Ok it feels a little odd to write about a sudoku championship I didn’t go to. I’ll start by posting the results :
Overall
1. Thomas Snyder (USA)
2. Yuhei Kusui (Japan)
3. Jakub Ondrousek (Czech Republic)
4. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic)
Classic
1. Thomas Snyder (USA)
2. David McNeill (UK)
3. Michael Ley (Germany)
4. Jakub Ondrousek (Czech Republic)
[For more about the formats of the competition, see here: http://wsc2008.com/ ]
Firstly my congratulations go to Thomas Snyder, who was pretty much everyone’s favourite to go on and retain his title. However it’s absolutely tremendous to see David M doing so well – apaprently he was very near the top in the overall competition as well. After finishing 4th last year (and missing out on the limelight), I’m really glad he’s managed to do even better this year. David is a proper gent, and a formidable puzzler; I don’t think anyone deserves it more. I for one hope that when the UK nationals come around again something can be arranged for him to compete – he wasn’t there last September when I won.
However I’d like to say that I hope the fuckwit judges at Puzzler Media are feeling very small right now. There’s no doubting David’s abilities, but I give him a good run for his money on classic sudokus. Together with my previous championship experience I think I’m justified in thinking I’d have had at least an outside shot at the classic title, and a fairly strong overall competition. Simply put, the team was weakened by the lack of my presence on it.
On a personal level its absolutely galling. From a team perspective it’s simply nonsensical. I’m 100% sure I’d have convincingly outperformed whoever was unfortunate to have been the worst Brit. Hopefully I get my hands on the puzzles soon. I can’t put into words how much I want to not only to stick two fingers back at Puzzler Media by winning the next national championship, and then having another crack at the world championships.
Anyhow, thats more than enough sour grapes from me. I look forward to hearing about how the rest of the UK team got on. Oh errr yeah and revising for my exams on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Hmm, maybe it’s best I wasnt over in Goa after all…
