Indian Sudoku Championship 2010
Sudoku, dubbed as the hottest puzzle sensation since the Rubiks Cube gained worldwide popularity in early 2005. The first World Sudoku championship (WSC) was held in March 2006 in Lucca, Italy. The 5th WSC will be held in April 2010 in Philadelphia, USA. Logic Masters India in association with TechFest at IIT Bombay, invites you to test your logical skills in the Indian Sudoku Championship and get an opportunity to represent India at the WSC. All resident Indian nationals, irrespective of age, can participate in Indian Sudoku Championship. The sudoku-solving skills of contestants will be tested through the regular Classic sudokus as well as different sudoku variations which appear in the WSCs. Top rankers at the Indian Sudoku Championship will be eligible to represent India at the 5th World Sudoku Championship to be held in Philadelphia in April 2010.

Rules and Regulations
The Indian Sudoku Championship will consist of two online rounds on 3rd and 9th January 2010 to select the top 30 participants for the finals. There will also be an elimination round to select the top 30 from the on the spot participants on 23rd January 2010. The finals for these 60 participants will be held on 24th January 2010. Detailed instructions are available here

Downloads
Puzzle pdfs and answer pdfs can be downloaded here.

Results
Click here for results of the online round held on 23rd January.

The preliminary rounds on 24th January started with the Linked Classics, with participants displaying their expertise with 11 participants solving all 6 puzzles correctly in the alloted time, with Rohan Rao finishing with 15 minutes to spare. Rishi Puri raced ahead of the field in the second round finishing the samurai grid with 1 minute to spare while all other participants were able to finish only 2 of the four corner variations in the grid. The mechanical sudoku was easily the most difficult sudoku of the competitio with 3 participants finishing the round after 10 minutes were added to the alloted time. After the preliminary rounds Rohan, Rishi and Rakesh were well ahead of the rest of the participants. Jaipal, Himani and Asha put in consistent performances across all rounds to make it to the top 8. Previous toppers Gaurav and Ritesh scraped into the last two positions, while Nidhi tied with Ritesh to make the semifinals a playoff between 9 participants. In the semifinals Rohan mainiatined his lead over Rishi in the first 5 puzzles. Rishi finished the 6th puzzle before Rohan to be the first finalist. Gaurav overcame a 3 minute disadvantage to finish in 3rd just behind Rohan. It was a 5 way race for the final spot in the finals with Rakesh, Jaipal, Himani, Asha and Ritesh on the last puzzle. Ritesh finished first to book the final spot in the finals. Asha and Rakesh finished in 5th and 6th to complete the Indian team for WSC 2010. The finals to decide the national champion were held on large standing grids. Rishi blazed thorugh all 3 puzzles and would have been the national champion baring a blank cell in one of the sudokus. Gaurav also made a mistake in the same sudoku with one wrong digit. Rohan was the only one to finish all 3 puzzles in the given time to be crowned the national champion for 2010.