WSPC 2023

And looking back the latest championship. Detailed results can be found in the official site.

WSC

I was clearly aiming for a playoff place.

Round 1
As my usual, I started from high pointers, which means two 70s in this round. And then solved the others, mostly from the end. I did not expect finishing here, the difficulty was much easier than expected.

Round 2
Went backwards. Surprisingly good result in Classic round, even without assumptions. Most of my Sudoku practice is for easy-middle Classic, so good reward?

Round 3
Solved 95 points Thermometer first (quite tough one), then mostly backwards but skipped Pencil Marks at first. I did not plan to solve this before the event, but with the difficulty of previous rounds, I decided to try it at some point. I was lucky to hit two-degree assumption. I tried Anti-Knight in the end but broke it, I tweaked and got valid Classic solution in time but it was still incorrect with 4-cell switch.

Round 4
Points distribution had less variance here, so in order to avoid confusion, I did not prefer Math Grid and Bubble. Maybe typical strategy? Then I went backwards, but my beginning Group Sum was the biggest trouble, where I missed repetition around the clue and wasted some time. Disappointing result considering the round theme.

Round 5
Then the trouble occurred; I was sleepy after the lunch, which is rare for me. This was my first visit to that area, and apparently I did not fit the time zone. This was significant trouble for my and our team throughout the week.  I do not want to recall this round so much... broke Triple Diagonal, major error in the first Renban, and an empty cell in Windoku!

Round 6
Went backwards. I had to reset my mind here. Not the best with some erasing, but happy to recover from the previous round.

Round 11
Kota and Hideaki solved 1-5, I and Takuya for 6-9. The pairing was just because of original seat. My side was slower with a wrong step, so Kota helped us in the end.

Round 12
My first role was to decide the position of Classic pieces, together with Killer pieces; we expected the orientation would be obvious for those. No progress for a while with given Killer clues, and I noticed the remaining sums could be calculated, and... gave them to Hideaki! It must have been the best choice. It was rather smooth after that.

 So I was 9th after day 1, largely affected by one bad round. Still not giving up the final, I had to perform so well on day 2.

Round 7
Backwards, with many guesses, managed to finish in the end but made a 2-cell switch error. I did not know that at that moment but it could have been critical.

Round 8
Starting from the second Outside, and then Skyscrapers where I smoothly found the logic. Then solved Rossini kinds and went backwards from String (it was very nice btw). I did not have enough time for the cheapest one, so checked for a while in the end. The result was better than expected, maybe puzzly side?

Round 9
Better than Classic, but  I am not comfortable with these kinds. Weave was the worst one for me, I learnt 45-degree rotation from Kota but still broke the example, so I left if for last and went backwards skipping it. I had less trouble thankfully.

Round 10
Easy to expect this round would benefit me, and actually it was. Just backwards.

Round 13
Expected construction, so my role was managing the final grid. It worked well enough.

Round 14
Kota and Takuya preferred Classic, then I chose Turquoise (green), so our positions are:

Turquoise: me

Blue: Takuya

Red: Hideaki

Yellow: Kota

We struggled with #1. Sometimes I had no progress on it, or even erased my seal which I place in my previous turn! After the round I heard that our stuck point was in Turquoise, but I do not remember the exact state. One funny thing was that I made no submission here, probably thanks to Kota.

Round 15
We sat the same seat as the previous round, and the puzzle distribution was:

Set A: Kota

Set B: Hideaki

Set C: me

Set D: Takuya

I had no trouble on instructionless part, and when I finished checking and was considering second check, Takuya submitted, so I joined in. Kota came a bit later, and it was good time to know the remaining rule. I and Takuya solved top-left grid, and when I noticed that 3-digit number can be determined, I gave it to Takuya! Similar work as round 12, again it was good decision. Hideaki managed to finish his part (probably the most troublesome set), so we could check Samurai together. We finished in 39 minutes and the round was extended for 15 minutes, so I think we should get bonus for that, but no change for the ranking.

Playoff
Yeah I achieved my first target! I had to wait for 6:20 but in case of severe playoff I might had a chance. It was not the case this year and easier than expected 50 minutes, I had no chance and just solved in my pace. But it must be good opportunity, and it is positive point that I was not too slow. Btw, I had strange feeling for no break between puzzles.

Sudoku GP Final

Unusual timing this year. Online Stage was announced in short, so I had to change my schedule. My online solving included breaking easy Classic, which made Tom (the author) laughing, but I believed that Tantan would not prefer Classic. It was true and I still had a chance for win in Live Stage. I was lucky in Classic here, and had a chance  of Grand Final, with Anti-Windoku (I think there was bad communication, her intention seemed to be Non-Consecutive). Badly I made a wrong Classic step, I need to improve this.

By the way, the rule says that a bye player always loses, but I think it was not applied in that way, if the structure is same next year, I would like to clarify. The best thing is that everyone can come to Live Stage, of course.

And I would like to leave my preference list:

Arrow

Sum by X

Big Bands

Thermo

Self-Joint

Classic C

Classic B

Classic A

Unfortunately I was sicky next day, had to give up Niagara Falls tour. Maybe I spent too much energy for WSC, or GP Final ended late.... Due to the jet lag I woke up every two hours, only four hour sleep in total, and after the sleepy round I reduced my lunch, there were so many reasons to lose my condition. I even doubted if I would survive WPC, at least I had to save my energy. This is why I wore more in WPC.

WPC

Anyway it began. Due to the announced difficulty, I changed my strategy, to be much more simple order.

Round 1
Went backwards. I had counting trouble on the second Fillomino, and guessed a lot on the second Kurotto, so high pointers were hard enough, but solvable. This year I checked very carefully after each solving, one error might lead to losing hundreds of points in this situation. I did not spend additional minutes in the end instead.

Round 2
The order was #4, 5, 6, 3, 2, 1, this was typical order in many rounds with 6 puzzles. I feared the unique rule of Konkat-kuro but it was not used here. I almost missed a cell in Invisible Doubles but managed to find while checking.

Round 3
Trying to go backwards, but after 20 minutes I had one unique side and one no-solution side, I made some wrong deduction but it was not easy to fix it. Giving it up, I managed to catch two middle pointers and still had 5 minutes or so, but I had some confusion in Skyscrapers and could not finish it. There were some risky round this year and this round was one of them, so with my condition I expected such trouble round, but... I was not welcomed to Niagara at all. One positive point was that my condition got a bit better with a lot of sweat during this round. And great performance from Naoki.

Round 4
Here the order was #5, 6 then backwards. Thankfully there were intuition-friendly.

Round 5
Same order as round 2. Well themed round. I tried not to guess so much because I did not want to do severe checking, and it worked well.

Round 6
Another risky round but it was rather smooth. I had to erase a bit but not too much.

Round 7
Clearly bad performance. Going backwards, I did not check given banks in Battleships and Statue Park, wasted too much time. I guessed a lot in these genres and was forced to check carefully.

Round 11
Same order as round 4, another typical way. The last steps of #2 was not easy and even after getting solution I tried the wrong side to confirm.

Round 12
Just  backwards. I broke Heyawake partially but only erased a bit.

Round 13
Next day, getting better but not perfect yet, and bad start. My solving order was #5 to 9 and then #4 to 1, and my first trouble was in #7, which I somehow broke many times and restart again and again. I spent some time for understanding #9 - at some point I felt it was similar to Mochikoro and that was the trigger. And other troubles were in easy ones, I forgot to connect same alphabets and only trying separating different alphabets. Our team did not prepare enough for this round, our fault.

Round 14
Same order as round 4. I could not see logical way for Antisymmetry, so it was solved with case distinction.

Round 15

Went backwards. Error-prone round, and I wanted to solve logically and keep accuracy, but Masyu Triangular was done by intuitive solve.

Round 16

Solved 100+ pointers first then went backwards. 140 points Exercise was the hardest for me but managed to find the pattern. One good surprise was that Aoi, our newcomer this year, finished for the first time and get out of the room.

Round 18

Same order as round 2, I wanted to finish Diagonal soon. Tough puzzles as expected, I guessed a lot, even in a cheaper one.

Round 19

After the falling in Niagara, here I began with Fillomino. Holes were not easy to grasp, when I needed one more cell and checked the grid, there was an unused hole cell.

Round 20

In the given order, for the first time this year or I should include round 6 or 19. Normally this is guessy type but I still feared for errors.

Round 10

After saving lunch, I felt hungry at the beginning of this round, maybe lacked some energy. I started from Crisscross, which I thought safe choice, but spent 20 minutes for this, clearly out of plan. Then solved Star-Crossed and One or Two, and my next plan was Crisscross Crash but could not find the trick, so went to Piece Arch, which I was to leave for last. Only 5 minutes or so was remaining then, so gathered 10 points Wordle Bank and checked for several minutes. Hard Wordle Bank was logical, so maybe I could have get some more points in different order, but not so much. Tough round for me and our team, I am not sure about the portion solving skill and language advantage, I would like to see a number-themed round to understand the situation.

To summarize the individual rounds, it was easy, maybe too much. It tested our accuracy again and again, and most of my conscious was spent for it, but I felt strategical aspect was not tested enough. Maybe finishable difficulty is good for saving my energy, but I also love tough contests too.

Puzzle GP Final

I decided to take enough dinner. I felt sleepy, but I could have some exercise during video presentation, and felt well in the Final. My preference list were:

Skyscrapers+Kakuro

Cave

Aqre

Snake Pit

Nurikabe

Infection

Kakuro

Letter Touch

When I knew the new format, my first impression was that I did not want to play "Printing" GP. Possibly I would change this next year after checking the data, but anyway this was my principal this year. Actually I had that trouble in Kakuro, as you can see in my video. Word types cannot be my preference, so my candidates were Skyscrapers+Kakuro, Cave and Aqre. I also considered adding classic Kakuro to this list, but imagining the tournament table (not revealed), Hideaki can be my opponent in my second match, and Kota in third (in fact both came true), so I chose Number types for the first. For Cave and Aqre, I believed in Matej from the result of last year, so placed Aqre to more important spot. The rule at that moment said I might choose the remaining puzzle, so my choice were to make more accident. I would have chosen differently in the correct format.

Online Stage was ok for me, and my possible opponents in Live Stage were Naoki, Jeffrey, Thomas at that moment. So my best choice for the Grand Final was Kakuro for sure. Even if I lose my first match, Naoki would skip Kakuro, so my task was how to beat him in one of the remaining three puzzles. No lose was better, but I had at most two chances. I knew his preference to Pentominous, and he must have been accustomed to Slitherlink, so chose Cave. I gave him Pentominous but I know man could have trouble in the playoff situation, and actually it was the case for him, not critical though.

It was a pity that there were no video for the audience, on the other hand we did not have to wait for setting and the Final was quite shorter than Sudoku.

Round 8

We could choose our pairs but not the puzzle sets.

First half: me and Hideaki

Second half: Kota and Naoki

Instructions were not difficult for our part. Hideaki soon finished the Latin puzzle and helped me, but we just wasted time for it. I even heard proctors talking about my stuck.... I am still not sure about good way for it. Somehow I found the solution, only 5 minutes or so to check the final grid. Loop part had been finished then but I could not fully understand the required rule. And we had an error in the third puzzle. Just a disaster round.

Round 9

We simply had one paper each and filled from outside of the grid. I and Naoki were faster by 3-4 pieces and help the others. We were anxious about error and slow to avoid it, I am very curious about how the German team did in this round.

Round 17

I and Naoki mainly handled the combination part, not strictly logical way. Kota missed copying a digit and we needed some time to notice it, but otherwise smooth.

Round 21

I do not remember what I solved in this round. We tried to use tricks in its attached grid, like rotating partial rectangles of Statue Park, changing clues of Nonogram into Ternary form (no solution), or even considering Country Road as 25x25 grid using vertices and midpoints. At some point I noticed that Cave could be rotated, and there was rotation trick in other place. Afterwards most of my work was matching, I did not solve any single grid by myself. The trick for Scrabble was obvious but we never considered using previous solutions because no other grid did that (by the way there was another spot for "NARF" in the first stage?), and I assumed changing grid size was for Observation Puzzle. I am so sorry for having asked so much work to Hideaki but in vain. That means we also missed Country Road and Nonogram. In the end of the round three of us (except Naoki in Country Road) cooperated in Word Search.

If I remember the Q&A session correctly, the round was quite harder than expected? With the round extension, USA should have more bonus points for 15 minutes, huge difference. But I think the round was well considered to be cultural neutral, at least better than word types. Just we lacked the ability....

Round 22

First we made the combination with 800, and optimized in the next step. It had been a while since my last folding/origami, but my hand remembered. Time setting was not severe here.

Mini Playoff
Due to my condition and some uncommon round, I did not aim for each playoff, this was just a result. Easel style has never been appeared officially since 2013, which I watched as an audience, so my only have some exhibition experience in Japan. This was unofficial thing, and I did not have to avoid errors too seriously here. Maybe I could do more roughly, though. First TomTom was not easy to start, I feared mistake with pen and used small numbers. This genre was almost decided here. In the next genre first Star Battle was again decisive. For Shading, I considered different notation on easel, but finally used my normal way. Here I made the only error during this WPC, lost another chance. The cause was more like easel style, maybe I felt some fatigue though. For Loop/Path, I wrongly left an end of the Slitherlink loop in the bottom half and had to correct it with some cross marks, and I also made a wrong deduction in Cross Border Parity Loop and took a while to notice it. And in the last round, I assumed global argument was required in Araf and wasted time, my bad tendency. It did not go well as a whole, but one good point was that I could solve all 15 puzzles, meaning less trouble.

Still much to improve physically and technically. My new year would start from ASC, maybe 24HPC, and WSPC would be in near place? And I have to prepare for next GP season too.

WSPC 2022

Assuming that one team round, playoff videos, detailed results and GP puzzles will not be released, I post this draft before mentioning the latest WSPC. Probably most of my memories are getting obscure.

----

Here is my playback of the great week, which I waited for three years. This kind of article happens only after I solve all the contest puzzles (including team ones), so it is a bit late this year.

WSC
Well, the championship which I hold for a while somehow. Now I know the results of Tawan's crystal ball contest and that many people expected my performance (more than I thought), and at least I tried doing my best.

Round 1
Left: #8, 9
Error: #1

All same points, so just in order. Managed to finish #7 in time but 2-cell switch in #1.

Round 2
Solved: #10

Then disaster began. I spent half of the round for #10, then went to #5 but broke it in the final phase. I could not finish tweaking in time.

Round 3
Solved: #2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

From high pointers. Much more smooth than the previous round. Two puzzles were marked as wrong at first due to bad writing.

Round 4
Solved: #2, 3

Bad work on high pointers this time. Normally I solve these to hide slow classic speed, and my performance relied too much on them this year. I had some time to try #5 but only filled 1/3.

Round 5
1 minute left.

Finishing this round or not would make big difference, so happy without any significant trouble.

Round 6
Solved: #4, 5, 7

Error: #9

5-cell error in #9 was critical. I tried to get #1 or #2 in the last minutes but got stuck soon in both.

Round 7
Solved: #1, 3, 6

Error: #2

Major error this time. I filled 1/3 of #4 but it could not be in time, so checked #6 and rushed. It was as expected, to make unique puzzle with this rule.

Round 8
I do not have our papers so not sure which ones we solved, but probably all Arrows and two Diagonals? We messed up with some letters, otherwise all Diagonals and some more could have been completed.

Round 9

Decisive round for team result. We should have guessed more?

Sudoku GP Final

My first appearance. No puzzle selecting, just solving unlike Puzzle GP. I broke my first puzzle, Thermometer, resulting in no solution. I even messed up next Non-Consecutive but managed to find the pattern. Afterwards it went much better, but I lost to Timothy twice. I even feared no-winning beforehand, so good result enough.

Round 10
Solved: #3, 4, 6, 7

#3 was marked as incorrect due to a thin writing. Barely finishing all high pointers, no time to check the others.

Round 11
Solved: #1, 5, 7, 9

My initial plan was to solve #8 but I had to give it up without any inner progress (due to wrong deduction?). And the round ended midway through #6.

Round 12
Solved: #1, 2, 9-12

Third set first, then first set half. Confused a bit for copying.

Round 13
So I was third in our team, relatively easy position in this round but expected to win all. I did not note our opponent team in the first round, probably we met Germany but I cannot recall others, sorry. But opponent did not matter here, time was the real opponent. The round concept is good in that many people can experience playoff-like things, but I wonder how they felt with this difficulty.

We won all matches in the first round, but second Antiknight was 1-0 (only me) and fourth Windoku was also 1-0 (Kota, this was the only one I missed). Thus second seed next to Czech.

I had a note for the second round, it says we met France, USA, UN with Vincent and UN of Tantan and Thais. Semifinal was 0-0 draw (again only one I missed) but we managed to win the tournament. Good reward.

Playoff
Believing my note, the selection was like this:

Fourth round

Tiit: Sudoku Fractions for first

Kota: Arrows for second

Tantan: Liar Frame Sum for fourth

Tiit: Diagonal (second) for third

Kota: Killer for fifth

Third round

Jakub: Outside for second

Jan: Irregular for third

Hideaki: Consecutive Sequence for first

Jakub: Kropki for fourth

Second round

Jakub: Sequence Top-Bot for first

Ken: Skyscrapers for second

Thomas: Antidiagonal for third

First round

Nikola: Fortress for first

Jan: Antiknight for second

Sinchai: Integral for third

I chose Skyscrapers as a puzzler, of course Thomas was there but I thought this was the best choice. Actually I did not do it well but I earned time in the first Sequence Top-Bot and kept the lead.

My next round, after waiting for 200 seconds, I had to start checking my instructions; it was Sequence in fact! The lines pass the border so it was quite strange, but I could not believe in myself because I had not checked this type in previous round. Jakub somehow solved it and the other puzzles, and Jan happened to see the next Outside, so keeping Jakub's time for Irregular and Kropki, reselection happened:

Irregular for first, Kropki for second (original choice)

Jakub: Classic (first) for fourth

Hideaki: Squares in squares for third

This Hideaki's choice really benefitted me and himself. I could start the final Classic but time disadvantage affected here, so my defending game ended.

I did not felt so much fatigue, as if I could not use my energy well. This was somewhat true, I could not adapt to the difficulty till the end. I need more skills to choose different strategy.

WPC
And my main target to stop the gap of five years....

Round 1
#1 to #3 and then went back from the last. Writing all numbers in Nanro is not my usual, so I wanted to do it early. After solving all puzzles, I checked 5 minutes or so, because irregular grids have more possibility of errors. But except Ripple Effect; it takes much time so I believed in my solving. Then I submitted with 28 minutes left.... And error in this! 4-cell error and no partial bonus, so my possible 730 points became exactly half. I heard this in lunch break, worst feeling in the week. But as a result, this was the only error in this WPC.

Round 2
8 minutes left.

Just went backwards.

Round 3
13 minutes left.

I cannot recall my order, but it was genre by genre, based on my preference and total points. I made some guesses, especially on loop types. And with many puzzles, I spent several minutes for checking before submission.

Round 4
15 minutes left.

Solved in the given order. I had some trouble in latter half but not critical.

Round 5
Left: Spiral Snake

Then more trouble occured. Nothing was smooth, the worst thing was Easy as Snake, which I broke in the last steps and had to fix by tweaking. I solved this round from the end but skipping Spiral Snake with insufficient remaining time, so I had to get this 100 points even ignoring 30+50. I managed to do that, and hurried for 30 points. I lost this round but this could have been much worse.

Round 6
Left: Slitherlink (Crossing + Toroidal + Liar)

First I solved two 115s and then checked 135 points for several minutes, but no progress. It seems I persisted too much on global argument. Giving up and tried the others, but I had to restart Suguru and lost time, so I could not return to Slitherlink. But strategically better choice at least.

Round 7
2 minutes left.

Same feeling as WSC, we should have guessed more? I was almost working on construction, and we were too much logical I think. We lost so much points here.

Round 8
10 minutes left.

Due to the points distribution, solved in the given order. First one was as expected, but I know the use of 0, I was careful about it. I felt my solving was a bit rough, and my error in the first day occurred in the morning, so I spent several minutes for checking before submission.

Round 9
27 minutes left.

Solved in the order. I wanted to be logical with this rule, but I hit an assumption for the last one.

Round 10
Left: Hidato (Knight) (second)

Crazy round as expected. I love the concept, but to be honest I do not prefer solving this in official competition; it often requires re-reading of the instructions, it is difficult to translate precisely in advance. Actually I heard that Hideaki had some confusion.

Due to the risk in this round, my solving order was complicated. I wanted go get all 70+ points, but at the same time I did not want to take too much risk, so I went from front page but skipping some uneasy puzzles like Hidato and Overlapping Square, and cheap ones like Meandering Numbers and Country Road. I was threatened by the gimmick many times but managed reach the last one, and returned to the skipped ones. Hidato twins were my last, with good remaining time, but I was too slow for the first one, I had to guess the second one in the last minutes but with no success.

Round 11
14 minutes left.

Probably did in the order, but maybe skipped cheap ones. I could not find logical way for Fuzuli during competition, thankfully I had plenty of time and decided to use brute force.

Round 12
6 minutes left.

If I remember correctly, went forward starting from Slitherlink, and returned to the skipped ones. I thought the second Slitherlink had two solutions but it was just wrong. Not stable work.

Round 13
1 minute left.

First gathered 110s, then 130, and the remaining ones. Kropki was my final puzzle, here I had to hurry for unexpected finish.

Round 14
6 minutes left.

I can see erasing in several puzzles, so I think it was not smooth for all of us.

Puzzle GP Final

I wanted to avoid lottery so I skipped Star Battle first, then used Japanese Sums considering my opponent. Next skip was Parking Lot, which I though also had some risk of lucky guess. Then Double Choco. Of course this also has some risk, but here I managed to left four stable genres, and as Japanese I might had some advantage to Thomas. It did not go as I wanted, but one lose yet.

Here a trouble happened, next puzzle should have been chosen by Kota, but Wei-Hwa mistakenly asked to Thomas. This was the earliest lose of top seed in this format, so possible confusion. Kota also wanted to choose Fillomino (and Thomas also for Yajilin in next round), so no difference luckily.

Fillomino and Yajilin were okay, but true problem was in classic Slitherlink; I broke it and could not fix it. This was out of plan, much worse than Double Choco. I was quite good in final Slitherlink (corners) (though missed a segment thus one error), so my largest regret was in losers final.

Round 15
I have a note for this side:

Pot 4: Greece

Pot 6: bye

Pot 2: UK

Pot 3: Bulgaria

Pot 5: Finland

All 4-0, so first seed. Tournament opponents were France, Czech, Netherlands, USA.

I remember Kota lost in Skyscrapers and Yuki lost in another match, but there were all. I faced many good players but did well enough. Winning both tournaments was nice.

Playoff
Round 1: Set 4

Round 2: Set 5

Round 3: Set 1

Round 4: Set 2

I was waiting in the hall, not seriously watching but checking the solving time to understand the difficulty. Set 2 and 3 were left for the final, and I just avoided the word type. At least one other finalist chose the same, but I know it was not Yuki. And there is no mention about time advantage in the instruction; it was based on the ratio of preliminary points but multiplied by 0.8. So my advantage to Thomas was (2400 seconds)*(1500/7560 points advantage)*0.8=(381 seconds). But I knew even 7 minutes had not been enough.

Before to start the final, I asked if the last puzzle type would be revealed beforehand. I did not want to re-read the instruction again. When we knew that... oh. I had bad experience in the previous round.

Smooth solve in Chained Block. Statue Park too. Context was not, I just hit an assumption. Skyscrapers was okay again. The problem was in Hidato. Due to the irregular gird, I missed some easy steps, and it was still hard even with that. Finally I hit three-degree assumption or so.

So, with relatively easy rounds, accuracy was more important this year. Large error in beginning but only that, I think I could fit the situation. And finally saved my position in the playoff. I was not solid at some point, but I believe there is some improvement. Still going.

24HPC 2023

 

So here is the recap of my second visit to Budapest. Normally I write this kinds after I solve the remaining puzzles and check the results, so this post goes before looking back the last WSPC. (I think I was waiting for results, videos and maybe more.)

This year I arrived on Thursday, and spent two days for sightseeing, including two exit rooms. I walked too much, but still my state was much better than in 2017.

Round 1

Left: Angle Loop (second), Two Way Stostone (second)

My original plan was, starting from the front page and go till Two Way Stostone, and then going back from the last one. But the second Angle Loop was apparently evil so I skipped it, and I spent much time on the second Two Way Stostone but in vain. Thankfully I was quite lucky in the Triple Jump, so I just collected the remainings. 

Round 2

Left: Top Heavy Number Place (second), Tapa (second)

I was planning to solve in order, but made bad start in Thermo Sudoku. Considering the pace, I skipped other Latin types, then my next trouble was in the second Tapa; I thought it was broken even after three attempts! Before the round Samu explained the case of broken puzzles, so maybe I was too suspicious. Finally I broke the second Top Heavy Number Place and could not complete it, resulted in bad round.

Round  3

Left: Easy as ABC (all six) , Pentominous (both)

Error: Knight Battleships (second)

Planned to go backward from the end, at least till Ripple Effect. But I could not find starts of the second Knight Battleships and move on to the first one, I managed to solve it (but missed a ship, which was saved though) and then I also solved the second one, but I made an error while checking the pentominoes, placed two Ps! This is my only (non-secured) error in this contest. After that, in the other types, I could make some progress at least, but the biggest problem was that I assumed wrong deduction in (Anti)knight Heyawacky. I finished (Anti)knight Makaro in the last seconds, and that saved my position.

Round 14

In my last participation, round 14 was my skip round, so this is my first experience. Just in order, 33 minutes left (from my note). Later I corrected my error in Kakuro (the highest one). Basically I check my solutions (but find no error except this round) after finish, and take some rest and food. I cannot get bonus but additional break is good thing anyway, and I could even check the puzzle theme.

Round 5

Went backward from the end, from high pointers. 26 minutes left. I think I was not smooth in Gapped Kakuro, and considering the last round, I checked Kakuro types especially. One funny thing is that my booklet was suffered from water while marking, but no problem.

Round 6

Left: Easy as Regional, Killer Skyscrapers (all three), Sudoku (both), Kuromasu (both)

Original plan was starting from Fences Out-Liars and go ahead, but puzzles were heavy on average. After I managed to solve Times Zones, I collected easy ones on the front page, and then time was up. Maybe I should choose Kuromasu? Definitely the toughest round for me.

Round 7

Left: Word Search, Word Search Sudoku, Coral Anglers, Slash Pack, Tetrapack

As planned, began from Top but skipping Word Search types, and after finishing Coral then returned to Word Search Sudoku. But badly I could not solve it, just wasted time. Giving it up and collected easy ones, but I could not tweak Slash Pack. Probably bad strategy, I should have left Word Search Sudoku till the end.

Round 8

Left: Twins (3/10)

Just in order but skipped Twins till the end. Twins and Word Search have partial points and I think I am not efficient for them, so left these for last sprint. Luckily gravity rule was benefit for me, and I could even leave some time for twins. Finish-able set if I was better at other puzzles.

Round 9

Beginning of 1000s and taking good rest in midnight. 18 minutes left. Just in order and of course leaving Corona in the Woods for the last. Actually I wrongly understood its rule and took some time during the round. I checked my solution after finishing, but I missed two-cell switch in the first Coded Skyscrapers, which was saved by judge.

Round 10

Went backward from the end. 15 minutes left. I talked about Perspective Skyscrapers with Tawan in Saturday night, and it helped me a lot - I still had some trouble though. I can see so many erasing places in my booklet, especially in the latter half (which I solved earlier in the round), so my performance in itself was not that good.

Round 11

Again from the end. This is often good choice for me if I want to confirm high pointers first. 29 minutes left. This time I made less erasing, except Kakuro [Twins] (again my first puzzle) and tweakings in Kurotto and Detour. Mostly common types and good for midnight, actually it was one of the easiest round.

Round 12

Solved in order, 48 minutes left. Definitely the easiest round for me, which I never expected beforehand; my worst result came from his round in my first appearance. Full of common types again, so maybe this tendency has good impact in this competition.

Round 13

Final round, where I was bad in 2017 (and from Bram). So I was careful for strategy, tried heavy ones first; meaning Poker, Winners, Kakuro, Barriers, Honey-comb Islands, Arrows in this order. Thankfully it went well, then I collected the remainings. I was too much relieved and forgot to note my time, 15-20 minutes left I think. BTW I am the exception of Winner. :P

Round 4

Left: Half Dominos (second)

What I did in Japan. The only sad thing in official 24HPC is that I miss a round there. My original strategy was starting from Word Snail and go ahead till Dotted Snake, then Statue Park, Summon, Password Battleships, All Even Fences, Scrabble, Banknotes and Decrypting. I wanted to keep latter two kinds for final sprint, and leave Scrabble as long as possible. It went almost as I planned, except leaving the second Half Dominoes for last; after several minutes I did not find any proper way. In the end I had only 3 minutes for that, needed additional 2 minutes. As my usual in home, I recorded my solving of this round, so I know the most critical trouble was in the first Half Dominoes, where I spent 10 minutes. Actually this was another chance to complete.

So, as a whole, the result is as wished, and my regret in the last round of 2017 was improved, which were my main targets this year. But I made bad start this time, and many points to improve are remaining. Anyway I really enjoyed my journey, I hope I can join in soon again.

WS+PC 2021

Thankfully the festival is coming back. As an online competition, I recorded all my solving (partially for WSC Round7, I was careless and overlooked the lack of memory), and they have been uploaded in my channel in the order I solved, and reordered in the playlist. Details can be seen there and in my submission, so I just put the summarized thoughts in short.

I managed to adjust my schedule and decided to try all the Time Trials on time. I don't know how many others did the same, but at least Hideaki did? Maybe reckless, sacrificing the main results, but I wanted to do it with madness. Predicting the accumulating fatigue, I solved from WPC rounds, mostly in the first day, then weekdays are for TTs and some Bonus rounds, and finished the remaining rounds on next Saturday. In the midway my performance recovered almost ridiculously after sleep (less than 6 hours though), but this was not the case in the last day, I was not competitive but just struggling. One of my regrets was that I was so bad in some WSC rounds, partly due to my condition, but I should accept this as my current state. One positive thing was topping 2 rounds somehow.

Thanks organizers for such a great volume of event, I enjoyed everything. I truly wish 2022 to be normal year, and until then, I have much to improve, physically and technically.

League Update - Videos have been posted

Delayed notice, but I have uploaded League videos in my channel, which I had mentioned in the previous post.
HPL #4, originally planned in March, had been postponed due to the recent situation, so next videos will need a while to appear. I would like to continue this League and videos to show how we play in puzzle competitions, but it is time to (unexpected) break.

It is a pity that WSPC is also postponed, still I am happy with that I can meet puzzles even at home. Now I am working on what I can do, trying to make this period much better.
Be safe until the next event! It is my relief to find your names in online competitions....

Puzzle League

Short news about what I am working on right now; I have planned Heads-up Puzzle League, and the first one was held last weekend.

The idea came when I saw the new format of GP Final two months ago. My first question was validity of the results from almost all easy puzzles, which can be checked by many trials. Then I found good format without so much helpers, and importantly, I am in Tokyo, Japan, where many good players can easily gather. Here I felt great possibility.

I am also trying to add video record and commentary, as in playoffs. They will appear on my YouTube channel from - hopefully - #2 or #3.

WSPC 2019

Let's go to my usual playback of ... unusual week. Official website contains results in detail for WPC, so I mainly write about other things like my strategy.

WSC
Last year, I did quite well in day 1, positioned in 3rd place. I could not keep it with fatigue or something, but there I noticed that I have possibility to get better result. My original target this year was a podium position. My practice was on Sudoku Variants Series from Richard, and easy classics. Why EASY? Well, in puzzle competitions, I often use intuition/brute force, escaping from hard logic. If I use similar strategy in Sudoku contests, especially in hard classics, what I need is basic filling skill. Complicated theories are unnecessary in that case. Throughout the year, I felt my project is going well.

Round 1
Left: #2, 3, 5
Started from the end and go backward. All puzzles had similar points, so I wanted to see what is 35 points first. It went OK, but I made one trial and one error correction in 30s. Then I stuck on another 35, so gathered 25s. There are no hard logic in fact, I could have done better.

Round 2
Left: #1, 2
60, 65, 70, and then from higher ones. I have less trouble in heavy variants and my basic strategy is collecting them (which is same as previous years), but did not want to start from the highest; that has too much risk. And there are no types I fear so much. Not so bad round.

Round 3
Left: #2, 10
Here I did not want to tackle the tough 110. I felt uncomfortable to the Biggest Neighbours type when solving example. My strategy was starting from 75 and go forward, and if I had problem on the "cake " 65, just skip 110. One more reason for choosing this route was that total points of #1 to #5 is higher than 110. Actually I was not smooth on 65 and escaped from the cookie. I had no time to try one 30, which means that if I had solved 110 I had got 10 more points at least.... But this was a way to do with such a round.

Round 4
Left: #1
Gathered 50+ from the end of the booklet (not to be too complicated move), then from higher ones, finally control with the remaining time. Normal move with less trouble, and happy to pick up a cheap one in the very end.

Round 5
Left: #4
Error: #1
Again 50+ from the end. Later I made some trials in Diagonal, and in Alternation Stripes, which I solved in the end but was wrong. My only error in this WSC came because my first assumption (R6C9=6) was wrong in fact. A funny thing is that my solution contain only 6 incorrect cells! If I had noticed it maybe I had a chance to tweak, but the time was running out....

Round 6
Left: #1, 3, 8, 10
Clearly bad round. Here I solved 60s (Mathrax combinations first) and then 50s, but I was not fine in almost all puzzles, especially in #2. I even made risky guess on #9, but still could not get enough time for #10. I expected much better result in such complex rules, I should check the reason.

Round 7
Left: #4
From 55, 65, 80. This time I was OK on Biggest Neighbours, and Double Scattered was not so hard as feared. Somehow I made a trial on #1 Classic, but only there. And I skipped Disjoint Groups, which I am not so good at.

Round 8
I started in Negative Samurai alone. Simply difficult, and I had to erase two corner girds by mistake. Thankfully the connection of the other puzzles was resolved in good time, and Kota came for my help. Well, erasing much on team table is quite sad moment!

Sudoku GP Final
I could not join in due to many errors, here are just my impression from audience side. The format was slightly changed this year, and it got so long; maybe too much for a night event. This is partially because the Sudokus are on tough side. This can be resolved when using easy puzzles like in Puzzle Final (and conducting more games in one heat), but I am not sure which is better for players, when ignoring time duration. One more thing is that it was difficult to know what is happening. I felt we need more screen, for live camera, tournament table, time result, and maybe more.

In Tuesday morning, I saw that I was in 4th place, similar to last year. The significant difference was that I needed only 70 points to Tiit, who was in 1st. I even dreamed more, but first I had to check my day 2 condition, which was too bad in Prague.

Round 9
Less strategy, just a power game. We had to fix some troubles, but well submitted correctly.

Round 10
Feared round for sure. When playing in team, we want to solve multiple grids at the same time, so I constructed the parts every time we know which are adjacent, in order not to hide some grids. That led to inconvenience in writing, but I think it was better. One more, it was not good for solving one grid in multiple solvers. I think I have much better feeling if do it alone. About our performance, we took some time for correcting a grid, barely finished on time.

Round 11
Same strategy as yesterday, from 65, 70, 95. Smooth solving, and first individual finish this year! This time I was in better state, and I changed my target to the victory.

Round 12
I chose skewed order: 2A, 2B, and go to 1A-C, then return to 2C. This is because 2A and 2B have higher points, but 2C is cheaper than 1C. In small size, trial works can be more effective, and I used that way in some puzzles here. I made a major trouble in 1B, so not a clean round but enough. I finished last year's round with small grids, maybe this is my strength? I often see such size in other puzzles....

Round 13
80, 90, 70 and then 60. I felt some risk on 90, but I had good reason to try the chance. It went quite smooth again, and before to start the next playoffs, I learnt that all my submissions were correct and I beat Kota at least.

Team Playoff
Again I was alone in 6x6. My opening was not smooth but without big problem, it came in Nonconsective, where I wrongly recalled the pattern. I noticed my fault only after Kota joined in. I thought I made critical error again..., but somehow we secured the title. Happy thing anyway.

World Cup Playoff
I had never taken care about this, only thinking about overall result. So this is a bonus stage for me, and here I changed my style to brute force side. Classic is not for me, expecially when competing with three Chinese. I used assumptions here, and thankfully solved it without too much disadvantage. I continued that way in the following puzzles, the only puzzle I solved logically was Anti Diagonal. I tried a case even in the final Rossini but I overlooked an easy step beforehand, and could not hit the solution here. Good punishment, but well performed.

Then I received individual victory. When I set my podium target last year, I also dreamed this as a long term target, but it soon came true! I know this is because Kota was not in his best and lost many points with errors, but at least I was there. Same as winning WPC first, I do not think I am the best at this moment, especially in Classis kinds (yes I have much chance to improve here), but I can say, I am proud of not giving up my ability.

WPC
Of course I aimed at everything, but I could not recover well, even after a rest day?

Round 1
The start round was good, even beyond expectation. I had to solve heavy ones from my standing, but the round is on word-side, I must have some disadvantage. My planned order was #2, 4, 8, 9 (high pointers with a practice), 1, 3, 5 (gathering cheap ones, but from higher), 6, 7. And I competed #5 Coded Fillomino in the last minute, which was pleasant. And I could skip Masterword (double letter is quite confusing) and Word Search (no way efficient).

Round 2
Began from #23, on which my team gave good advice. It was still tough and I had to guess on right half, but I earned some time here. Then from #14 to #22, I wanted to complete these but I feared #21 and 22, thus from easier ones. In fact I made a lot of guesswork there. And finally from #13 to #1, in sprint mode with some guesses again. Good round, until then, and my erroneous time began suddenly.

Round 3
Go backward from the end, the only exception was Creek + Slant, which I felt confusing and set it after #3. The actual solving on it was rather smooth, my main trouble was in #7. In checking minute, I noticed that I forgot a cell in Aquarium, and thought I saved 100+ points, but I had one more; a segment of Slant was switched. I am not sure why, this is rare mistake. So I saved 50+14*6=134, lost 65+14*4=121. It costed so much.

World Cup Round 1
Solved: #2, 5, 6, 9-11, 15-17
The worst round. I wondered how to motivate in this round, and I think this mind badly affected me, even in the following rounds. My plan was from #15 to 18 and then go backward, which was my usual strategy, but I could not tweak Compass. I heard from my team that it actually has multiple solutions (R4C3 and R6C3 can be changed), but I do not think this caused my trouble. Then I wasted time on #14, and was forced to gather cheap ones in hurry (from team, Shikaku is not unique in left hand). Too bad.

Round 4
Only one puzzle, sometimes which causes significant trouble. My largest problem was that mistakenly copied the same number in no mark position, C4 between Sudoku and Coral. Anyway finished, endurance.

Round 5
Original plan was, going backward about types, only changing Skyscrapers and Particle Zoo, and in each type staring from easy ones. I was not smooth in Skyscrapers and had to hurry a bit in the latter types, and then stuck on Lookouts. Skipped some of them, more in hurry, but I did not have enough time to sprint on Transporter and Compass. And I made easy errors in addition; bottom right of Candles, which can be fixed soon, and filling trouble in the highest Skyscrapers, 4 cells in non-connected part.

Round 6
Continued bad mode. Starting positions were, Nurikabe: Yuki, Tapa: me, Cross the Streams: Hideaki, Hydra: Kota. We had to return many times, one major trouble among them was my ignorance of Patch hole, I though no way to connect Tapa. And we made mistake while final adjusting in Hydra, 8 minutes bonus disappeared.

Round 7
At first we solved one type 4 puzzles each. My part was Mathrax, and I made an error even here! It soon led to a contradiction in the main puzzles, so I was saved. After that I and Yuki mainly solved the main grid, Kota and Hideaki helped with hints. Bad move, but the result is good enough.

Round 8
Next day, but the same state. Planning was Twilights forward and then Classic backward. I was caught in the first BACA, had to restart Twilight Magnets, spent much on Twilight Cave. And in returning, erased Pentopia and Magnets (again!) and stopped while tweaking Slitherlink (this is not an error). And many errors again. Missed a cell in Tapa (yes I hurried), and both of Magnets was broken in the final steps.

Round 9
Not clean but small recovery. Just from the end, once skipped Crossword where I stuck on. And I had trouble in Magnets again!

Round 10
Original strategy was, #8, 7, 6, 4, and then try #5 or 9. Actually I had less progress on Square Dissection and tackled the thrilling Overlapping Squares. It is great construction and I love it in itself, but quite hard of course. I finished it in the very last seconds, no time for checking and waited for marking. It must be one of my best moves this year to submit correct solution, but on the other side I made  costly mistake again; wrong dissection of 10 cells in Pentominous.

World Cup Round 2
Change my mind after the first round. Same strategy from the end, just changing Masyu and Summon (Masyu is better to start), and this time successfully solved each puzzle. Caught on Underground a bit, but still reached finish.

Round 11
Began in Nanro for safety, but not smooth as a result. Then moved to 110s, bad work in all of three. Japanese Sums was hard to grasp, Fillomino too, and I made silly miscounting on easy Nurikabe. Final sprint was on better side, but I had to leave complex Sudoku.

Round 12
My order was, Fences, Equality, Diagonal Chains, Kirch + Heim, No Same Sums, Marbles and Pairing, from easy one in the same type. Basically I felt okay, especially in Diagonal Chains, some troubles are in Kirch + Heim 3 (overlooking), Marbles and Pairing (both are not so efficient for me, not for sprint). And again, very, very easy errors by misunderstanding of the grid. I could not stop it till the end. By the way, again from my team, Pairing 1 has another solution by simple connection.

Round 13
How crazy! The most important thing here is to avoid wrong deductions, but hard to keep it even taking care. This was our case too, but luckily escaped in small back steps.

Puzzle GP Final
I had to change my mind, concentrating on the tournament. As expected, it is enjoyable from player side. I had to choose two puzzles at once for saving time, but that was OK. Just did as I had planned, only for my sake (to be clear, I gave no information to Japanese team, to be fair, and never considered other games, just looked at my possible opponents). My choice was not so tricky, maybe easy to guess. Unknown Parade Sums is good to skip first, and my first game is good place to spend Skyscrapers; I feel good at this type thanks to Hausigel, but the possibility must decrease when competing with certain players. Next skip was no-reflection pentomino type. The next choice was important, if I won the game I could control almost all the selection. So I picked an ace, but still it was tight match. I was saved by lucky one second. Then kicked (relatively) risky Gaps, and chose (again relatively) risky Endpoints; even if I lost here, Tapa must be chosen next, and I have good chance to return the Championship match. There are no advantage to stay in winner's bracket, so I only needed to win two out of three types. I managed to correct a small trouble here, and successfully left Tapa for last. Well performed in the end of the disaster day.

Round 14
My lead was only 29 points, which means 2 minutes. Almost flat, and I simply had to do my best. But when I heard Philipp's finish, I was still in the Labyrinth of Jigsaw. Refreshed my brain and continued to get the right just in case of his error.

World Cup Round 3
Left: #3
To show my best. From the end, only changing the first puzzle to Kakuro. This time Magnets went well. Partiti was time-eater for me, but otherwise less trouble till the final sprint.

Team Playoff
I was in Knapp Daneben. Starting from Hashi, I reached same contradiction several times in the right half. And the next Lookouts was evil, I wonder how Matej did it. Kota helped me well and I managed to go to the team table. As planned, our order was Pentopia, Fillomino, Slitherlink and Pento Words, but we are not clean in all we tried. Sad lose again. Last Slitherlink was broken by my error, how many times I do that?

World Cup Playoff
Good lottery by Tantan. Regardless of the result, I basically like this format of separating playoffs. More people get chance to be there. My semifinal was in tough group. First Pyramid was not so hard by using parity, but I could not calculate it correctly and erased much. And finally made a silly error; bottom right triangle contained two 9s! Soon corrected it, and next Domino Castle was solved by case distinction. Yajilin was solved by tweaking, and I recovered my disadvantage here. Slant was just large, and I hit 50% on Coral. Good to follow Kota, and that resulted in Japanese final. In the final, I had significant loss in the first Japanese Sums, I have to check it well. Then Battleships was by intuition, Heyawake was by two-degree assumption, I recovered some time but the next Galaxies was the critical. I overlooked a pattern of 2-shape, only considered S-shape. I managed to overtake Kota by intuitive Lasers, but could not touch Hideaki.

So, what was my problem. I had less problem in playoffs this year, I was surprisingly calm. One thing is that I lost 500+ points by errors, as if returning to London or Sofia. I spent too much energy in WSC, or did not fit German style well, I think both are true. The situation is very similar to WSC, the only difference is my position. Anyway Philipp made amazing job, congratulations on it.

Now I should look at the next season. As a coincidence, my father is working in Shanghai since this summer, I think I have good chance to invite him. I would like to find my next way to go.