Jalaj P. Jha

Last year I had a few posts on National Sudoku Championship 2008 (India) and the 3rd World Sudoku Championship that was held at Goa in India. I already have started receiving comments on these pages whether I know when will National Sudoku Championship be held this year?

Let’s look at the happenings at the previous two National Sudoku Championships.

2007 – Quixy/Novax media partnered with Times Group to hold the National Sudoku Championship. Puzzles for the 1st round qualification appeared on Times of India on four separate dates at Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore & Mumbai. 1200 successful candidates from each of these rounds were called in these cities and selected ones were called to Mumbai where the winners were declared. The championship got a lot of publicity though Times Group’s newspapers and net portals.

2008 – Till mid of February there was no news of National Sudoku Championship. India was also to host the3rd World Sudoku Championship 2008. 19th of February Championship was declared, and registration openedin March. Qualification rounds were conducted online, 25 qualified candidates were called for finals in Bangalore who were joined by 6 others who topped National Sudoku Championship 2007 and represented India in the 2nd World Sudoku Championship (2007). The winners of the National Sudoku Championship were undoubtedly those from the last years championship.

A few other facts for 2008’s championship

• Qualification round was pushed one week ahead as the online application was not ready
• While qualification round was carried online, the application, not thoroughly tested, did not allow answering to a few puzzles.
• Did I mention Times Group was no where involved? Perhaps Quixy decided to do all on its own.
• National Sudoku Championship online screening attracted only 462 participants and thus this year’s championship failed to bring up more Champions and was a failure.

And for his year Announcement for National Sudoku Championship 2009 is nowhere to be heard till now. We cannot compare this year with previous as this time we are not the host for 4th World Sudoku Championship and that the registration for the same have already started.

So if you ask me when will be National Sudoku Championship 2009 be held, my guess is that the championship will not be held this year and to represent India in 4th World Sudoku Championship the toppers from Previous years’ championship would be called by personally contacting them.

What’s your thought?

Update 22.02.2009:

Just noticed that domain sudokumasters.in where the online National Sudoku Championship 2008 was held has expired two days ago. So if you were still hopeful that there would be a championship this year this is an eye opener.

So now that the Qualifying tests for Sudoku Masters 2008, National Sudoku Championship is over, your inputs in following would be appreciated

1) How did you find the exam process a) Good b) not so c) Can’t say
2) Do you see yourselves in Final a) Surely b) No way c) Will have to wait for results
3) How fast was you internet connection a) Broadband b) Dial-up or GPRS
4) Did you find any problems in competition – elaborate
5) How do you rate the puzzles given in tests a) Easy b) OK c) Didn’t expect this tough
6) If you are qualified for finals would you like to share your experiances there a) Surely b) No way c) Can’t say

Eager to hear your experiances!! Rush with your comments

The Registration Page for Sudoku masters 2008, National Sudoku Championship for deciding the participants for the 3rd World Sudoku Championship, is open.

The practice sessions will began on 15th and the qualifying test (online) on 16th. Do check the pages for Rules and Regulations there. The number of participants who will be selected in each round is “yet to be decided” (as quoted in their site).

Best of Luck to everyone… Be quick on registration…

The Registration began, as last scheduled, on 8th March, but my GPRS connection from BPL Mobile went down and the support staff was generous enough to blame it on my handset. Anyways the connection started up again without any modifications to handset settings, but then got involved in other routines and hence this delay in posting.

Update: 13.03.2008
The site now has link for the PDF files. One that you can read now contains the rules and points associated with each sudoku… The second file is password encrypted and the password will be revealed to you just at the beginning of the contest on 16th when you log in using your token id… and you will get 2.5 hrs to solve all puzzles (25 of them!!!) each one having its own weightage, total of 2008 points in all. It’s on you to decide which puzzle to solve and which one to leave… Try to get the maximum points out of them…

Update: 15.03.2008 5:00 am
A link “DEMO” has appeared which demonstrate how the answers for the test would be required to be submitted. Take a look. The link for practice test still not available but may be made available soon.

Selection process for the Team representing India for the 3rd World Sudoku Championship has been declared. Unlike last years selection process that had regional rounds between screening and finals, this year there would be a online qualifying test on 16th March to be held on the new home page sudokumasters.in for National Sudoku Championship. Registration for the qualification test will commence on this site from 1st march onwards, not end date specified. The existence of the new site was already mentioned in the previous post 3rd World Sudoku Championship in this subject.

Finals will be held on 30th March at Bangalore. The team thus selected would be participating in the 3rd World Sudoku Championship (WSC3) at Holiday Inn resort Goa between 14th to 17th April 2008.

The World Sudoku Championship is organized by World Puzzle Federation and the selection process for India Team is undertaken by Quixy.

(I am glad that I am the first one to spread this word, there is no news anywhere to be seen, no press releases, maybe Times Of India is not participating this time, hence the silence)

Update 03.03.2008 7:30 pm IST
They missed the scheduled date for starting of Registration i.e. 1st March, and modified the page to show 3rd March and added a schedule for practice session on 15th March. Most of the day has passed and still the registration has not started.

Update 04.03.2008 9:30 am IST
Missed the date again! The site still shows 3rd March! which is already gone!!

Update 04.03.2008 5:30 pm IST
The Start date for registration has again changed to 8th March. So all of you eagerly looking for registration can sit back calmly for another 4 days (pray it not goes more than that). The probable reason for the registration not starting on schedule is failure to develop the portal in time. It includes the information pages, the registration application, the online qualification test application, and the other applications available at backend. Now the question is “if the portal is stilll not ready? will it get enough time for stress test?? The ultimate deadline is 14th-17th April when all winners of National Sudoku Championship would be participating in the World Sudoku CHampionship! and the more we are loosing time in National Sudoku Championship, less we will get time to prepare for World Sudoku Championship.

Looks like non-participation of Times Of India has really affected the championship and there is no promotion and marketing. I can’t believe that this blog (infact this page) comes as the first result when searched for Sudoku Masters 2008.

Update: 08.03.2008 Registration for The Sudoku masters 2008, National Sudoku Championship Open

Update: 13.03.2008
The site now has link for the PDF files. One that you can read now contains the rules and points associated with each sudoku… The second file is password encrypted and the password will be revealed to you just at the beginning of the contest on 16th when you log in using your token id… and you will get 2.5 hrs to solve all puzzles (25 of them!!!) each one having its own weightage, total of 2008 points in all. It’s on you to decide which puzzle to solve and which one to leave… Try to get the maximum points out of them…

Update: 15.03.2008 5:00 am
A link “DEMO” has appeared which demonstrate how the answers for the test would be required to be submitted. Take a look. The link for practice test still not available but may be made available soon.