World Puzzle Championship

The World Puzzle Championship is an annual international puzzle competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. The first one was held in New York in 1992. All the puzzles in the competition are designed to be language- and culture-neutral.

The World Puzzle Championship was the brainchild of Will Shortz, who wanted to create an event where puzzlers from different countries could compete on an even playing field. The first WPC was held in New York in 1992. Shortz was the organizer and Helene Hovanec was the coordinator.

National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzzle Federation. Of the 20 championships held between 1992 and 2011, 13 have been won by the U.S. team (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998-2001, 2004, 2006-2008, 2010-2011), 3 by the Czech Republic (1993, 1994, 1997), 1 by Japan (2002), and 3 by Germany (2003, 2005, 2009). Most successful individual contestant is Ulrich Voigt (Germany) with 7 titles since 2000.

Past Locations^[1]:

As of October 2010, 45 countries are members of the World Puzzle Federation.

Some classic puzzles used at WPC

Incomplete list, in alphabetical order.

• Balance
• Battleship
• Fillomino
• Hitori
• Kakuro
• Nonogram
• Number Link
• Slitherlink
• Sudoku and many variants

See also

• World Sudoku Championship

References

External links

• Official web site