Tiit Vunk took 2nd place in the Sudoku World Championship!

Hello, This week the 9th World Sudoku Championship took place in London. There were over 150 participants from 34 countries. Tiit Vunk came in 2nd place as the best Estonian, proving once again that he is one of the best Sudoku solvers in the world. 2nd place is also the best place ever for an Estonian competitor (as you may recall, Tiit came in 3rd place two years ago). We wish Tiit the best of luck! Results of other Estonian national team members: Margit Ool 74th, Ragnar Kruberg 87th, Taavi Piller 96th. Overall table: http://www.uk2014.org/results.php

Tiit also won the Sudoku Grand Prix 2014 final on Monday evening, Kota Morinishi was second and Bastien Vial-Jaime was third.

A very powerful result, what can I say here! (y) It is worth mentioning that Kota Morinishi won and Bastien Vial-Jaime was 3rd. It also seems that Jaan Laks and Rauno Pärnits also unofficially participated from Estonia. Of course, I would also like to hear comments from those involved. And how did Estonia do as a team?

As a team, Estonia was probably 13th or 14th. I owe you an exact answer now. Ragnar, Taavi and Margit may remember more precisely what the team place was. The new best result ever, which is 13th, was not surpassed this time. I can probably only say good things about my presentation, because everything went well, but there was definitely room for improvement from all sides. After the first round, which was 10 classic sudoku puzzles in 20 minutes, I was divided into 7-8 places. I finished all the sudoku puzzles exactly within the time limit but did not receive a bonus. Later it turned out that a Bulgarian girl had been accidentally given 220 points, so in retrospect I was 6-7 after the first round. The level is tough, there is nothing to say. My previous trump card (classical rounds) did not bring much success against the main competitors this time, as Bastien won this round 3 minutes before the right time and Kota also got a time bonus of 10 or 20 points. I took a narrow victory in the 2nd round when I finished 14 minutes before the right time. But it did not bring much success, as Batien finished 13 minutes before the right time and Kota 9, and Seungjae Kwak from Korea 8. When I left the hall first, an English journalist immediately interviewed me. As a result of the round, I had risen to second place after Bastien. The 3rd round was average, where I finished all the alternatives and only 2 easy classics remained to be done, because there was no more time. The bigger competitors finished this round 3-4 minutes before the right time. Bastien increased his previous success even more and the others came a little closer. Since the variants there are not among my strongest, I think I could be quite satisfied with the round. In the 4th round, there was a very expensive and difficult task, which I left for last and completed all the remaining tasks. It was probably the right strategy, because otherwise I would have completed the most expensive one, but some cheaper sudokus would have not been completed, which would have resulted in a worse result. The correctness of my strategy was also shown by the fact that Bastien and Kota chose exactly the same strategy and got the same number of points and no one got more. This was probably the only round where there were no early finishers. The 5th round was pure mathematics and I was prepared for some to be left undone. But at the end, only 2 cheap classics remained undone and what was especially remarkable was that I completed Killer Sudoku pro, which gave 120 points and was one of the most expensive sudokus in the World Championship. I completed it 14 seconds before the end of the round. (Killer sudoku pro is the number given in the box above, which must be the sum, product, quotient or difference of the numbers in the box and you have to decide for yourself what it is). Quite a few people got the same or a little more points in this round, but Kota also got a pretty significant time bonus, which made him the leader of the competition. However, since Bastien did this round even worse than me (515 and 435 points respectively), I was quite behind him. Kota had moved 200 points behind in the overall standings and it seemed that the others were already starting to fall behind. The 6th round went very well again and I finished with a 9-minute time bonus, which equaled 90 points. Kota finished exactly on time, so 90 points were made back. This was one of my favorite rounds and the result shows it. Kota was probably third in this round and the second place winner finished the tasks 1 minute before. Bastien crashed in this round, which means that he fell so far that he was seriously threatened with 4th place. Rounds 7 and 8 were team rounds, where in the first round four people had to solve one sudoku. The trick was that everyone had a different colored pen in their hand and they could only write numbers on the part of the sudoku with their own color background. There were 4 sudokus on the board at a time and every 90 seconds they had to give their sudoku to their neighbor and take a new sudoku from their neighbor. The Estonian team finished this round 1 minute before the end of the time limit. Great job. In round 8, they had to assemble a sudoku from strips of paper. I probably recommend going to the website and reading the competition instructions, because explaining the rules is a bit long. There were 4 tasks, 3 of which we finished. The solution to the fourth one wasn't far off either, but it was 9x9 (the others were 6x6) and it took its time. The 9th round started the morning of the second day and I have to admit that I wasn't feeling well. I don't know if I had caught a cold or what was wrong with me, but I probably had a fever and my head was pretty thick. Nevertheless, I managed to solve all the tasks 2 minutes before the end of the time limit, and only Bastien was faster, 7 minutes before the end of the time limit, and Dai Tantan from China, 8 minutes before the end. I took back another 110 points from Kota, and we were exactly on the same level before the last round. It seems that despite feeling bad, I was able to concentrate on the tasks and successfully solve the round. It was also the longest round (90 minutes, the rest were 45 minutes or less), and it was crucial to solve this task well. In round 10, I had to solve 2 special-shaped (scattered) sudokus that were connected at the corners, and I had 20 minutes to do it. The organizers wanted to make it a round where about half of the people would complete this task. That's what happened. The first finishers got a time bonus of 13 minutes, including Bastien. I got it 12 minutes before (time around 12:50) and Kota 6 minutes before. So, despite feeling bad, I managed to have a very successful second day. Round 11 was a team round, where we had to solve 5 sudoku puzzles that were connected to each other. We did 4, but we were a few minutes short of the fifth. Kudos to my teammates, who, despite the very difficult and uncomfortable options, didn't make a single mistake in any sudoku and made a big contribution to solving everything in this round. There was just a little bit missing. Then lunch and when there were 2 hours left until the finals, I took paracetamol and went to sleep in my room for 1.5 hours. What happened in the finals, I'll talk about that in the next post a little later...

We'll wait..

The top 10 qualified for the finals in such a way that 10 minutes separated 1 and 10 places. Last year's champion Jin Ce from China was left in 10th place and it was quite unlikely that he would be able to advance from there. 1. In the final, the 7-10 places of the preliminary rounds were combined. So Hideaki Jo from Japan started. Michael Ley from Germany started 26 seconds later, then 66 seconds later Takuya Sugimoto from Japan and Jin Ce's starting time was 83 seconds. There were 3 sudokus to solve (Diagonal, Thermo and Classic). Nothing special seemed to happen, no one got ahead of anyone and Hideaki rather increased his lead a little. A little more than 20 minutes later Hideaki finished and qualified for the second final. The remaining solvers were not expected to finish. 2. In the final, the 4-6 places of the preliminary rounds and the winner of the 1st final were combined. Jakub Ondroušek from the Czech Republic started, Seungjae Kwak from South Korea followed 87 seconds later, Dai Tantan from China followed 160 seconds, or 2 minutes and 40 seconds, and Hideaki Jo from Japan followed 217 seconds, or 3 minutes and 37 seconds after Jakub. There were 4 sudokus to solve (Arrow, Diagonal, Irregular and Classic). Jakub started quickly and didn't let anyone get close when he reached a special-shaped sudoku, where after some solving he erased his entire solution. Since the others also had a great time with this sudoku, Jakub managed to solve it very quickly after erasing it, and the last classic was already a matter of formatting. So Jakub made it to the final. Solving the sudokus in this final took well over 20 minutes. In the 3rd final, so me, Kota Morinishi from Japan, Bastien Vial-Jaime from France and Jakub Ondroušek from the Czech Republic. Kota started 47 seconds after me, Bastien 116 seconds, or 1 min 56 sec later, and Jakub 5 minutes later. Jakub's loss is a good example of how far the top three were ahead of the others. There were 5 sudokus to solve (Outside, Non-CONsecutive, Diagonal, Irregular, Classic). The finals were held in such a way that 4 boards stood side by side, facing the audience and the judges stood behind them. With our backs to each other, our solutions were also shown on large screens so that they could see the solutions. Everything that happened next was largely based on what others told me and how I felt about them. Outside was the first, which quickly branched out. When they shouted that Kota could start, I had probably already solved half of the sudoku and, as it turned out later, I increased my lead over Kota even more with this sudoku. With the Non-Consecutive sudoku, Kota took it back a lot and my lead shrank to about 20 seconds. The lead narrowed even further with the diagonal and we gave the third sudoku to the judges for checking at exactly the same time. While finishing the third sudoku, the German captain Stefan Heine came up to me to take a picture and there was still a big surprise on his face when I finished the third one and there was a pretty strong emotion in his voice. While solving, I didn't know why he did that, but later I found out that it was because Kota and I raised our hands at the same time and announced our readiness. With the special-shaped sudoku, we both started at pretty much the same pace and filled the grid pretty identically and with a similar principle. Someone said afterwards that it was pretty cool to watch us solve it - side by side on the screens and the same pattern developing for both of us. At some point, however, Kota managed to overcome some kind of mindset a little faster and got a 20-second lead. The last sudoku went quite well and when I finished it and gave it to the judges to check, I had no idea whether I had placed first, second, third or fourth, assuming that the third was still waiting for an answer from the judges. A little while after giving the answer, the crowd started clapping and it occurred to me that I probably got third place. In the case of first place, the judge behind would probably have wished me luck, so the first was quite unlikely and since the finals would be over after the third place was determined, I assumed that the finals were over now. But no - the judges asked for silence and I continued to wait for the judge's decision. It soon came and I was wished good luck. Then I asked our captain Jaanus Laidna with hand signals whether I was in first or second place (it couldn't be third, because the finals would have been over in that case) and the captain indicated that I was in second place. It turned out that Kota had gained 20 seconds more and finished with a 40-second lead. We both solved all 5 sudokus in less than 20 minutes. Then, when I had received the information I needed, we waited for 3rd place. I looked behind me at the screens on the partition wall and saw that both 3rd and 4th place were stuck with the special shape and it took them some time to complete it. Bastien was still ahead and soon he also solved the classic and finished the final in third place. However, it turned out that there was some kind of error on the answer sheets and Jakub was given the correct sudoku back with a message that it was wrong. After 2 minutes of checking, Jakub could not find the error and was suddenly given the last sudoku. Since he actually started the special shape before Bastien (or had caught Bastien) and there was such a mistake by the judges that it was impossible to determine who was faster afterwards, both were given 3rd place in the World Championship. Overall, I think the illness didn't affect my finishing much and I was able to finish them very nicely, quickly and cleanly, and Kota probably just had a slightly better day (like I had in the GP final, where I beat Kota by 40 seconds). Overall, I can be satisfied.

In the team standings, we were probably 13th. Jaan and Rauno were ahead of me, their places in the official standings were probably between 80-90. I don't remember exactly.. I was 96th.

The best of the team summed up his performance at the Sudoku World Championship nicely, as the weakest of the team I would also make a summary to excuse his meager place (96) :). It's up to you whether it's interesting and understandable to read, but my fingers are itching and it's always been exciting to read summaries/reviews of Tiit, Andres and others' competitions. I'll do it myself. Sunday We arrived in London with Ragnar, Tiit and Jaanus in the evening just in time for dinner, after that there was registration for the competition, we got a goodie bag, followed by a Q&A and then checked into the hotel. After that, Tiit and Rauno gave the team mates tips for solving the next day's sudokus. We also discussed something about the team's round. In the goodie bag there were various things with the World Championship logo - a t-shirt, 2 sudoku notebooks, several pencils, the competition guide, a cup or similar stand, a writing pad and something else I guess. In addition, there was a wire stick about 10cm long with a piece of string on the end. What kind of trick is this, I haven't figured it out yet. Monday 1st Round - I managed to solve 4 sudokus and got 95 points. I started solving from the back with the more expensive ones. There was a similar round of classics in China, where I started with the easier ones, a few months later I tried to solve them again at home and started with the more expensive ones and got more done. The first 15 minutes of solving went smoothly, but after the announcement that there were 5 minutes left I got nervous and messed up the half-finished sudoku and couldn't fix it. After the first round I was in 54th place, Ragnar 44 and Margit 59. 2nd Round - I solved 2 classic and 1 Deficit sudoku correctly and got 55 points. I was still nervous and made mistakes. In Odd sudokus, one square was left empty, five was left unplaced and I didn't get 55 points. In addition, it took time to solve the odd-shaped and diagonal ones incorrectly. 3rd Round - I got 70 points, 1 for the classic and Outside sudoku. Here I managed to write 2 numbers wrong in both classics and leave one number out in one, but I still got points for one. The remaining sudokus in this round were ones that I have never solved before or maybe I have done two once. There was a lot of time and I tried to do Next to 9, which I made mistakes all the time, I couldn't do it in ~20 minutes. 4th Round - 40 points for two classics. My mind went crazy in this round :). I did XV sudoku for a long time, which eventually went wrong. Then I started solving Nonconsecutive with XV rules... Finally, I also tried to do No Nines Sudoku. 5th Round - 4 pieces and 145 points. I did 2 classics, Arrow and Diagonal Arrow sudokus. That was the Mata round, I can't do the other variants quickly/or at all. In China, I got zero in the Mata round... 6th Round - 2 classics and 40 points. I started with the classic, but it seemed too difficult at first. Instead, I did Isometric sudoku, got it wrong once and when I did it again I left one square empty, I didn't get any SP points. After that I did a special shape, where 2 numbers were wrong and I didn't get any points. Then classic and finally Ten Box sudoku, of course I messed up with that too. After the fifth or sixth round I had fallen to 102nd position and at some point I was ahead of Rauno by one point. There was a so-called "competition" to see who would be the last Estonian :). Ragnar was probably in about 85th place, Margit probably in 66th place after the first day. Rounds 7-8 were for the team. In the 7th sudoku, I made a mistake on my part, which Margit noticed and Tiit finally told us how to fix. Tiit and Margit did three of the four problems in the 8th round :) In the evening there was the GP final, which Tiit of course won! It was quite exciting to watch it on site. There was a table on the screen behind the competitors that showed who was doing what Sudoku, whether they were currently being checked and how long the check would last, and how much time someone had spent. Before the start of the final, all spectators were given the Sudokus to be solved in the final, and anyone who bothered could solve them at the same time. I did them myself at home, they were pretty easy :), it only took half a day. If anyone wants, I have another set of these puzzles without messing around. They will probably be found on the GP website at some point. Tuesday 9th Round - I did 7 and got 280 points. I did Windoku, Diagonal, Clone, No Touch and 2 classic ones. In Anti-Knight, I got two numbers wrong and didn't get any points. In addition, I struggled with Anti-Diagonal, I probably did it four or five times, in the end I gave up because I thought I had misunderstood its rules. It wasn't, I asked the others after the round. I also did Palindrome twice and couldn't do it. 10th Round - I got a zero. Two odd-shaped corners together. At first I tried to do the bottom one, it didn't work, then I did the top one. I made a mistake for a moment and started looking at the bottom one again and immediately found a mistake there and the time was up. If I had solved one correctly I would have gotten 40 points, both were given 100. One of the goals was to get points in all rounds, but unfortunately I didn't succeed. In China I got 3 zero rounds. 11th Round - the team's, five sudokus were given. Margit did Killer Pro, Ragnar Toroidal, me Diagonally Non-Consecutive and Tiit Musketry sudoku. Sum Skyscrapers was left out at the beginning. Margit and Tiit managed theirs, then Tiit took the Toroidal from Ragnar, colored it in, then solved it. I gave mine to Ragnar, a little later Tiit finished that too. At the end of solving the fifth one, Tiit was a few minutes short :). Before the competition, I thought I could definitely improve on last year's 93rd place, but in the end the goal was to stay in the top 100 (there were 109 official participants). So I have to be satisfied. I guess things will go better in Bulgaria if I manage to get there. The final was visible on the screens. The camera that showed Tiidu solving the problem was choppy from time to time. At times it seemed like Tiit was writing several numbers in an instant. Maybe Tiidu will do a little better in the final next year :) . The trophies were awarded during the festive dinner. The Chinese probably got something in every category... Wednesday In the morning there was a photo shoot, after that we were taken on a red double-decker bus tour to central London or somewhere. The organizers didn't say where we were going beforehand. It wasn't great, it lasted 8 hours and about 5 of those hours were spent sitting on the bus. We were taken to a tourist trap somewhere by bus and sent to explore it on our own for an hour. Whoever wanted to saw some palace and the exchange that was going on for it, Big Ben I guess, the Tower of London and other things. Jaanus and Tarmo went somewhere on their own halfway through the tour. Tiit was sick and didn't come to the city, he did some logic. When we got back to the hotel we came to the conclusion that I could have stayed at the hotel and solved sudoku puzzles together all day, it would have definitely been more exciting/stronger. Thursday The logic started. In the morning, Ragnar and I went to a shop to spend some time. We bought 3 packs of gum and syrup for orange juice from the shop. The latter didn't taste good, after tasting it, we still had the sense to read the label carefully. In addition, we tried to buy a cider called Taurus there, it wasn't sold, it's sold in sets of four or something. We couldn't find any sudoku puzzles. After lunch, we started to come back together, we found sudoku puzzles at the airport. See you in Paide, lots of nines so far! [img]http://www.upload.ee/image/4218460/vigur.jpg[/img]

Good reading both! :] And the team's 13th place is probably pretty good too, since there hasn't been a higher place than that before... How many teams were there this time? Just out of curiosity, I'm asking. I looked at the table and noticed, among other things, that the 109th brother Park got a total of 110 points, which doesn't seem like a big amount, but of course I don't know exactly how difficult the sudoku puzzles are. You know, would I have had a chance to beat him? :D But it's a shame if that London sightseeing tour was bad. Have you been to London before? Otherwise, did you get a good impression of the city itself? Although I've lived in the UK for a long time, I've unfortunately only been to London a few times briefly and not on any tours, but mostly just from the airport to the train station or from one train station to another, I haven't been able to just walk around shopping, on the subway, in Hyde Park, and so on. Anyway, I have a positive overall impression.

There were probably about 22 teams in the official standings. By solving only the classics in the six rounds, it was possible to get over 240 points. They were not difficult. This last Korean might have been quite young. One of the Koreans was probably 11 years old, who also participated.. I have never been to London before. I am mostly not interested in the sights, and I was not interested in the tour either.