Thursday, September 18, 2014

9/9 - International Sudoku Day 2014 - And the winner is...

...known to me. Not to you, yet.

I cannot really estimate how many people struggled on the contest puzzle during these 9 days, but there are exactly twelve of them who sent me its solution in time. The first one was Prasanna Seshadri from India, also known as "The day you won't see me making or solving a puzzle, you will know I am dead". Slightly more than 12 hours after the contest was launched, Prasanna's code was in my inbox. Aside from Prasanna, Robert Vollmert from Germany was the only other player to solve the puzzle within the first 24 hours. The last one was Valérie Garcia from France, who for a long time now has acquired quite a reputation amongst french players for being unafraid of huge sudokus.
Now, after having checked the correctness of the answers (two of them had a small mistake in it but both players could fix it), came the time of the draw. And one throw of dice later, it is Kwak Seungjae from South Korea who stood as a winner. Congratulations to him! He earns a small package containing an assortment of french sudoku books.

Also, as a way to cheer Prasanna for being the first one to solve the puzzle, for my next two weekly puzzles (one sudoku and one of another type) I will choose amongst puzzle types he is fond of.

Here is the complete list of players who managed to solve the puzzle. Congratulations to all of them and thanks for participating!

   They did it:

- Salih Alan
- Branko Ceranic
- Timothy Doyle
- Valérie Garcia
- Zoltán Gyimesi
- Ashish Kumar
- Minyoung Joo
- "Sky Net"
- Prasanna Seshadri
- Seungjae Kwak
- Frédéric Stalder
- Robert Vollmert

The puzzle was intended to be quite hard, although 100% trial-and-error free; and indeed, according to the feedback I receided, even strong players needed between one and two hours to solve it. Less experienced players had to spend much more time on it of course, and they deserve quite a cheering as well for their dedication.
I hope you all enjoyed the solve and had a fun sudoku day, and wish to see you participating again next year. Happy puzzling!


Difficile de dire combien de personnes s'y sont essayées durant les 9 jours qu'aura duré le concours, mais à l'arrivée ce sont exactement douze joueurs/ses qui m'en ont fait parvenir la solution dans les temps. Le premier fut Prasanna Seshadri, d'Inde, l'homme que seul la tombe empêchera de créer ou résoudre au moins une grille quotidiennement. Son code-réponse m'est parvenu à peine plus de 12 heures après le début du concours. En dehors de Prasanna, l'Allemand Robert Vollmert a été le seul à en terminer avec la grille au cours des premières 24 heures. La dernière à renvoyer un code fut Valérie Garcia, qui s'est depuis longtemps forgé une certaine réputation auprès des joueurs/ses français(es) pour sa tendance à s'attaquer à des grilles de taille conséquente.
Après avoir vérifié l'exactitude des réponses (deux d'entre elles comportaient une petite erreur mais dans les deux cas leur auteur(e) put la corriger à temps) vint l'heure du tirage au sort. Et un lancer de dé plus tard c'est Kwak Seungjae,  de Corée du Sud, qui fut désigné vainqueur. Félicitations à lui ! Il remporte un petit colis constitué d'un assortiment de revues de sudoku françaises.

D'autre part, afin de congratuler Prasanna pour avoir été le premier à résoudre la grille, mes deux prochains jeux hebdomadaires (une variante de sudoku et un autre puzzle) seront choisis parmi des types de puzzles qu"il affectionne.

Voici la liste complète des personnes ayant résolu la grille. Mes félicitations à elles, et merci d'avoir participé !

   Ils/elles l'ont fait :

- Salih Alan
- Branko Ceranic
- Timothy Doyle
- Valérie Garcia
- Zoltán Gyimesi
- Ashish Kumar
- Minyoung Joo
- "Sky Net"
- Prasanna Seshadri
- Seungjae Kwak
- Frédéric Stalder
- Robert Vollmert

La grille était conçue pour être difficile, bien que se passant intégralement d'hypothèses ; et en effet, les retours que j'ai eus confirment que même les meilleurs joueurs ont eu besoin d'une à deux heures pour en venir à bout. Les joueurs/ses les moins expérimenté(e)s ont naturellement passé bien plus de temps dessus, et méritent également des compliments pour leur abnégation.
J'espère que vous avez pris plaisir à la résolution de ce problème et avez passé une agréable journée du sudoku, et fais le souhait de vous voir participer à nouveau l'an prochain. Bon jeu !

6 comments:

  1. "The day you won't see me making or solving a puzzle, you will know I am dead".
    I want a T-Shirt that says this. I'll probably get it made and sport it at the next WPC.
    Thank you for the really entertaining gattai-9 Sudoku, this quote and also the pleasant news that the next two weeks will have puzzles I like :)

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  2. it's ok Prasanna at the next WPC you will have this T-shirt that will say this, with a small French touch in more .What is your size?
    Distri

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    1. Haha, I do like the idea of a French touch. I think I took the XXL size in London and that was a bit loose, but overall I prefer that to being too tight. Dunno if France has the same system.

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  3. Now there is no way you won't be wearing such a t-shirt in Bulgaria. I have been back from Croydon for a month and I already am looking forward for the next championship...

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    1. We just need to confirm whether you folks will be bringing it along or myself - I am fine with either. But yes, this must happen :P

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  4. I simply want to thank, one more time, my friend Bastien for this puzzle. I've actually take pleasure to solve it, in spite of my legendary slowness...:)
    If my speed would be proportional to the size of puzzle that I like to résolve, I would be world champion !!!
    Bulgaria, here I am.......

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