Sudoku GP 2019

Round 7 underway.

Preliminary results for Round 7 are out: https://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/preliminary-results-wpf-gp-sudoku-7

The 8th round guide is out. Everyone, participate, because this is the last chance to improve your score.

The results of the 8th round are out. https://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/preliminary-results-wpf-gp-sudoku-8

Sudou GP found its final solution last Monday at the Sudoku World Championship in Kirchheim, Germany. This time it was decided to change the final format. If anyone is interested in what the format was this time, it is written here: https://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/gp-playoff-rules Basically, you had to duel with different opponents and then according to that you improved your place or got worse - depending on whether you won or lost. The one who managed to win the first 3 matches had to solve less and had to solve their 4th sudoku in the final to find out whether the place was 1st or 2nd. My first opponent was Jakub Ondroušek, who later actually won all the duels and became the winner of the GP. I was given a killer sudoku to solve, which I failed. It revealed 4 winners who met in the semifinals (Tantan Dai from China vs. Bastien Vial-Jaime from France and Kota Morinishi from Japan vs. Jakub Ondroušek from the Czech Republic, respectively). The rest went to the elimination rounds. The second opponent came from among the losers (Jan Mrozowski from Poland), who managed to win (the sudoku was average classic sudoku as I remember). NN. Tantan Dai and Jakub Ondroušek reached the final, where Jakub Ondroušek won and had to wait for the final final match with the winner of the consolation rounds. This turned out to be Bastien-Vial Jaime, who eventually took 2nd place. In the end, Kota Morinishi earned 3rd place and Tantan Dai was 4th. After the victory, I faced Kota Morinishi in the consolation round, against whom I had to solve Odd-even pairs sudoku (I think). I managed to lose just by a narrow margin. I also lost the next 2 sudokus against Bastien and Jan Mrozowski and in my last match against Timothy Doye I won, which resulted in 7th place overall. The competition was long (after a very long day of solving Sudoku World Championships). We were all tired after that and in my opinion this affected the results of all solvers the next day. We were all eagerly waiting for the final to be over and it turned into a real bingo, especially when sleepiness was starting to set in. As far as I know, Seungjae Kwak even stared blankly for a minute during a duel and didn't write any numbers in his sudoku. I'm surprised that Tantan, who otherwise won his matches at the beginning, wasn't able to solve any sudoku to the end. For example, in the last sudoku I couldn't count from one to six properly and made the wrong notes. In total, 29 Estonians achieved results at the GP: 7. Tiit Vunk (participations in 8 rounds / 8 rounds in total) 106. Margit Scheler (6/8) 168. Jaan Laks (8/8) 238. Kristi Lehto (7/8) 239. Külli Laks-Vahemäe (8/8) 252. Karin Luiv (8/8) 255. Marek Oja (8/8) 281. Ragnar Kruberg (3/8) 298. Kaari Helstein (5/8) 320. Eerik Lumiste (8/8) 328. Taavi Piller (6/8) 331. Allar Padari (7/8) 339. Kristel Arnik (7/8) 353. Anna Poots (7/8) 387. Elin Mandel (6/8) 427. Erik Amor (6/8) 440. Virgi Puusepp (7/8) 552. Sergei Lebedev (2/8) 569. Kertu Luht (2/8) 615. Marek Kolk (2/8) 630. Ethel Maasing (2/8) 632. Villem Mesila (1/8) 687. Rauno Pärnits (1/8) 692. Olga Kislitsina (2/8) 707. Kaja Sõstra (2/8) 746. Gerli Jõgeva (1/8) 756. Mirgit Silla (1/8) 775. Malle Mihkelsoo (1/8) 804. Kristina Mumm (1/8) As you can see, many participated in only one or two rounds. Participation in 6 rounds would certainly have significantly improved the overall result. So I encourage you to participate again next year, and if possible, in all rounds. For those with less experience and who have solved classic puzzles, I recommend that next year you take at least one non-classical sudoku that gives the fewest points and try to solve it. This way you can successfully develop your sudoku solving skills. A total of 886 participants participated in the GP this year.