About ISC 2025 & Team Selections

Some initial updates:
Past SM rounds over the years.
LMI will launch SM-Juniors! More details to be announced later.

Logic Masters India (LMI) is conducting the Indian Sudoku Championship (ISC) 2025 on the 1st of June, 2025. This year, there will be two tracks to consider: Competing for the ISC title, and Qualifying for the Indian team for WSC and ASC. Please read the next part carefully to understand.

A) Competing for the ISC title: For this year's Indian Sudoku Championship, there is no link to the Sudoku Mahabharat online rounds, other than reserving some spots. The competition will have everyone starting at 0 on the 1st of June at the venue to be announced later. Note that for the Sudoku Mahabharat award, base points from the online rounds will still count.

B) Qualifying for the Indian team for International events: Here, base points will still be considered, so the Sudoku Mahabharat online rounds are a significant part of the process to qualify to the Indian team, along with the 2025 Sudoku Grand Prix (https://gp.worldpuzzle.org/). Read on to find out more.

About Sudoku Mahabharat 2025
  • Sudoku Mahabharat is a series of contests aimed at encouraging the best Sudoku solvers of India to participate and compete for the Sudoku Mahabharat title, and also have better chances of qualifying for the Indian team for the next World Sudoku Championship and Asian Sudoku Championship.
  • The series consists of 4 online rounds (approximately one every 2-3 weeks), based on different categories of Sudoku variants.
  • The online rounds are free and open to all participants. All you need to do is register on the site and note the schedule!
  • There are 3-4* spots for the Indian A team for WSC 2025 and ASC 2026, which will be decided during the offline finale of the tournament.
    *Depending on whether the player awarded a wildcard from WSC 2024 participates.
  • There will be a separate playoff at the end of the offline finals to determine the Mahabharat winner. There will be an eligibility criteria for this playoff, as explained below, to preserve the essence of Sudoku Mahabharat.
Eligibility

All players who have achieved any one of the following are NOT eligible to participate in the playoff to determine the Sudoku Mahabharat winner.

  • Represented India in A-Team at the World Sudoku Championship at least once in the last 10 years*.
  • Represented India in B-Team / UN-Team at the World Sudoku Championship at least twice in the last 10 years*.
  • Won the Sudoku Mahabharat title twice.

    • *Not counting 2023.

According to LMI Records, the following players (in alphabetical order) are not eligible to participate in the playoff:

  • Aashay Patil (SM 2020, SM 2024)
  • Amit Sowani (WSC 2016-B, WSC 2018-B)
  • Ashish Kumar (WSC 2024-A)
  • Gaurav Kumar Jain (WSC 2016-B, WSC 2017-B)
  • Jaipal Reddy (WSC 2022-B, WSC 2024-B)
  • Kartik Reddy (WSC 2024-A)
  • Kishore Kumar (WSC 2024-A)
  • Nityant Agarwal (SM 2021, SM 2022)
  • Pranav Kamesh (WSC 2022-A)
  • Prasanna Seshadri (WSC 2024-A)
  • Rakesh Rai (WSC 2016-A)
  • Rishi Puri (WSC 2017-A)
  • Rohan Rao (WSC 2019-A)
Offline finals: Registration process
  • The process of filling up the offline finals' slots is the same as last year's process. We want to encourage solvers who aren't near the top yet but still want the experience of an offline final. The eligibility criteria is that the solver must have participated in at least 2 of the 4 online rounds ('participated' here means achieving a non-zero score in the round) OR reached the top 60 in lesser rounds. After Round 4, we will ask the solvers from 1-60 first and give them a week to confirm participation. After this, it is open to everyone 'eligible' by the criteria above, till we get to 60 participants. After that, depending on venue restrictions, we will open it up to other participants.
  • There will be base points awarded to participants for team qualification and to add to the SM standings for those eligible. The base points will include:
    A) The total of the best 3 scores in the SM online rounds.
    B) The total of the best 3 scores in the first 5 rounds of the WPF Sudoku Grand Prix normalized to a score of 100 for the 4th best Indian. Essentially participation and results in the GP acts like a "5th" round to the base points total.
  • If online round organizers participate in the offline finals they will automatically get the same base points as the top solver of the online rounds
Prizes
All players who appear for the offline finals will receive a certificate.
Additionally,
  • Top-3 players at the offline finals will be awarded medals / trophies.
  • All players at the offline finals Under-21yrs and over-50yrs will receive special prizes.
  • All players travelling from other countries (non-Indians), will receive special prizes.
  • All participating in at least 2 online rounds may apply for an e-certificate with their online rank.
Newcomer Sponsorship
LMI will sponsor a participant who has qualified into the Indian Sudoku A Team* and has never been to a WSC before. To avail of this, participants MUST have a valid passport ready at the time of the ISC finals.
The sponsorship includes
  1. Participation fee for WSC only, considering accommodation as double room.
  2. Airline ticket cost for the trip to and from the hosting country.**
  3. Visa fees.
This is the extent of the coverage. *The term "qualified into" exempts someone who gets invited because qualified participants cannot claim their spot for some reason.
**LMI will book the tickets for the participant. If the participant wishes to book their own tickets then the difference in costs must be borne by them.
Special Case Team Selection
If an Indian citizen is living outside India and cannot attend the offline finals due to this reason, then that Indian may qualify into the Indian A team if they fall into ALL of the below criteria.
  • The participant must be in the top 3** of the Sudoku Mahabharat online rounds considering best four scores.
  • The participant must be in the top 3** Indians considering the best three scores after five Sudoku Grand Prix rounds.
  • The participant must produce a soft copy of some proof of residence showing that they are not in India at the time of the offline finals.
**- Not including the person with the wildcard from WSC 2024
Schedule
Round Author Dates India 1 India 2 India 3
Standard & Converse Priyam Bhushan, R. Kumaresan 14-20 Feb 2025
Math & Neighbours Akash Doulani, Nityant Agarwal, Puwar Dhruvarajsinh 28 Feb-06 Mar 2025
Odd Even & Irregular James Peter (Author may be added) 21-27 Mar 2025
Outside & Hybrids Harsh Poddar (Author may be added) 04-10 Apr 2025
All rounds will start some time on Friday and will be open for a week.
All times in Indian Standard Time (GMT_PLUS_5:30)
Format
Each round will have 18 Sudokus to be solved in 90 minutes
All rounds will have the following composition:
  • Two 6X6 Standard Sudokus
  • Four 9X9 Standard Sudoku
  • Six 6X6 Sudoku Variants
  • Six 9X9 Sudoku Variants
Any Sudoku variants used in each round will appear in both sizes, 6x6 and 9x9, i.e. there will be six different Sudoku variants in a round.
Scoring
  • In each round, the fourth best Indian score among eligible players will be scaled to 100. Others' scores will be adjusted proportionately.
  • For International Rankings, the tenth best score in each round will be scaled to 100. Others' scores will be adjusted proportionately.
  • Participants will get points as allotted for each sudoku correctly submitted.
  • Instant Grading is enabled, so upon submitting participant will know if the answer is correct or not. Penalty exists for wrong submissions. (Also refer FAQ.)
  • There will be a time bonus of 1 point per full minute saved by players submitting all sudokus correctly within 90 minutes.
  • For determining rankings for offline finals consideration, each player's best 3 scores out of 4 online rounds will be summed up to calculate the total score (so, the worst score is discarded). For authors, the round authored is considered as a round with a 0 score.
  • For Organizers of SM who wish to participate in ISC, the base points will be equal to the base points of the highest Indian scorer.
International Players
  • Like every other contest at LMI, international players are encouraged to participate in these contests
  • These contests will be included in LMI Sudoku ratings.
  • International players are not eligible to win either the ISC or the Mahabharat title at the offline finals but can attend and participate managing their own expenses. We request any interested International players to let the organizers know early, before Round 4, so we can consider it in our plans.
Questions?

If you have any questions or doubts or suggestions, please ask in the forum.

Last edited by prasanna16391 @ 1/30/2025 12:17:06 PM.