Contests and Competitions

Computer Program “Dr. Fill” Takes on the ACPT

February 16, 2012
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Matt Ginsberg, a computer scientist in Oregon, has created a computer program, called Dr. Fill, that will be unofficially competing in this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.  Not surprisingly, Dr. Fill is being compared to Watson, the computer that beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy.  Though, the truth is that comparing Dr. Fill to Watson is a bit like comparing a flea to an elephant.  While a whole team of scientists built Watson, Dr. Fill is the brain child of Ginsberg alone.  It makes the whole thing more interesting, in my opinion.  It could really show how far technology has come, if the computer program that could win the ACPT can we run on most laptops.  That said, Ginsburg isn’t predicting a win.  The article says he’s guessing 20th place is more likely.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

Treasure Challenge

December 10, 2008
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I got an email a while back about a site called Treasure Challenge that offered cash prizes for solving puzzles.  I just tried the puzzle for the first time today.  The site requires you to create a user to log in.  You are then presented with the treasure challenges for the week.  It will either tell you who solved the challenge or when the challenge will be active, or it will let you try the challenge.

First, you are presented with a series of trivia questions that shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone connected to the internet.  Some of the questions require you to click on an ad link.  The answer to the question takes you to a page that contains the answer.  For example, today’s treasure challenge was cleary sponsored by Amazon and all links went to their site.  This is, apparently, how the site makes money.  After you answer the trivia questions, you are presented with a riddle for which you only get one guess per day.

After this, thinks get a bit murky.  I haven’t gone any further, so I can’t say for certain what happens.  The rules say something about a FASTCASH round and multiple clues.  If you want to find out what that means, I suppose you’ll have to play.

36 Cube Contest

December 2, 2008
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ThinkFun is having a contest to see who can solve their 36 Cube puzzle.  The 36 cube puzzle requires you to arrange a collection of “towers” in a 6X6 block.  Each tower is a different color and a different height, which leads us to the two rules you need to follow.  The first is that a color may appear only one in each row or column.  The second is that all of the towers must be placed so that they are all a uniform height.  The places for the towers in the cube are already at varying elevtions, such that each row or column will have only have one tower of a particular height.  The completed puzzle will then be a cube.

The first 36 contestants who can prove that they solved the puzzle will win a ThinkFun Game Club kit for the school of their choice.

World Puzzle Championships 2008 Results

November 10, 2008
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Results are posted for this year’s World Puzzzle Championships.  Team USA won again this year.  The individual winner was Ulrich Voigt from Germany.

2nd US Sudoku Championship Winner

October 27, 2008
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Wei-Hwa Huang won the second US Sudoku Championship this weekend beating reigning champ Tom Snyder by 26 seconds.  There is a nice little video that goes along with the Philadelphia Inquirer article in which a modest Wei-Hwa Huang says severa times that he does not expect to win.

Untouchable

October 23, 2008
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There is a new puzzle up at Smartkit called Untouchable that was written by Peter Grabarchuk.  The goal is to arrange a group of hexominoes in a grid so that they don’t touch.  Smartkit is giving away prizes for those who can solve the puzzle first.

Fried Logic

September 29, 2008
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I’m getting to this a little late, but the site WiseOZ has been running a little contest called Fried Logic since Friday.  The contest consists of 8 stages and when each stage opens, you are shown a logic puzzle with no instructions for solving.  There are two tasks.  The first is to identify the puzzle.  In the earlier stages, the puzzles were sudoku, bridges, and nurikabe.  The second task is to solve the puzzle.  The first to complete either task wins a prize.  Currently, the contest is on stage 4, so there’s still plenty of time to have some fun with it.

Belarusian and Russian Puzzle Championships

September 8, 2008
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The blog for the World Puzzle Championship has a post today announcing that there are 49 days left until the competition.  The post also features a collection of all of the puzzles used in the Belarusian and Russian Puzzle Championships.  These puzzles were constructed by many of the authors who will be contructing the puzzles for the main competition.

US Sudoku National Championship

July 17, 2008
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It’s still a few months away, but publicity has already started for the Sudoku National Championship in Philly on October 24-25.  The championship will include guest appearances by Will Shortz and Maki Kaji, credited as “the man who gave sudoku its name.”  (The creator of sudoku is actually American Howard Garns.)

It looks like they learned a lot in the first go around and have made a number of improvements for this years competition.  Most notable are help determining which level you belong in and a prize structure that awards more to the third place winner in the advanced level than the first place winner in the intermediate level.

2008 Google US Puzzle Championship

June 10, 2008
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It’s coming up this Saturday, June 14th, and you can do it in the comfort of your own home.  This is always my favorite puzzle day of the year.  Registration is open through June 12th.  Winners who are US citizens get a spot on the US team for the world puzzle competition.  But even those outside the US can take part.

Wii Picross

May 13, 2008
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For fans of picross puzzles (also sometimes called logic art or nonograms), the Wii Picross site is not to be missed.  The site has a great interface for solving the puzzles online and it allows users to create and submit their own puzzles.  As a result there are over 3500 puzzles available to play on the site.

The site is currently running a contest for puzzle submissions with the theme “Where You Are.”  Prizes include a Nintendo DS game or picross books.  Submissions will be accepted until May 18th.  Enjoy!

World Sudoku Championship 2008

April 20, 2008
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After coming off of my brief hiatus, I discover that the World Sudoku Championships have already come and gone.  Congratulations Thomas Snyder and the Czech Republic for their victories in the individual and team competitions respectively.

Clue Chaser

March 20, 2008
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I just got a tip about a “mystery hunt” style puzzle game called Clue Chaser.  The game requires players to solve a series of puzzles and the first one to solve them all wins a prize.  The creators of the game are looking to have a competition every three months or so.  Game 1 has already been completed and it took about 32 days.  Game 2 begins on April 1st.

Yahoo Crossword

October 17, 2007
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Yahoo is promoting their new search engine with a crossword puzzle. The crossword is presented in conjunction with the New York Times and was written by Will Shortz and Fred Piscop. The puzzle is incorporated into Yahoo’s search so that if you get stuck and need a clue, it’s only a click and a Yahoo search away.

It’s a small puzzle (9×9 grid) and it’s not terribly difficult. Expert cruciverbalists probably won’t need the clues. It’s worth noting here that “clues” here actually give you the answer. The real motivation is to show how effective Yahoo search is. When you click to “get a clue”, you are shown how easy it is to use Yahoo search to come up with the answer. It’s actually worth trying on some of them just to see how well it works. Also, any letters that you enter immediately come up in red, allowing the puzzle to be solved by trial and error.

The puzzle has a Hawaiian theme and if you finish the puzzle, you are given the option to enter a drawing where you can win a trip for two to Hawaii. So, there may be more to gain here than a few minutes of fun.

US Sudoku Championship This Weekend

October 16, 2007
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I mentioned back in May that the first US Sudoku National Championship would be happening this October. Well, it’s happening this weekend. The event page mentions Will Shortz and Merl Reagle prominently (there is even a Q&A with Reagle), so I’m guessing that the event is trying to gain some publicity from the cruciverbalist corner. The site also mentions Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder who are, no doubt, the odds-on favorites to win the competition.

I’m currently lamenting the fact that I no longer live in Philly, or I would be there for it this weekend. Still, I’m curious to see what happens and if there will be any dark horse contenders.