XII Estonian Sudoku Solving Championship

On Saturday, March 4, 2017, the 12th Estonian Sudoku Championships took place in Paide. Since by the time I wrote this post, it is already the 5th day (night) after the competition and neither Vint's bosses nor anyone else has written a word about the championship here, I will take it upon myself (the Estonian Sudoku Championships are still a much more important event from a mental sports perspective than, for example, the Estonian Sasku Championships). Where you see a mistake, come and help ;) My news will of course be somewhat more detailed and have more statistics than those of Kuma, Kanal 2 and TV3. There were 48 participants in total this time, 46 of whom were Estonians. If we also count the foreign participants, who were the Japanese Yuhei Kusui and the Finnish Ulla Elsilä, then a new record of participants was set, the previous one was from 2014, when there were 47 Sudoku participants. Compared to last year, the number of participants increased by a whopping 10 2. This time there were 18 female swimmers, or 37.5%, and 15 seniors, or ~31%. Of course, the results of foreigners were not included in the Estonian results, so I will not take them into account when writing about the results. As usual, the competition consisted of 3 rounds, of which the 1st, or freestyle, and the 2nd, or sprint, were for everyone, and the 3rd, or final, was for the top 6 of the previous 2 rounds. The 7th Estonian championship title (in order) was fought for by the reigning world champion Tiit Vunk, or TiiT, who started the final in the leading position with 544 points. Tauri Purk, aka AlQaholic (in Estonian, simply Alkohoolik), who was 12 points or seconds behind him, also finished the final in 2nd place, and thus achieved his best Estonian result so far. Regina Vunk aka regynts started the final in 3rd place, 63 points or 1 minute behind her, and she also finished the final in the same place, repeating her best result from 2010. Villem Mesilas aka Estist, who started the final in 4th place, was passed by Timo Ilu aka allever, who made up for the 5-second loss; for him, 4th place is the highest in his career so far. Jaan Laks started and finished the final in 6th place, who also recorded his best Estonian place so far. The top 10 also included 7th Raido Uibos aka raidop, 8th Rauno Pärnits aka umbluu, 9th Külli Laks Vahemäe and 10th Kaari Helstein aka pisipaha. Karin Luiv won among the seniors (16th overall), for whom this should be her 1st championship title. 2nd was the defending champion and also the winner in 2014 Alar Heinaste aka Metsmees (17th overall). 3rd place went to 2013 champion Eve Jaanson (20th overall). Congratulations to all the prize-winning places and also to others who were satisfied with their results! Below is the entire general top 10 with Vint usernames that are known. Links to the results and media news at the bottom, this year the event was also covered by Reporter for the first time! TOP 10 (points are pre-final, as Kuma has not disclosed the points received in the final) Place | Sudokutaja | I round | II round speed bonus | Total 1. TiiT | 480 | 64 | 544 2. AlQaholic | 405 | 72 55 | 532 3. regynts | 405 | 64 | 469 4. allever | 355 | 72 20 | 447 5. Est | 310 | 72 70 | 452 6. Jaan Laks | 335 | 72 30 | 437 7. raidop | 315 | 72 45 | 432 8. umbluu | 274 | 72 65 | 411 9. Külli Laks| 345 | 56 | 401 10. pisipaha | 265 | 72 60 | 397 In total, at least 24 current or former Vindi users participated, meaning that more than half of the Estonians who participated are Vindi users! Here are the rest of Vindikate's places (there are definitely some whose user I don't know, so this post can be updated later) 11. Mimm 12. Krubi 13. brigita 14. kuakua 15. taavitaavi 17. Metsmees 18. poffic 19. Eerik33 23. ranna3 25. paprikas 27. valdeko (account closed) 28. Setu 29. driv4r 30. figaro 39. georgr 45. kristjan Official results: https://www.kuma.ee/sudoku-emv-2017-2/ Kanal 2-e Reporter news clip: http://reporter.postimees.ee/4034985/maailma-parim-sudokulahendaja-on-eestlane-tiit-vunk#_=_ TV3-e Seitsmeste uudiste news clip: http://uudised.tv3.ee/meelelahutus/uudis/2017/03/04/sudokude-lahendamise-eesti-meistrivoistlustel-pakkus-konkurentsi-tugev-valistegija/ PS I used my own statistics when writing the news, based on data from Kuma and Vint, some of which are no longer available online. Although I checked the accuracy of the information, there is a possibility that some error has been made, in which case please let me know. PSS It seems that the preview button is not working properly, because I have pressed it after several changes, but the forum home page has opened without a preview and it can be seen that a new topic has been added, although I did not do so :/ When I go back in the browser, I get to the preview page. So maybe Meikop or someone can remove the previous double posts, this one is correct...