Sudoku comes to IIT-B

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay will host the Indian Sudoku Championship in January next year. The winner of the competition will represent India in the world Sudoku finals in Philadelphia in April 2010, reports HT Correspondent.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) will host the Indian Sudoku Championship in January next year.

HT Image

Know your Sudoku

Sudoku, meaning single number, was popularised in 1986 by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli. It became an international hit in 2005.

In 1997, a retired Hong Kong judge Wayne Gould, 59, saw a partly completed puzzle in a Japanese bookshop.

Over six years he developed a computer program to produce puzzles quickly.

Knowing that British newspapers have a long history of publishing crosswords and other puzzles, he promoted Sudoku to The Times in Britain, which launched it on 12 November 2004 (calling it Su Doku).

The first letter to The Times regarding Su Doku was published the following day on 13 November from Ian Payn of Brentford, complaining that the puzzle had caused him to miss his stop on the tube.

The winner of the competition will represent India in the world Sudoku finals in Philadelphia in April 2010.

The Sudoku championship will be part of the IIT Techfest from January 22 to 24.

The techfest is the largest science and technology festival in Asia with a footfall of over 60,000 people. This is the first time that IIT-B will be hosting such a competition.

“Sudoku is quite a craze, even on campus, so we thought it would be interesting to host it. Also, this would add to the appeal of the Techfest,” said Nikhil Kashid, media manager, Techfest 2010.

The competition will be the Indian leg of the 5th World Sudoku Championship, which is conducted by the World Puzzle Federation, an international organisation dedicated to puzzles. It follows the Olympic standard and brings together puzzlers from around the world.

The event will have two elimination rounds. The first will be done through online screening and spot screening during the festival. The online screening will be held on January 3 and 9. Indian nationals, irrespective of age, can register at the Techfest website.

The puzzle content and competition will be organised by Logic Masters, a group of puzzlers who have represented India at various world championships. The team had also organised the 3rd World Sudoku Championship in Goa.

The first World Sudoku Championship was held in Lucca, Italy, from March 10-12, 2006.

“Usually only the working population participates in the competition. We wanted to expand the reach of the championship, especially to college students, and Techfest is the perfect platform because of its popularity,” said Amit Sovani, publicity head, of the Bangalore-based Logic Masters.