Manager warm welcome to new LEBANON THAILAND members! Implicit Consultants Thailand Crossword Game, A-Math Sari Elsa Hajjar is the Project Manager and Kumkom Association AUSTRALIA Amnuay Ploysangnam is the President Cooch Creative Pty Ltd Implicit Consultants is a Media Mick Colliss is the Director Consulting house established in 2006. The objective is to publish magazines, Cooch is a regional marketing books, guides, and to help other consultancy based in Perth, with an publishers come up with new ideas affiliate in Sydney. It is looking at to enhance their own publications. the possibility of running organised The war in July 2006 impacted on its puzzle events. strategy. CHINA Puzzles in Lebanon were – and still are Beijing (News Group) Puzzler Club – mainly concentrated on crosswords. Zhang Weixiong is the President But Sudoku and similar puzzles are gaining popularity. Implicit embarked See article on pages 18-19 on a Sudoku project, but the political WPF Newsletter 12 - October 2007 3 WORLD PUZZLE CHAMPIONSHIP 2007 • BY DEYAN RAZSADOV The 15th WPC in Bulgaria 2006 It was the middle of the second competition day at the 13th WPC in Opatia. I was doing well. Then I heard the news: Bulgaria would host the 15th WPC! I was so delighted that, by the end of the day, my best-ever performance had become my worst, and I had fallen twenty places down the rankings. PREPARATION The budget was the biggest challenge. As At our first organisational meeting. a non-commercial organisation, we had to we outlined the main tasks and divided work with very limited means. Sponsorship responsibilities. I would take responsibility was hard to come by and we were unable to for the puzzles and the overall direction reduce the participation fee. of the event. Rossy Alexieva would be responsible for communications and PUZZLES public relations. Boyan Alexandrov would In the beginning. I was afraid we might look after the hotel, transportation and not be able to prepare enough innovative excursions. puzzles. By the end, we had so many original puzzles, there was no room for the usual As usually happens when faced with a ones. long deadline, we slipped behind schedule. Events took a tragic twist when Rossy In addition to me, three Bulgarian died, just after the WPC in Eger. Desislava constructors worked on puzzles: Bistra Razsadova joined the team to handle Masseva, Ivan Iliev, and Violeta Vitlianova. communications but, for a long time, we I contacted Adrian Fisher from the UK couldn’t find a PR replacement. and he prepared some great maze puzzles. Vladimir Portugalov from Belarus had When choosing a hotel, the main criterion impressed me with many original puzzle was a hall big enough to accommodate types, so I asked him to create some for all the expected competitors. The hotel the WPC. ‘Some’ soon became ‘many’, but ‘Samokov’ in Borovets was an easy choice. this would ultimately be to the benefit We established very good relations with of the championship. Our Turkish friends the hotel personnel both before and during offered to create a complete part with new the championship. They were helpful, puzzles, and so Cihan Altay, Hüsnü Sincar, responded to all requests quickly, and and Serkan Yurekli completed the list of provided very good support. puzzlemakers. 4 WPF Newsletter 12 - October 2007 The teams put their heads together The main difficulty we faced was in finding The finals day started with one the time to evaluate the puzzles. Special thanks individual and one team part. During the are due to Cihan and Hüsnü for their help. semi-final, I found myself living my worst nightmare: one of the puzzles had been CHAMPIONSHIP misprinted and was impossible to solve. From the outset, most things ran smoothly, We had to cancel the round and prepare except for the weather. A milk-white fog a new semi-final. I would like to thank brought the trip to Rila monastery into serious Vladimir Portugalov, György István and question, but we decided to press ahead and Hendrik Hardeman, who provided puzzles I’m pleased that we did. for the new semi-final, and also the French team, for testing it. The new semi-final On the first day of competition, we had went well, with Wei-Hwa Huang, Ulrich minor problems with the screen test. Three Voigt, and Maho Yokota qualifying for of the puzzles couldn’t be seen by some the final. competitors who were placed too far away. After discussion, we decided to discount After a final that took longer than these three puzzles. expected, Ulrich Voigt reconfirmed his status of best puzzler. Everybody was tired, The second competition day saw the so we moved directly to the good-bye introduction of a new bonus system. Things party and awards ceremony. All I wanted didn’t go entirely to plan, because we to do was go home and rest for as long underestimated the level of difficulty of the as possible. At the same time, I felt very puzzles and were not able to award all of the pleased that we had managed to stage the bonuses, but I believe the idea was a good one. event and I believe that it was a success. WPF Newsletter 12 - October 2007 5 WPC PUZZLES • BOROVETS 2006 Here are some puzzles that were solved by the competitors at the 15th WPC 2006 in Borovets. The introductions that accompany the puzzles are the original, unedited ones. DIFFERENT NEIGHBOURS (PART 1, 25 POINTS) SQUARES VERTICES (PART 3, 25 POINTS) Part 1: Fill the grid Twelve of the Welcome with numbers fourteen dots from 1 to 4, provided are A set of 10 puzzles, so that cells the vertices of all alluding in some with the same three squares. way to Bulgaria, numbers do Find the other two. 2006 or 15 (for the 15th Championship) not touch each other, not even diagonally. which really forced competitors to hit the ground running.