When I woke up I think it’s fair to say that, despite not knowing the overall results, I was fairly confident I hadn’t hit the heights of the top 8 and so would almost certainly not be participating in the WSC play-offs. Now, an awful lot has been said about the format of the play-offs this year, but I am going to save any more detailed analysis to a future series of blog posts discussing the matter where I hope to engage the community at large. Instead, I’m going to focus on describing them from a spectator’s point of view.
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Kraljevica '12 day 2: World Sudoku Championship
For previous championships I have the feeling that arriving before about 10 in the evening gives you sufficient time to settle down, because I hadn’t quite woken up on the morning of competition with the usual butterflies in my stomach. I’d woken up at 8 and was showered and changed and down in the restaurant a half hour later, and still nothing. I can’t say I was particularly enamoured by the breakfast either. The whole cold breakfast meats with bread and mustard wasn’t particularly what I wanted so in the end I plumped for some cereal. It didn’t seem to make a difference between the yellow supposed corn version or the brown supposed chocolate version - both ended up being fairly cardboard-y. Nothing very liberal sprinklings of sugar couldn’t fix!
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Kraljevica '12 day 1: Arrival
So given some of the troubles that my fellow competitors had in getting to the Uvala Scott resort near Kraljevica, Croatia, I’m not going to linger too much on the blissfully pleasant time I had in Trieste waiting for the bus to transfer me. The sun was shining, it was warm, we had had a gorgeous lunch up in the hills outside Trieste before coming down to enjoy a lingering coffee on the Piazza Unità . Paradise! There was momentary concern about whether the bus was actually going to show up at 5pm at the railway station, but after meeting up with a few other equally concerned puzzlers, it was quickly established the bus was at the nearby coach station instead.
Our route to Croatia had to backtrack to Trieste airport, where we picked up a few more puzzlers. It was great to meet up with some of the Japanese contingent, Yuhei, Kota and Yuka, who had been been making a big detour through much of Italy as part of their journey as well as the Greeks - formidably led as ever by Vasso - and my old drinking buddy Jason of the US. One of the great things about these championships is the chance to meet up with so many different people from different countries, but it is always nice to speak with someone who as English as their mother tongue.
Our merry busload didn’t even notice the Italy-Slovenia border, but at the Slovenia-Croatia border a chap came on board to inspect our passports. I briefly wondered what he thought of our particular medley, but was more thankful that my middle names were remarkable for there being two of them rather than what they actually are. I was also amused by the proliferation of weather symbols dispersed across the new British passport. There was one further stop at some services, which seemed a little unnecessary given we were about half an hour away from the place, but it did give us a chance to stretch our legs and for Jason to purchase a bag of what I assume were sweets but were entitled something very close to the word scrotum. Interestingly enough this was the last I heard of this particular bag of treats...
We finally arrived, turning a corner with a sign pointing towards a “sport disco” (my guess was rugby) and Uvala Scott. Disembarking, we formed a nice orderly queue to receive our room keys. As it was dark I couldn’t really get a feel for the place, but as I handed over my passport I noticed that this hotel’s key was actually a physical key, and on walking up to my room in the dark that this hotel was more like a concrete version of Butlins. Oh well. It’s not like the trip advisor reviews had been glowing, and quite frankly I end up spending as little time as possible in my room at these championships as is possible anyway.
I wandered down to the main bit of the resort, with the bar and the restaurant and the competition hall. In the competition hall, the Q&A session for the sudoku championship was about to get underway, but I was pretty hungry at this stage and instead chose to grab some food from the restaurant. As in previous years, the catering model was an industrial scale buffet - albeit one sorely lacking in both quantity and quality of cakes - which meant that the food wasn’t going to be particularly great, but at that particular moment in time I didn’t really care. I passed over the complimentary glass of bubbly, which apparently couldn’t leave the restaurant, but bought a bottle of beer, which could, and headed over to the Q&A session.
I met up with the UK team, which at this point of proceedings consisted of the official A team, featuring Neil Zussman, Roderick “Rodders” Grafton and Michael Collins, as well as the two ladies, Liane Robinson and Emma McCaughan, who were unofficial B-team participants. Liane pointed out that with spectacular timing I had arrived just as the questions had finished. Not that that really mattered, I only had one minor query about whether a diagonal constraint was going to be present on the little killer (more on this later!) but otherwise the instructions seemed to be fairly self-explanatory.
We stayed and chatted on for a bit longer before deciding it was probably a good idea to head off to bed. And I’d like to say that was that for the first day, but this would be to do discredit to a magnificent thunder storm that manifested at roughly midnight. I’ve never experienced a thunder storm by the sea before, but I can tell you it’s quite an experience! The lightning reflects off the sea and lights up the sky for miles and miles, and the thunder booms down, rumbling across across the water until it hits the shore and physically shakes the room. Needless to say sleep wasn’t going to happen until Zeus, Thor, Perun et al had had their fun, and so whilst they were busy with all of that, I decided to have some fun of my own. With a puzzle book. ;-)
Our route to Croatia had to backtrack to Trieste airport, where we picked up a few more puzzlers. It was great to meet up with some of the Japanese contingent, Yuhei, Kota and Yuka, who had been been making a big detour through much of Italy as part of their journey as well as the Greeks - formidably led as ever by Vasso - and my old drinking buddy Jason of the US. One of the great things about these championships is the chance to meet up with so many different people from different countries, but it is always nice to speak with someone who as English as their mother tongue.
Our merry busload didn’t even notice the Italy-Slovenia border, but at the Slovenia-Croatia border a chap came on board to inspect our passports. I briefly wondered what he thought of our particular medley, but was more thankful that my middle names were remarkable for there being two of them rather than what they actually are. I was also amused by the proliferation of weather symbols dispersed across the new British passport. There was one further stop at some services, which seemed a little unnecessary given we were about half an hour away from the place, but it did give us a chance to stretch our legs and for Jason to purchase a bag of what I assume were sweets but were entitled something very close to the word scrotum. Interestingly enough this was the last I heard of this particular bag of treats...
We finally arrived, turning a corner with a sign pointing towards a “sport disco” (my guess was rugby) and Uvala Scott. Disembarking, we formed a nice orderly queue to receive our room keys. As it was dark I couldn’t really get a feel for the place, but as I handed over my passport I noticed that this hotel’s key was actually a physical key, and on walking up to my room in the dark that this hotel was more like a concrete version of Butlins. Oh well. It’s not like the trip advisor reviews had been glowing, and quite frankly I end up spending as little time as possible in my room at these championships as is possible anyway.
I wandered down to the main bit of the resort, with the bar and the restaurant and the competition hall. In the competition hall, the Q&A session for the sudoku championship was about to get underway, but I was pretty hungry at this stage and instead chose to grab some food from the restaurant. As in previous years, the catering model was an industrial scale buffet - albeit one sorely lacking in both quantity and quality of cakes - which meant that the food wasn’t going to be particularly great, but at that particular moment in time I didn’t really care. I passed over the complimentary glass of bubbly, which apparently couldn’t leave the restaurant, but bought a bottle of beer, which could, and headed over to the Q&A session.
I met up with the UK team, which at this point of proceedings consisted of the official A team, featuring Neil Zussman, Roderick “Rodders” Grafton and Michael Collins, as well as the two ladies, Liane Robinson and Emma McCaughan, who were unofficial B-team participants. Liane pointed out that with spectacular timing I had arrived just as the questions had finished. Not that that really mattered, I only had one minor query about whether a diagonal constraint was going to be present on the little killer (more on this later!) but otherwise the instructions seemed to be fairly self-explanatory.
We stayed and chatted on for a bit longer before deciding it was probably a good idea to head off to bed. And I’d like to say that was that for the first day, but this would be to do discredit to a magnificent thunder storm that manifested at roughly midnight. I’ve never experienced a thunder storm by the sea before, but I can tell you it’s quite an experience! The lightning reflects off the sea and lights up the sky for miles and miles, and the thunder booms down, rumbling across across the water until it hits the shore and physically shakes the room. Needless to say sleep wasn’t going to happen until Zeus, Thor, Perun et al had had their fun, and so whilst they were busy with all of that, I decided to have some fun of my own. With a puzzle book. ;-)
Friday, 12 October 2012
Friday Puzzles #178
So I'm back from Croatia, dearest reader, and as promised I've made a homage to one of my favourite puzzles from the WPC. It is a somewhat curious fact that this puzzle type didn't feature in any of the competition rounds, but was instead introduced to me after hours in the bar by my good friends, the merry Polish puzzlers. Whilst the actual competition is one of the most important thing at these championships, it is my humble opinion that the socialising afterwards with fellow puzzlers is equally as important. Anyhow, as is always the way with these things, broadly sweeping statements were made by all concerned and before I knew it I was committed to broadcast this wonderful innovation to the world.
Now as I'm sure all my dearest readers now, detuned radio is very much a blog that promotes family fun, but I fear that this week we will be pushing things to the limit. However I'd like to think that if nothing else, I am a man of my word, so here goes. Please bear in mind I've had to give a few aspects of this puzzle a slightly different description!
Place some 1x3-cell rectangles of either orientation, and some circles (contained in a single cell) into the grid. Rectangles may not touch rectangles, and cells containing circles may not touch cells containing circles, even at a single point. Each rectangle must orthogonally touch 2 circles, to form a T pentomino, and each T pentomino touches a further circle at its base, so that there is a set of several disjoint hexominoes of the same type in the grid.
(N.B. I'm not sure if there is a standard labelling of hexomino types by letters given there are 35 of them, but the one I have in mind is definitely the one that looks most like a capital T. With apologies to my illustrious e-mail correspondent for the previous ambiguity!)
Numbers outside the grid indicate how many cells in the corresponding row or column are used by rectangles.
If things aren't beginning to become clear, just be thankful this type probably isn't going to feature as a manipulative team round any time soon. Ahem. Enjoy!
P.S. I'll put up a puzzle which did feature in competition next week!
P.P.S. Expect some lengthy championship reportage soon!
Now as I'm sure all my dearest readers now, detuned radio is very much a blog that promotes family fun, but I fear that this week we will be pushing things to the limit. However I'd like to think that if nothing else, I am a man of my word, so here goes. Please bear in mind I've had to give a few aspects of this puzzle a slightly different description!
Place some 1x3-cell rectangles of either orientation, and some circles (contained in a single cell) into the grid. Rectangles may not touch rectangles, and cells containing circles may not touch cells containing circles, even at a single point. Each rectangle must orthogonally touch 2 circles, to form a T pentomino, and each T pentomino touches a further circle at its base, so that there is a set of several disjoint hexominoes of the same type in the grid.
(N.B. I'm not sure if there is a standard labelling of hexomino types by letters given there are 35 of them, but the one I have in mind is definitely the one that looks most like a capital T. With apologies to my illustrious e-mail correspondent for the previous ambiguity!)
Numbers outside the grid indicate how many cells in the corresponding row or column are used by rectangles.
If things aren't beginning to become clear, just be thankful this type probably isn't going to feature as a manipulative team round any time soon. Ahem. Enjoy!
#213 Bit of a T's – rated easyAll puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.
P.S. I'll put up a puzzle which did feature in competition next week!
P.P.S. Expect some lengthy championship reportage soon!
Friday, 5 October 2012
Friday Puzzles #177
Greetings from Croatia, where it's great to be in the company of the international puzzling fraternity. Some things never change though, and again I find myself on a Thursday night formatting up a puzzle ready for publication. The WSC has been and gone and washed me up in 28th place, which I'm satisfied with even if I was aiming to break into the top 20. There's always next year! Team UK finished the team competition in 12th, which is modest progress on last years 14th, and all the more creditable in the absence of David McN, who sadly had too many commitments to make it out this year. I look forward to trying to get one over him at next year's event!
Congratulations are due to Jan M of Poland for taking his 3rd title, and to the Japanese all-star team for running away with the team title.
Anyhow, onto puzzling matters. My idea was to take my favourite puzzles from both the WSC and the WPC and provide my own humble homage. I thought a lot of the puzzles from the WSC were if not disappointing, then no better than mediocre, many seemed to have come from straight out the generator. From an aesthetic point of view, it was a little disappointing to observe a distinct lack of symmetry in the play-off puzzles. The one difference was a little killer puzzle which was a lot of fun to solve. Perhaps at this stage I should mention that that puzzle, as well the one below, does not require there to be different digits on the main diagonals of the grid. Perhaps I should also mention that I've got Neil Z sat across the table test solving, and he hasn't managed to crack it yet. On that basis, this gets a "hard." Enjoy!
Congratulations are due to Jan M of Poland for taking his 3rd title, and to the Japanese all-star team for running away with the team title.
Anyhow, onto puzzling matters. My idea was to take my favourite puzzles from both the WSC and the WPC and provide my own humble homage. I thought a lot of the puzzles from the WSC were if not disappointing, then no better than mediocre, many seemed to have come from straight out the generator. From an aesthetic point of view, it was a little disappointing to observe a distinct lack of symmetry in the play-off puzzles. The one difference was a little killer puzzle which was a lot of fun to solve. Perhaps at this stage I should mention that that puzzle, as well the one below, does not require there to be different digits on the main diagonals of the grid. Perhaps I should also mention that I've got Neil Z sat across the table test solving, and he hasn't managed to crack it yet. On that basis, this gets a "hard." Enjoy!
#212 Little Killer Sudoku – rated hardAll puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.
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