Date: October 22
After three days and 22 rounds of intense puzzle competition, we emerged with clear winners in both the team and individual competitions. Ken Endo, now three-time World Champion, won the title after showing another year of impressive solving performance across every genre of puzzle. Teammates Walker Anderson of USA (2nd) and Thomas Luo of USA (3rd) took the remaining podium positions.
After many innovative team rounds with all sorts of tricks and treats, the United States of America showcased their overall strength as a group and won the team title, a record 16th after 30 championships. Japan finished second and Germany finished third.
In the other award categories, Suzhe Qiu (CHN) was the top youth (18 and Under) solver, earning this award at both the World Sudoku Championship and the World Puzzle Championship. Valentin Maikinen (FRA) was 2nd and Maciej Ignaciuk (POL) was 3rd.
In the over 50 category, Deyan Razsadov of Bulgaria was the top senior solver (50 and over) with Claudine Thiry (LUX) in 2nd and Philippe Meyer (FRA) in 3rd.
The top first time competitior was Jeffrey Bardon of USA (who was also 4th place overall!), with Kevin Zhou (USA) in 2nd and Yuan Yao (CHN) in 3rd.
Full results are in the official scoresheet, with more photos and video from the event to be added soon to the Media page.
Date: October 21
New to this year's World Puzzle Championship competition were five genre-focused playoffs featuring the top players across distinct parts within the overall championship. These playoffs crowned five different champions across the different puzzle specialties:
In Number Placement puzzles, Kota Morinishi (JPN) won the title with Ken Endo (JPN) second and Suzhe Qiu (CHN) third.
In Object Placement puzzles, Ken Endo (JPN) finished in first place followed by Walker Anderson (USA) in second and Kota Morinishi (JPN) in third.
In Shading puzzles, Jeffrey Bardon (USA) won with Ken Endo (JPN) second and Walker Anderson (USA) third.
In Loop/Path puzzles, Naoki Sekiya (JPN) won the trophy in first place while Ken Endo (JPN) in second and Thomas Luo (USA) in third completed the podium.
In Region Division puzzles, the title was won by Walker Anderson of the USA. Ken Endo (JPN) finished in second and Thomas Luo (USA) finished in third.
Video of these playoffs will be posted soon on our media page.
Date: October 17
After two days of competitive sudoku solving with 100 individual sudoku puzzles and nearly 50 team sudoku spread across 15 rounds, we have our winners in Toronto. Topping the ranks both before and after the individual playoff is Tantan Dai (CHN), who wins her first World Sudoku title after a couple podium finishes in the last two championships. Tiit Vunk (EST) finished 2nd and Kota Morinishi (JAP) in 3rd.
In the team competition, Japan took 1st place and earned the best team title, their 6th across 16 WSCs, the most of any country. Czechia finished 2nd and the United States of America finished 3rd.
In the other award categories, Suzhe Qiu (CHN) was the top youth (18 and Under) solver, with Can Erturan (TUR) in 2nd and Tina Bratim (CRO) in 3rd.
Mark Goodliffe of the United Kingdom was the top senior solver (50 and over) with Philippe Meyer (FRA) in 2nd and Laura Tarchetti (ITA) in 3rd.
The top first time competitior was Hannes Sidorov of Estonia, Tsukiko Kitagawa (JAP) in 2nd and Calum Mailer in 3rd.
Full results are in the official scoresheet, with photos and video from the event added to the Media page.
Date: October 16
We're through the first day of intense sudoku solving in Toronto, and the results couldn't be any closer as Tantan Dai and Tiit Vunk are tied at the top with 3470 points after six individual rounds. But several familiar names, including former champion Kota Morinishi (3235) and Seungjae Kwak (3108), are in potential playoff position and could still earn the top ranking.
Today also had the first two team rounds with unique challenges for the many nations to tackle. Team Japan is currently running a strong first place (15000) followed by Czechia (13937). Will the results change after tomorrow's full day of competition? Follow the results on the official scoresheet.
Date: October 7
Today we have released the first version of the Instruction Booklet for the 30th World Puzzle Championship, which will also be discussed on our Discord channel.
Date: October 2
We're just two weeks out from the start of the competition. We're excited to see you all in Toronto soon.
Today we have released the first version of the Instruction Booklet for the 16th World Sudoku Championship. We have also opened up a Discord for discussion of the rules. Stay tuned for more updates this week as we release the World Puzzle Championship instructions as well.
Date: September 23
We're now almost three weeks to the kickoff of the World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships in Toronto.
We have added our list of registered participants for both the WSC and the WPC, including participants from 32 countries. These are on the WSC and WPC pages and a full list including guests is shared here. We will have much more info, including the competition rules and instruction booklets, shared here by early October.
Date: June 18
On behalf of the organizing team, we would like to invite you to the 2023 World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships in Toronto, Canada on October 15-22, 2023.
This will be the 30th World Puzzle Championship (WPC) and the 16th World Sudoku Championship (WSC), both incredible milestones and signs of how much has changed in global puzzle sharing since the 1st WPC in New York City, USA. With this year’s event, we aim to give you fair and fun competitions that reflect the best of sudoku and logic puzzles, drawing inspiration from around the world while bringing a touch of North American flair.
Today we are launching our event web page, and registration is now open to WPF member nations and to WPF individual members. We will be adding more information about the event to this site as we get closer to October, so keep a watch out for more news here.
We look forward to seeing you in Toronto!