Indian Sudoku Championship and Sudoku Mahabharat Offline Finals were held in Quality Inn, Chennai on 29th July 2017. Qualification for this Offline finals was through the 4 online Sudoku tests of Sudoku Mahabharat 2017 which were conducted at Logic Masters India website and took place from January 2017 to April 2017. The top 3 scores of these four tests were considered to rank the participants and then the top 50 were called for the offline finals. My rank was 14th on these online rounds and I was looking forward to improving upon my rank in the offline finals.
Indian Sudoku Championship and Sudoku Mahabharat
Before I start writing my experience in this championship, let me first clarify briefly the difference between Indian Sudoku Championship (ISC) and Sudoku Mahabharat (SM). ISC is open to all the participants irrespective of age and experience in Sudoku solving and this championship is used to select the Indian Sudoku team for the World Sudoku Championship (WSC). However, SM is to encourage new participants. Experienced Sudoku players who have earlier participated in WSC are not eligible for SM playoff and SM prizes. As I came with experience participating in many World Sudoku Championships, so I qualified only for ISC 2017.
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| Indian Sudoku Championship 2017 and Sudoku Mahabharat Participants |
Travel to Chennai
The championship was starting on 29th July 2017 and I reached Chennai from Bangalore along with Harmeet, Rohan Buragohain, Prasanna, and Sai Karthik Burra. Thanks to Harmeet for booking our train tickets and Rohan Rao for booking a hotel stay in Chennai. Many other participants coming from Mumbai and Hyderabad were staying in the same hotel. After reaching the hotel we quickly took dinner in the same hotel as it was raining outside and then immediately after dinner I went to sleep.
Registration for ISC and SM
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| ISC Identity Card |
The next day morning 9:30am event was starting. I reached the Quality Inn on time and did the registration. Each of the participants was given a Goody bag which contained a personalized Pen, Writing Pad, Notebook, Identity Card (printed on both sides), Championship Badge, Pen/Pencil with Logic Masters India printed on it, and file container. Thanks to Sumit Bothra for taking care of the logistics to get this goody bag and other things printed.
Indian Sudoku Championship 2017 Trophies
It was not only the designs of Goodies that looked great, but it was also the design of the trophies for the Indian Sudoku Championship (ISC) 2017. I liked how the trophies of ISC 2017 were designed. There were three trophies for the winners of the championships. One for the Indian Sudoku Champion 2017 and the other two for the runners-up in this championship. All three trophies have a Sudoku puzzle on them which can be solved and each of the trophies is having a number written on it with the given numbers of the Sudoku puzzle.
Then there was a quick introduction of each participant followed by a Questions and Answers (Q & A) session in which participants cleared their doubts regarding the championship. The offline final was divided into four parts as mentioned below
Round 1 - The Classic begins
Round 2 - Trip down memory lane
Round 3 - Battling the Samurais
Round 4 - Octopus Link
Let me talk about each of the rounds
Round 1 - The Classic begins
In this round, there were 12 Classic Sudoku puzzles to be finished in 35 minutes. Puzzles were arranged in increasing order of their difficulty with the first one being very easy and the last one being the tough one. I started with a round from the middle and found the first Sudoku which I solve quite an easy finish then I moved to the next Sudoku till I reached the second last Sudoku which was 62 points and was very tough. I have to make the guess two times to continue in this Sudoku and at last, was able to complete this puzzle. However this Sudoku took most of my time and after this, I started an easy Classic Sudoku but could not complete it as time was over. At last, I could complete 5 puzzles out of 12 in this round. However, all these puzzles were of high points and I ended up standing 5th in this round after scoring 209 points which was quite good for me as Classic Sudoku has been always my weakest point in Sudoku solving :).
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| Indian Sudoku Championship 2017 Competition Hall |
Round 2 - Trip down memory lane
This round contained Eight Sudoku Variations e.g. Consecutive Pairs Sudoku, Extra Region Sudoku, Arrow Sudoku, Odd-Even Sudoku, Skyscrapers Sudoku, Anti Knight Sudoku, Scattered Sudoku, and Disjoint Groups Sudoku. All of these were standard Sudoku variations. I have not prepared any type specifically for this round and started with Arrow Sudoku which I found easy and could quickly finish off, then I moved to Skyscrapers Sudoku which was again my strength and could solve fast. Then I moved to higher pointer Anti Knight Sudoku which was tough and took most of my time. I could not proceed much in this Sudoku and I don't want to make a guess in this Sudoku as making the guess in this Sudoku type is very risky as one may end up solving the Sudoku incorrectly breaking the Anti Knight Sudoku rules. After doing some pencil marks I could find a triplet in the central square and then could proceed and finish it. However, this Sudoku took a lot of my time and then I moved to the lower pointer to finish Odd-Even Sudoku and Extra Region Sudoku. I started Consecutive Paris Sudoku after this. I could find the quick start in this Sudoku but could not complete it before the time was up. So I ended up getting 237 points in this round which was below my expectation and I moved down in ranking after this round.
Round 3 - Battling the Samurais
In this round, there were two Samurai puzzles. The first one was Classic Sudoku and the one was four different variations like Odd Sudoku, Irregular Sudoku, Extra Region Sudoku, Diagonal Sudoku, and the central puzzle was Classic Sudoku. I started well in this round and within 10 mins I came very near to completing the Classic puzzle. However, I found that I am getting errors in one of the puzzles. So I have to re-do almost full Sudoku to get it correct which cost me a good time. However, in the end, I could complete this and then moved to Sudoku Variations Samurai Sudoku in which I could only complete two parts just before time. My performance in this round was below par and I got 320 points in this Sudoku which pushed my rank further down :(
Round 4 - Octopus Link
This was a very interesting round and was a new concept. In this puzzle, there were 8 Sudoku puzzles. 4 of these 8 Sudoku puzzles were Classic Sudoku and the remaining four puzzles were Sudoku variations which include Sudoku types like Diagonal Sudoku, Slot Machine Sudoku, Untouch Sudoku, and Inequality Sudoku. All these eight Sudoku puzzles were linked together beautifully with each Sudoku puzzle sharing at least one cell in each row, in each column, and in each outlined region. One has to find this shared cell among all these Sudoku puzzles and then solve the individual puzzles.
In all these given Sudoku puzzles Inequality Sudoku was solvable almost fully without any dependency on other puzzles. Once this Sudoku puzzle got solved then it was very easier to find the links between the puzzles. I solve Inequality Sudoku very fast but was very slow to find the common links between these puzzles. So in the end, I could solve fully only two puzzles correctly and a couple of 3x3 cells filled which got me a very low 158 points. After this round, my rank fell to 12 which is my final rank in Indian Sudoku Championship (ISC) 2017.
Here are the results of the Indian Sudoku Championship 2017
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| Results of Indian Sudoku Championship 2017 |
and the winners are
1. Rohan Rao
2. Kishore Kumar and
3. Rishi Puri
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| Left to Right: Kishore Kumar, Rohan Rao, and Rishi Puri |
Once the Indian Sudoku Championship 2017 was complete, it was time for the recreational event. This year's recreational event was the same as last year's which was Classic Sudoku Master (CSM). I will be soon writing a separate post for CSM 2017.
After Classic Sudoku Master 2017, it was time for the last event of the which is Sudoku Mahabharat (SM) playoffs. SM is encouraging new participants to experience and learn from playoffs and experienced players are not eligible for this tournament. One can read more details about this event from Hemant Kumar Malani's post titled "Sudoku Mahabharat & Indian Sudoku Championship 2017 by Hemant Kumar Malani". He was one of the winners of Sudoku Mahabharat 2017. Also, don't forget to read about these championships at the official website of Logic Masters India.
I enjoyed all these events and thanks to all the organizers and Chennai people who made our stay in Chennai very comfortable. The next day's event was Indian Puzzle Championship and Puzzle Ramayan. I will be writing a separate post with details about these events.
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