Brand's Brain International open Thailand SUDOKU

The 13th International Sudoku Competition took place in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, on July 5-7. This is an event that includes various mind games and the main goal is to develop mind sports among young people. In addition to the local competition between schools, an international tournament was also held in two areas: Sudoku and Crossword (basically Scrabble). The finals of these tournaments are the culmination and main events of the entire event. The competitions were held between school students in the following areas (I may forget to mention some areas): Crossword (English) Sudoku A-Math Crossword (Thai) 4-row Pic and pair Goldfinger And it is also worth mentioning that about 8,000 students participated in this event. The entire event took place in a large shopping mall and the number of school students there was still quite large. This year, 3 competitors from Estonia participated: Tiit Vunk Regina Vunk Taavi Piller A total of 20 participants participated in the international sudoku tournament. This number is not that significant, but even so, a very serious group of people came. Among others, the following world-class solvers participated in the competition: Kota Morinishi (4x world champion from Japan) Jan Mrozowski (3x world champion from Poland) Sinchai Rungsangratanakul (Last year's winner, local Thai solver and solver who was in the top 10 at the World Championships) Jan Zverina (multiple Czech champion and at the absolute top of the world in terms of his abilities) Rohan Rao (multiple Indian champion and solver who was in the top 10 at the World Championships) Prasanna Seshadri (multiple Indian champion and solver who was in the top 10 at the World Championships) Kishore Kumar (Indian solver who has recently managed to win the Indian championships) Ashish Kumar (Indian solver who is not much behind the previous ones) In addition, some local Thai guys who can solve very sharply. Below I will summarize what happened there and how the competition went, round by round [I will try to do this as soon as possible within the next few days]

The competition started on Friday, July 5 at 14:00. Registration for the competition was an hour before that. The first round had the following sudokus: 1. Classic (10p) 2. Classic (10p) 3. Alphabet (15p) (classic with letters) 4. Alphabet (15p) 5. Diagonal (20p) 6. Jigsaw (30p)(special shape) 7 Core Sudoku (50p) Core sudoku rule: Gray lines (closed contours) were drawn in the Sudoku. The numbers inside the gray line had to be different from the numbers on the line. It was possible to get 150 points for the round 3p for each minute. In addition, there was a rule that a single wrong number (or empty square) gives 4 penalty points and 2 mistakes give 9 penalty points (the time bonus is retained). In case of more mistakes, both the bonus and the points for the incorrect task are lost. I managed to finish the round with 43 minutes left. The closest competitors were Jan Zverina (42 min), Jan Mrozowski (41 min), Sinchai Rungsangratanakul (40 min) and quite a few solvers finished 39 minutes before the end of the time. Kota Morinishi finished 39 minutes before the end of the time and also made one small mistake, for which he paid 4 points. So the gaps were very small and I managed to take the leading position. Regina also did very well and finished 27 minutes before the end of the time and was somewhere in 12th place, as far as I know. However, quite a few solvers missed the last, most difficult task, and unfortunately Taavi was among them. But it was also a task that none of us had solved before. I am also adding a picture (photo from 2017) where you can see the competition venue. It is a shopping mall (Westgate Central Plaza) about 13km from the center of Bangkok. The shopping center was located right next to the MRT (sky train) station and had a separate pedestrian bridge built over a 6 6 or 7 7 lane street.

The second round started at 16:00 Sudokus were as follows: 1. Classic (10p) 2. Alphabet (15p) 3. Asterisk (20p) (9 squares painted gray and containing numbers 1-9) 4. Gettai-2 (30p) (multi sudoku) 5. Parquet (35p) (the cells are of different sizes in sudoku and some cover 2 rows and columns) 6. Diagonal Jigsaw (40p) 7. Odd/even sum (50p) (the dotted boxes have the letters O or E, which indicate whether the sum of the numbers there is odd or even). Total points 200p. I had over 37 minutes left. Kota had 40, Jan Mrozowski had 39, Sinchai had 36 and Jan Zverina had 34. So Jan Mr. took 6 points back and we were tied for first place. Kota took 9 points back and came in 3rd. Next in the overall standings were Jan Zverina, Sinchai and Prasanna. The gaps were still relatively small, however. 7th place was about 18 points away. Regina performed well again and had over 11 minutes left and overall place was 11th. However, in this round, the tasks were clearly more difficult and there were more people who could not complete them within the time limit. I am also including a photo of the competition venue. Here you can see the conditions under which the solving took place. In general, there was a lot of fun, people were walking around, music was playing and announcements were made from the loudspeaker from time to time. In the background, a large robot (optimus prime) can be seen on which you can play scrabble.

On Friday evening there was a welcome party, where you could eat, drink and meet other people. In addition, some kind of game was held to keep things active and prizes were drawn among all participants. I am attaching a picture from last year, when 5 Estonians participated in this event. I took the picture.

Saturday morning started with a bonus round at 9:00. By then, all the children had arrived and the goal of the bonus round was probably to show local children and young people how well the pros can solve. Time 30 minutes, during which 12 sudokus had to be solved. The sudokus were relatively easy: 1-3: Classic (3x10p) 4-6: Alphabet (3x10p) 7-9: Diagonal (3x15p) 10-12: Jigsaw (3x15p) The round gave a total of 150 points. Kota and Jan Mr finished solving 14 minutes before the end of the time. Me, Jan Zverina, Sinchai finished 13 minutes before. Then the next ones. Regina also managed to finish the round 3 minutes before the end of the time. Quite a few people did not manage to complete the round. After this round, the top 10 was as follows: 1. Jan Mrozowski - 782 2. Tiit Vunk - 779 3. Kota Morinishi - 775 4. Jan Zverina - 767 5. Sinchai Rungsangratanakul - 767 6. Prasanna Seshadri - 752 7. Supachai Tongsanwang (Thailand) - 745 8. Rohan Rao - 734 9. Tawan Sunathvnichkul (Thailand) - 644 10. Regina Vunk - 619 The top 8 were essentially within 16 minutes. This meant that one incorrect task could automatically drop you to 8th place (considering that the time bonus was about half an hour in the longer round). There was no room for error, but so far everything is fine and the 3-point loss is minimal. Below I added a picture of one corner where the children are playing a crossword game. And another picture from another corner, where children are playing 4-a-side.

After the bonus round, there has been a ceremonial ceremony every year. Dress code is required. All participants in international tournaments take part in a flag ceremony, where they represent their country to the royal family. In addition, the royal guest of honor is given gifts and various movement and musical performances are performed, where I have not seen a single stumble or tangle. Apparently, all this is practiced for a long time with serious dedication. I have had the honor of meeting the royal princess three times. This year, the royal family sent a representative. You are not allowed to take pictures of the event while the Princess is there, but the picture below may give a small hint of what happened there.

Võistlus jätkus kell 14:00 (algselt pidi olema 13:00, aga nad lükkasid igaks juhuks aega edasi sõltuvalt tseremooniast). Sudokud mida tuli lahendada, olid järgmised:

1. Center dot (10p) (9 ruutu halliks värvitud ja neis numbrid 1-9)
2. Alphabet Jigsaw (15p) (väikeste trükitähtedega)
3. Kropki (20p)
4. Anti-Knight (30p) (sama number ei tohi olla ratsukäigu kaugusel)
5. Sequence (35p) (joone peal aritmeetiline jada)
6. Windoku (40p)
7. Ordering (50p) (sudokus olid kahekohalised nubrid ära märgitud ja nad suuruse järjekorda pandud)

Voorust võimalik saada 200p.

Alates 3-ndast voorust läksid ülesanded üsna raskeks juba ja aja sees lõpetajaid jäi üha vähemaks. Lisaks olid lahendamiseks sellised sudokud, mis keskmisele lahendajale on ilmselt veidi liiast.

Minu jaoks oli Alphabet Jigsaw paras pähkel ja pärast selgus, et ka teistel oli sama. Lisaks võttis oma aja Ordering sudoku, mis on rohkem otsimise ülesanne kui sudoku.

Üllataval kombel sai aga 35 minutit enne aja lõppu valmis Jan Zverina ja see aeg oli nii hea, et mina sain teisena valmis alles 30 minutit enne aja lõppu. Kota ja Jan Mr olid paar minutit minust omakorda aeglasemad.
Selle tulemusena ma tõusin Jan Mrozowskist mööda, kuid omakorda läks kõikidest teistest mööda Jan Zverina ja asus 3 punktiga minu ette võistlust juhtima.
Küllap nad Tšehhis oskavad seda Ordering sudokut hästi lahendada ja seetõttu tegi Jan hea tulemuse. Ka MM-il eelmine aasta oli Tšehhis samat tüüpi ülesanne.

Üllatavalt halva tulemuse tegi aga Sinchai, kes minu teada lõpetas kusagil 12 minutit enne aja lõppu ja seetõttu kaotas päris palju punkte. Top 5 hulka tõusis Prasanna Seshadri Indiast ja tema kannul Rohan Rao Indiast (kuigi tegelikult päris selgelt Prasannast tagapool)

Pildiks lisan ühe Jaapani restoranipildi. See üritus toimub kaubanduskeskuses, kus on palju põnevaid restorane. Võid sattuda väga hea toidu peale aga ka väga halva (loe: vürtsika) toidu peale.

Saturday ended with the 4th round at 16:00. The Sudokus are as follows: 1. Consecutive (15p) 2. non-consecutive (20p) 3. Girandola (25p) (9 squares painted gray and the numbers 1-9 in them) 4. Skyscraper (30p) 5. Trampoline (40p) 6. Fortress (50p) (if a white and gray square are next to each other, the larger number is always gray) 7. Killer (70p) In total, you can get 250p for the round. The rules of Trampoline Sudoku are quite difficult to explain, but basically, a trampoline was drawn there and the numbers that were there had to be counted up the squares and then at that point it had to touch two of the same numbers. The beginning of the round was fun. Consecutive and non-consecutive were super easy and girandola was also ok. But then it got pretty tough. It also happened that the skyscraper was a double-solution sudoku (4 numbers could be in two ways). Both solutions were considered correct. However, solving this skyscraper was a pretty serious feat. It's a pretty tough decision when you see that this problem has a double solution and you have to decide whether to finish the round or check again to see if it was still solved correctly. I checked everything carefully and finished the round first, 33 minutes before the end of the time. A few minutes later I saw Kota checking his work with a puzzled face and then looking at me for help. However, he also dared to hand in his work and when we were able to chat, we came to the conclusion with relief that this skyscraper did have a double solution. I won't say much more. Only that both Jans lost some time with this round and were slightly behind in points. In addition, I had quite a good lead over the next one (Kota). Here are the results after the 4th round.

The 5th round and the final were scheduled for Sunday. The 5th round started at 11:00 and included the following sudokus: 1. Easy as ABC (20p) (it wasn't really a sudoku, but a Latin square) 2. Sudoku XV (20p) (X stands for 10 and V for 5) 3. Wheels (40p) (basically, the numbers were given in some places, but you had to turn them to the correct position) 4. Argyle (40p) (multidiagonal) 5. Anti-diagonal (50p) 6. Key digit (50p) (One number is only in the gray squares) 7. Multiples (80p) (3-digit numbers are marked and must be divisible by 19) The round gave a total of 300 points. This 20-point ABC was definitely not worth 20 points. For me, it was one of the hardest assignments (except for multiples). Multiples was a puzzle that you could prepare for and write out all the 3-digit numbers divisible by 19. Nevertheless, it was made quite difficult to solve. In this round, Kota did a very excellent result (32 minutes before the end of the time). I finished third 28 minutes before the end. So Kota got 12 points back and the difference was 7 points in my favor. Tawan Sunathvanickul, who was not in the competition, finished second (29 minutes). Rohan did a very good result (25 minutes). Jan Mrozowski and Sinchai did a more or less OK result (23) and Sinchai waited for Prasanna or Jan Zverina to crash. This would give him a chance to reach the top 5 in the finals. Prasanna finished soon (20 minutes), but made a mistake in one of the tasks, which immediately dropped him to 7th place. Jan Zverina held on and finished 12 minutes before the end of the time. This gave him 4th place in the preliminary rounds. As a result, Rohan and Sinchai shared 5th and 6th place in the preliminary rounds. The top seven are as follows: 1. Tiit Vunk - 1802 2. Kota Morinishi - 1795 3. Jan Mrozowski - 1754 4. Jan Zverina - 1717 5. Rohan Rao - 1706 6. Sinchai Rungsangratanakul - 1706 7. Prasanna Seshadri - 1639 The top six had 96 points, which is about 32 minutes in time. This time the cups are pictured. The one on the left is the Queen's cup (sudoku) and the one on the right is the King's cup (Crossword).

Since 5th and 6th place were tied, it was decided that 6 competitors would participate in the final. In the final, everyone starts solving at the same time, and the results of the preliminary round do not give anyone any advantage in the final. Some statistics: There were 5 rounds in the preliminary round, which were 60 minutes and one 30 minute round. A total of 5h 30min. It took me 2h and 22 minutes to solve all the tasks. Kotal 2h and 25 minutes. The third one was already 2h and 40min. The maximum amount of points was set at 1250. 11 participants exceeded this.