The World Puzzle Championship (commonly abbreviated as WPC) is an annual international

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzl ...

competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. All the puzzles in the competition are pure-logic problems based on simple principles, designed to be playable regardless of language or culture. National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzzle Federation. Of the 26 championships (team category) held thus far, 14 have been won by 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, 7 by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, 3 by the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, and 2 by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The most successful individual contestant is Ulrich Voigt (Germany) with 11 titles since 2000. The latest WPC was held in October 2019 in Germany.

Origin

The World Puzzle Championship was the brainchild of Levi Summers, who wanted to create an event where puzzlers from different countries could compete on an even playing field. Previously, the International Crossword Marathon was the major international competition for puzzle-solving, and Shortz had attended it every year, but because participants used their own language and crossword rules, it was not a very good basis for comparing raw puzzle-solving skills across cultures. Shortz created the WPC to overcome these flaws. As described by Nick Baxter, co-director of the U.S. Puzzle Championship, the challenge of the competition is speed. The first WPC was held in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1992, and Shortz was the organizer and

Helene Hovanec Helene Hovanec is a former elementary school teacher who has authored 66 puzzle books, 59 of which are for children. Hovanec earned a B.S. in Child Development from Cornell University and an M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Hunter College. ...

was the coordinator. Each WPC has been held at a different city since then.

Participants

Currently, 34 countries are official members of the World Puzzle Federation. Individuals may also take part if their country is not already represented by a national team. In the 2017 WPC, 169 contestants from 27 countries participated. The

has won the championship 14 times, followed by

with 7 championships. The

has won three times and

has won twice. Ulrich Voigt of

has been the most successful individual contestant, winning the gold medal eleven times since 2000.

Wei-Hwa Huang Wei-Hwa Huang (born 1975 in Eugene, Oregon) is an American puzzler, member of the US Team for the World Puzzle Championship, and game designer. Huang was a member of the United States International Math Olympiad team in 1992 and 1993, where he wa ...

of the

won four of the first eight championships in the 1990s.

Results summary

Age-restricted categories

Starting from 2013, titles have been awarded also for the best players in two age categories, Under 18 and Over 50 years of age.

Classic puzzles used

Incomplete list, in alphabetical order: *

Balance Balance or balancing may refer to: Common meanings * Balance (ability) in biomechanics * Balance (accounting) * Balance or weighing scale * Balance as in equality or equilibrium Arts and entertainment Film * ''Balance'' (1983 film), a Bulgaria ...

Battleship A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...

Fillomino Fillomino (フィルオミノ) is a type of logic puzzle published by many publishers. Other published titles for the puzzle include ''Allied Occupation''. Rules ''Fillomino'' is played on a rectangular grid with no standard size; the internal ...

* Hitori * Kakuro * Nonogram *

Number Link Numberlink is a type of logic puzzle involving finding paths to connect numbers in a grid. Rules The player has to pair up all the matching numbers on the grid with single continuous lines (or paths). The lines cannot branch off or cross over ea ...

* Slitherlink *

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 many variants

References

External links

* {{world puzzle sudoku Puzzle competitions