Thomas Snyder (born c. 1980) is an American puzzle creator and world-champion

sudoku Sudoku (; ja, 数独, sūdoku, digit-single; originally called Number Place) is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each column, each row ...

and logic puzzle solver. He is the first person to win both the

World Sudoku Championship The World Sudoku Championship (WSC) is an annual international puzzle competition organised by a member of the World Puzzle Federation. The first event was held in Lucca in 2006. National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzz ...

(3 times) and the

World Puzzle Championship The World Puzzle Championship (commonly abbreviated as WPC) is an annual international puzzle competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. All the puzzles in the competition are pure-logic problems based on simple principles, designed to be play ...

. Snyder writes a puzzle blog as Dr. Sudoku.

Early life and education

Thomas Snyder grew up in the suburbs of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. He attended

Amherst Central High School Amherst Central High School (ACHS) is a public High school (North America), high school in Snyder, New York, Snyder, New York (state), New York, United States, a Hamlet (New York), hamlet within the town of Amherst, New York, Amherst, which is wit ...

before getting chemistry degrees from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and doing post-doctoral work at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

department.

Puzzle-related work

Thomas Snyder has contributed puzzles to various puzzle-related publications including

GAMES Magazine ''GAMES World of Puzzles'' is a puzzle magazine formed from the merger of Games and World of Puzzles in October 2014. The entire magazine interior is now newsprint (as opposed to the part-glossy/part-newsprint format of the original ''Games'') an ...

and

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

. He has also written puzzles for events including the

, U.S. Puzzle Championship, the

MIT Mystery Hunt The MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual puzzlehunt competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is one of the oldest and most complex puzzlehunts in the world and attracts roughly 120 teams and 3,000 contestants (with about 2,000 on campu ...

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

, and the

Microsoft Puzzle Picnic Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. In early 2012, Snyder founded his publishing company ''Grandmaster Puzzles''. On April 9, 2012, he began selling his first title from the newly formed company, ''The Art of Sudoku''. On December 31, 2012, Snyder began the newest version of his puzzle blog ''The Art of Puzzles'' coinciding with the relaunch of his ''Grandmaster Puzzles'' web site."Welcome to Grandmaster Puzzles!"
Retrieved August 13, 2013. Snyder holds several puzzle-solving titles as well, with his 2006 U.S. Puzzle Championship win being the earliest. Snyder has represented the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

ten times at the

, including six times when the US won the team competition (2006-8, 2010–11, 2013). He was the top individual at the 27th World Puzzle Championship held in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in November 2018.

Puzzle championships

*World Sudoku Champion 2007, 2008 & 2011 *World Puzzle Champion 2018 *U.S. Sudoku Champion 2007 *U.S. Puzzle Champion 2006–2010, 2012, 2017

References

Living people Puzzle designers 1980s births Artists from Buffalo, New York California Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University alumni Stanford University alumni Sudoku solvers Place of birth missing (living people) Amherst Central High School Alumni {{US-bio-stub