Possibly, some rounds will be inspired by iconic Mahabharata characters or events such as Pandavas, Kauravas, Abhimanyu, Arjuna, Bhishma, or The Dice Game. Since WSC features both individual and team formats, the themes could influence the round mechanics themselves: the Pandavas might inspire a collaborative or relay-style round, the Kauravas a large-scale challenge, while Abhimanyu, Arjuna, Bhishma and The Dice Game, could reflect layered strategy, precision, endurance and decision-making.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Harmeet ... do have alook at the theme videos ... each video approximately corresponds to one round of the WSC .... it might give you additional insights into the theme for each round.

The immediate thought to my mind is of Chakravyuh. A sudoku with spiral shaped clues which can be worked onlyl from the outer to clues and end up solving into the center. Not possible to start from the middle of the grid. Very difficult puzzle to break in :)

The Chakravyuh concept sounds like a great fit for a spiraling or inward-linked puzzle mechanic. Has there been any confirmation if this idea might be used for a sprint or a marathon round?

Very thematic ... since these are related to the solving path I cannot confirm or deny regarding the actual puzzle


This guess is very close to the final round structure.

Mail from Tawan:

1. Probably just Classic Sudokus.
2. Variants with missing clue elements.
3. A big round with all the basic variants.
4. A big sudoku jigsaw with 100 pieces!
5. Variants using arrows.
6. Variants with disguised, false, liar clues.
7. Coded variants.
8. Seems like another round with arrows - perhaps a bigger team round.
9. Dice themed, maybe 6x6's.
10. A large mixed-bag round.
11. Team round where each member contribute clues to a bigger puzzle at the end.
12. Matching rule sets to each grid.
13. Team round with limited communication. A no-speaking round?
14. If there had been no arrows up to this point, then surely they're going to fly here.
15. Linked puzzles laid out in a circle.
16. Sounds violent. Maybe a round of hard classics that needs bifurcation. Probably written by Ashish.
17. A sprint round with easy puzzles.
18. A round with bits of everything in previous rounds. Maybe a weakest link-style team round.