World Sudoku Championship


The World Sudoku Championship 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 Puzzle Federation. The competition typically consists of 100 or more puzzles solved by all competitors over multiple timed rounds, including classic sudoku, variations and other puzzle types, normally followed by a playoff for the top qualifiers to determine a champion. Examples of rounds include the Relay round, where an answer from one puzzle contributes digits to the start of the next sudoku, and the "World Record" round, in which solvers competed to set a Guinness World Record for fastest sudoku solution.
Of the 13 championships held so far, Kota Morinishi of Japan has been the most successful winner with four individual titles, over Thomas Snyder of United States, Jan Mrozowski of Poland who have each won three.
From 2007 there has also been a team competition. Japan is the most successful team, having won the title in 2007, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018; Czech Republic, Germany and China have won this title twice; Slovakia also won a title.
Starting from 2011, the event has been held alongside the World Puzzle Championship.

Participants

Currently, 30 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 latest WSC in 2018 Prague Czech Republic the number of participants exceeded the magic limit.

Results summary

Note: The 2020 edition of WSC and WPC, which would be held in Shanghai, China, will be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exact new dates will be released on a later date.
Starting from 2013, titles have been awarded also for the best players in two age groups, Under 18 and Over 50 years of age.