World Puzzle Championship

The World Puzzle Championship (commonly abbreviated as WPC) is an annual international puzzle competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. All the puzzles in the competition are pure-logic problems based on simple principles, designed to be playable regardless of language or culture. ^[1]

National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzzle Federation. Of the 30 championships (team category) held thus far, 16 have been won by the United States, 8 by Germany, and 3 each by the Czech Republic and Japan. The most successful individual contestant is Ulrich Voigt (Germany) with 11 titles since 2000.

The latest WPC was held in October 2024 in Beijing. ^[2]

Origin

The World Puzzle Championship was the brainchild of Levi Summers, who wanted to create an event where puzzlers from different countries could compete on an even playing field. ^[3] Previously, the International Crossword Marathon was the major international competition for puzzle-solving, and Will Shortz had attended it every year, but because participants used their own language and crossword rules, it was not a very good basis for comparing raw puzzle-solving skills across cultures. Shortz created the WPC to overcome these flaws. ^[1] As described by Nick Baxter, co-director of the U.S. Puzzle Championship, the challenge of the competition is speed. ^[4]

The first WPC was held in New York City in 1992, and Shortz was the organizer and Helene Hovanec was the coordinator. Each WPC has been held at a different city since then.

Participants

Currently, 34 countries are official members of the World Puzzle Federation. ^[5] Individuals may also take part if their country is not already represented by a national team. ^{[6] [7]} In the 2017 WPC, 169 contestants from 27 countries participated. ^[8] The United States has won the championship 16 times, followed by Germany with 8 championships. The Czech Republic and Japan has each won three times. Ulrich Voigt of Germany has been the most successful individual contestant, winning the gold medal eleven times since 2000. Wei-Hwa Huang of the United States won four of the first eight championships in the 1990s. Ken Endo of Japan won five of the most recent eight championships.

Results summary

	Host city		Individual			Team
Year	City	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1992	New York City	United States	David Samuel	Darren Rigby	Daniel Johnson	United States	Argentina	Poland	[9]
1993	Brno	Czech Republic	Robert Babilon	Wei-Hwa Huang	Pavel Kalhous	Czech Republic	United States	Canada	[10]
1994	Cologne	Germany	Ron Osher	Pavel Kalhous	Pero Galogaza	Czech Republic	United States	Croatia	[11]
1995	Poiana Brasov	Romania	Wei-Hwa Huang	Gyorgy Istvan	Pavel Kalhous	United States	Czech Republic	Hungary	[12]
1996	Utrecht	Netherlands	Robert Babilon	Zack Butler	Wei-Hwa Huang	United States	Czech Republic	Turkey	[13]
1997	Koprivnica	Croatia	Wei-Hwa Huang	Ron Osher	Robert Babilon	Czech Republic	United States	Hungary	[14]
1998	Istanbul	Turkey	Wei-Hwa Huang	Akira Nakai	Zack Butler	United States	Japan	Hungary	[15]
1999	Budapest	Hungary	Wei-Hwa Huang	Zack Butler	Niels Roest	United States	Netherlands	Czech Republic	[16]
2000	Stamford	United States	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Niels Roest	United States	Netherlands	Germany	[17]
2001	Brno	Czech Republic	Ulrich Voigt	Robert Babilon	Zack Butler	United States	Czech Republic	Belgium	[18]
2002	Oulu	Finland	Niels Roest	Roland Voigt	Ulrich Voigt	Japan	Germany	United States	[19]
2003	Arnhem	Netherlands	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Roger Barkan	Germany	United States	Netherlands	[20]
2004	Opatija	Croatia	Niels Roest	Ulrich Voigt	Roger Barkan	United States	Germany	Hungary	[21]
2005	Eger	Hungary	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Niels Roest	Germany	United States	Japan	[22]
2006	Borovets	Bulgaria	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Maho Yokota	United States	Germany	Japan	[23]
2007	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Pal Madarassy	Thomas Snyder	Ulrich Voigt	United States	Japan	Belgium	[24]
2008	Minsk	Belarus	Ulrich Voigt	Mehmet Murat Sevim	Roger Barkan	United States	Japan	Czech Republic	[25]
2009	Antalya	Turkey	Ulrich Voigt	Peter Hudák	Mehmet Murat Sevim	Germany	United States	Japan	[26]
2010	Paprotnia	Poland	Taro Arimatsu	Ulrich Voigt	Hideaki Jo	United States	Japan	Germany	[27]
2011	Eger	Hungary	Palmer Mebane	Ulrich Voigt	Thomas Snyder	United States	Germany	Japan	[28]
2012	Kraljevica	Croatia	Ulrich Voigt	Thomas Snyder	Palmer Mebane	Germany	Japan	United States	[29]
2013	Beijing	China	Ulrich Voigt	Palmer Mebane	Thomas Snyder	United States	Germany	Japan	[30]
2014	London	United Kingdom	Ulrich Voigt	Palmer Mebane	Florian Kirch	Germany	Japan	United States	[31]
2015	Sofia	Bulgaria	Ken Endo	Ulrich Voigt	Palmer Mebane	Germany	Japan	United States	[32]
2016	Senec	Slovakia	Ulrich Voigt	Palmer Mebane	Ken Endo	Germany	Japan	United States
2017	Bangalore	India	Ken Endo	Ulrich Voigt	Kota Morinishi	Japan	United States	Germany	[33]
2018	Prague	Czech Republic	Thomas Snyder	Ulrich Voigt	Ken Endo	Germany	United States	Hungary	[34]
2019	Kirchheim	Germany	Philipp Weiß	Ken Endo	Walker Anderson	United States	Germany	Japan	[35]
2020	Shanghai	China	cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic						[36]
2021	Shanghai	China
2022	Kraków	Poland	Ken Endo	Prasanna Seshadri	Thomas Luo	Japan	United States	Germany	[37]
2023	Toronto	Canada	Ken Endo	Walker Anderson	Thomas Luo	United States	Germany	Japan	[38]
2024	Beijing	China	Ken Endo	Kota Morinishi	König Christian	Japan	United States	China	[39]

Age-restricted categories

Starting from 2013, titles have been awarded also for the best players in two age categories, Under 18 and Over 50 years of age.

	Location		Under 18			Over 50
Year	City	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2013	Beijing	China	Qiu Yanzhe	Jakub Bahyl	Zuzana Hromcová	Stefano Forcolin	Nick Baxter	Jouni Juhani Särkijärvi	[30]
2014	London	United Kingdom	Qiu Yanzhe	Olivier Garçonnet	Mehmet Durmuş	Stefano Forcolin	Jiří Hrdina	Nick Baxter	[40]
2015	Sofia	Bulgaria	Qiu Yanzhe	Olivier Garçonnet	Pavol Kollár	David McNeill	Stefano Forcolin	Zoran Tanasić	[32]
2016	Senec	Slovakia	Qiu Yanzhe	Pavol Kollár	Olivier Garçonnet	Taro Arimatsu	Stefano Forcolin	Miklós Mócsy
2017	Bangalore	India	Walker Anderson	Pavol Kollár	Kang Hyunmo	Taro Arimatsu	David McNeill	Michael Smit	[33]
2018	Prague	Czech Republic	Walker Anderson	Tantan Dai	Ivan Georgiev	Taro Arimatsu	Cedomir Milanovic	Michael Smit
2019	Kirchheim	Germany	Walker Anderson	Ryotaro Chiba	Péter Gyimesi	Taro Arimatsu	David McNeill	Cedomir Milanovic
2020	Shanghai	China	cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic						[36]
2021	Shanghai	China
2022	Kraków	Poland	Nityant Agriwal	Yoon Geonwoo	Ahmet Eren Gozubenli	Taro Arimatsu	Deyan Razsadov	Cedomir Milanovic	[37]
2023	Toronto	Canada	Qiu Suzhe	Valentin Miakinen	Maciej Ignaciuk	Deyan Razsadov	Claudine Thiry	Philippe Meyer	[38]
2024	Beijing	China	Qiu Suzhe	Oyun-Erdene Adiyajav	Enkhbayasgalan Ganbold	Deyan Razsadov	Claudine Thiry	Philippe Meyer	[39]

Classic puzzles used

Incomplete list, in alphabetical order:

• Balance
• Battleship
• Fillomino
• Hitori
• Kakuro
• Nonogram
• Numberlink
• Slitherlink
• Sudoku and many variants

See also

• World Sudoku Championship, another competition run by the World Puzzle Federation
• Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition, a competition for the engineering and design of mechanical puzzles

References

1. Grossman, Lev (11 March 2013). "The Answer Men". Time. Archived from the original on March 1, 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2013.(registration required)
2. "WPC 2024" . Retrieved 2024-11-24.
3. Harvey, Jay (Feb 26, 2013). "Will Shortz will deal with crosswords and other puzzles at Butler University April 12". IndyStar. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
4. Antonick, Gary (March 11, 2013). "A Poker Puzzle From the Logic Olympics". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
5. "WPF Members". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
6. "WPF Members". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
7. Ratzlav-Katz, Nissan (3 November 2009). "First Israeli at World Puzzle Championship". Israel National News. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
8. Shortz, Will (October 23, 2017). "Japan Wins World Puzzle Championship, U.S.A. Takes Second". The New York Times.
9. "The 1st World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
10. "The 2nd World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
11. "The 3rd World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
12. "The 4th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
13. "The 5th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
14. "The 6th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
15. "The 7th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
16. "The 8th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
17. "The 9th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
18. "The 10th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
19. "The 11th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
20. "The 12th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
21. "The 13th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
22. "The 14th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
23. "The 15th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
24. "The 16th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
25. "The 17th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
26. "The 18th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
27. "The 19th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
28. "The 20th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
29. "The 21st World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
30. "The 22nd World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
31. "2014 WSC & WPC award winners". UK Puzzle Association. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
32. "The 24th World Puzzle Championship". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
33. "WSPC 2017 - Logic Masters India". Logic Masters India. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
34. "27th World Puzzle Championship" (PDF). World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
35. "WSPC 2019 WPC - Results". World Sudoku & Puzzle Championship 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
36. "World Puzzle Championships". World Puzzle Federation. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
37. "Home - World Sudoku & Puzzle Championships 2022". www.wspc2022.com. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
38. "2023 World Sudoku and Puzzle Championship". www.wspc2023.com. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
39. "The 2024 World Championship". 2024wscwpc.worldartmuseum.cn/wpc. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
40. "2014 WSC & WPC award winners". UK Puzzle Association. Retrieved 18 August 2014.

External links

• Official website