Update : This event was quite successful. There were a few workshops conducted in the lead-up, with high attendance in each of them. The Puzzles and Sudoku events had about 70 participants each (rough count while checking the papers), and overall participation for the week hit 2500 (I'm told). There were 3 winners for U-15 category in each of Puzzle and Sudoku events, and 3 winners in the Open category.

Would love it if some of the participants/winners could put a little here about their own experiences. I'll be doing so maybe in a few days after I get back to Mumbai.

Nice to see local Puzzles/Sudoku events in India. Any idea when they are planning to come to Bangalore?

Will chennai and Delhi Brain games organize every year??

General reply to both the above questions is -

There are more events planned, and there is hope that this will become a long term system. That's all I can say officially for now.

I was one of the early bees on Sunday for the event. Went to the venue at 8.45 am. It was really nice to see so many kids and school children with parents and teachers for the event. Brought memories of my school days. Their enthusiasm for the event was great.

With regards my participation, I had registered for Sudoku, Puzzles and Crossword a month before the event. I also got an entry for the Quiz event as I was one of the winners of their Online Quiz contest, which they ran in their FB page. We participated in the Quiz event conducted by 3xUS Solutions. Unfortunately could not cross the first hurdle here.

The First event of the afternoon was Sudoku. I know the contest will be tough with current and previous Times event National finalists Rakesh, Kishore, Ezhilarasi and Thejeswini in the fray. As usual the Sudokus from Rohan and Prasanna were of high quality and as expected Rakesh, Kishore and Ezhilarasi completed the top three. Came to know that the fight was too close between Kishore and Rakesh. Personally, I finished the Classics round but could not finish the Variants round with two Sudokus left.

The Second event was Puzzles. The grids were good but majority of the participants were attempting the Puzzles for first time. Rakesh won the event with Kishore second and myself third.

The Third event was Crossword. This was also organized by one of the experienced Crossword creator and solver. The Clues were good and he also gave so many hints for the Under 15 category so that the school children get confidence and enjoy the event.

Overall the event was great with good organization from the SportsConzult team and extended teams.

I posted my experiences here. I mainly focused on the workshops leading up to the event. The event itself can be summed up better by the participants I feel, as I was pretty much running between events most of the time.