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The World Puzzle Championship & World Sudoku Championship are to be held in Bulgaria this year during 11th to 18th October.

Prasanna Sheshadri, A regular member of the Indian team at these championships, and one of the top rated Indian puzzlers in the world, (he is in the world top 10 in WPF Sudoku Grand Prix Rankings for 2015), agreed to give us some insight into the world of puzzles. A member of Mensa India, the puzzles that feature in MInd are also his creations.

Q: Tell us about puzzles and puzzle championships, and about the special place that Sudoku enjoys in the puzzle championships.

Prasanna: There is a common misconception among Indians (and maybe other parts of the world) that Sudoku started first or that puzzles are a subset of Sudoku. It is the exact opposite. The World Puzzle Federation (WPF) have been holding a World Puzzle Championship since 1992. In 2005 Sudoku became more popular than all the other puzzles, and a World Sudoku Championship was started in 2006 to specifically challenge the growing number of Sudoku specialists of the world. In India, the first National Puzzle Championship was held in 2003, and of course, for Sudoku there was a selection process from 2005 onwards. So even in India, it started with Puzzles. Personally I have always preferred other puzzles to Sudoku. So my main aim has always been to improve in puzzles and the Sudoku Championship just happens to be something I’m also good at.

Q: Who can start puzzling? Can you elaborate on the general academic liking/ background of professional puzzlers... are they essentially math geeks?

Prasanna: Anybody can get into puzzling. As far as academic background is concerned, I would say there is a lot of crossover there. I am pretty strong at math. I was always acing Algebra in school with no preparation. I think a person who is interested in math would usually be interested in logic. However, there are people from very varied fields who are not just enthusiastic, but experts too. There are scientists, doctors, story writers, and many other solvers from varying occupations. I feel another major crossover would be people who like art and have some liking for logic. This is because the puzzles we do (or prefer to do) are handcrafted with nice attractive themes, which you wouldn’t find in the computer generated stuff that’s on newspapers. I think some of the puzzles I have provided for this magazine

prove that puzzles have an artistic element to them which can be explored in many ways. Lastly, I think it’s just people who like to have fun. The World Championships are generally an amazing experience, and while this has something to do with the puzzles, it has a lot to do with just meeting and interacting with the puzzlers of the world. It is something I look forward to the most each year now since 2011 which was the first time I was on the team. Q: When do you start puzzling ideally? (that is, at what age do you start to solve so you are likely to make it to the national team) Prasanna: I would say it is possible to see talent in the teens. The Chinese team is comprised mostly of teenagers and they are already among the top solvers of the world. In fact, the 2013 World Sudoku Champion, Jin Ce of China, is born in 1997! This question of age is actually more relevant now than ever because China held the inaugural Juniors World Sudoku Championship in August. We ran a school event in India to pick a team for this. The event’s name was called Sudoku Champs and we have found some really talented individuals who can grasp the Sudokus and their variants (even the difficult ones) at the age of 13. I was involved in training our juniors’ team. We sent two U-15s, three U-18s (which was our main team) and one U-21, all of whom were trained for a few months since Sudoku Champs got done in January. They even participated in the Indian Sudoku Championship and the Bangalore winner, Aditi Seshadri (not related to me ), stood 25th, with the other juniors also scoring just a little lower. All of them beat some Sudoku veterans of India with just 2-3 months of training, so that is very promising and proves that talent can be seen at a very young age and that there is a lot of potential with the youth event. The U-18 Indian team won Silver with 2 Indian names (Aditi Sheshadri and Srishti Kejriwal) featuring in the top 10 individual rankings. In U-15 individual rankings, 2 Indians made it to the top 10 and U-21 had one. So it was a good start. We will be starting up the school event again soon to select next year’s team. We hope to expand this time on the might of our experiences (last year, schools in Mumbai and Delhi weren’t interested, so any Mensa members who are involved with schools, please contact me if this interests you).

COVER STORY: PUZZLES

Q&A WITH PRASANNA SHESHADRI

 

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Q: When you attempt puzzles other than Sudoku for the first time, one feels that apart from sheer logic, these puzzles also require a fair bit of command on number theory, combinatorics, Parity and Algebra in general. Can you bust the myth? Prasanna: A majority of the puzzles do not require much more than an understanding of the English language (which can be canceled out by the translators that are now easily available online), and logical skill. Algebra is the most common external knowledge required. The other concepts don’t get used so much in an academic sense as they do in a combination with logical deductions. It’s that combination that makes them special/difficult, not the concepts themselves. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. In general creativity is encouraged so there will always be a person who invents/re-invents something which leads to some entirely new area of logic. I myself have invented a few puzzles, some catch on, some don’t. To simplify it, this is an area that has no limitations except culture neutrality. This is the main reason Crosswords with General Knowledge aren’t a part of what we do and are a different area of puzzles entirely, though there is definitely crossover, and we have our own form of entirely logical Crosswords which aren’t based on GK. Q: Tell us about the Indian Puzzle championship in which you were one of the administrators this year. Prasanna: First, why am i organizing the Indian Puzzle Championship… Logic Masters India gives a wildcard to the best Indian performer at the World Puzzle Championship to be on the Indian team for the next year. In 2014’s WPC, I was 23rd, which is to date India’s best rank at a WPC, so I was given a wildcard. With this wildcard I opted to get into organizing, as I did last year too (was 24th in 2013), mainly because the National Championships are usually organized by just two people year after year. Me doing it frees up those two individuals for other activities. The Championship itself largely had the same format as last year. I believe the Championship has two goals. 1) To select the best and most capable Indian team. 2) To provide a little bit for beginners and newcomers to solve. Because of this, we make sure there are some really easy puzzles and also some difficult ones, including variations of known puzzle types. The contest ran for 150 minutes

on Sunday, the 9th of August. The top 3 were selected to represent India, joining me on a 4-person team. The top 10 had prize, and e-certificates were to all participants, along with an option to pay a little and get the hard copy couriered to them (the fee mainly negates courier/printing charges and is nominal). Q: What type of puzzles are covered in professional puzzling. Prasanna: In India, the major exposure has been given to Classic Sudoku. Some people will know Kakuro/Fence from the Times of India/Mumbai Mirror newspapers. At the world level, and even at National levels in India, a lot more types are covered. Classic Sudoku usually covers just 2 rounds at the World Sudoku Championships. The rest are made up of all kinds of different variations of Sudoku. These could include extra rules like having diagonals be 1-9 as well, or something more complex, like mathematical variations, while still keeping the basic Classic rules. The pool of variety is vast and never ending, with new variations being invented regularly. Similarly, the field of puzzles is an even bigger pool. The known puzzles to the general public are riddles, etc. But in a competition scenario, a dynamic solve path is required rather than hit/miss answers. For this, the Indian and World Championships are made up mostly of grid based logical puzzles, also known as pencil puzzles. A broad categorization would be – Number entry puzzles – These are like Kakuro or Sudoku, some constraints will be given based on which numbers/letters must be entered into the grid. Shading/Connectivity puzzles – These usually ask the solver to construct a continuous wall of shaded cells depending on certain constraints. Loop puzzles – The name speaks for itself, these ask the solver to draw loops based on constraints. Fence is an example. Placement Puzzles – Placing shapes or objects in the grid depending on constraints. Word Puzzles – Innovative forms of the well-known crossword/scrabble games, but without requirement of general knowledge and focusing more on placement and interaction of letters of words logically. Constraint Puzzles – These ask whether a cell is true or false based on certain constraints and a solution is reached based on this. Hitori is an example. This probably still doesn’t cover all varieties, and again, new varieties get introduced regularly. The key is to start with basic types, and over time, adaptability to new types can improve as well.

COVER STORY: PUZZLES

Q&A WITH PRASANNA SHESHADRI

 

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Q. Can professional puzzling be seen as a career option. Prasanna: As of now, this is still a very new competitive/artistic genre.

As a competitor it is unlikely to make a profit. You would need to qualify for sponsorship through the Times Sudoku Championship, and at the same time get into the World top 10 in the online Grand Prix to have a chance of a profit. Or, travel to tournaments held in Thailand/China and secure 1st or 2nd place, knowing that usually at least 2 of the world’s best solvers attend these tournaments. I do not mean to be discouraging here, competing is fun in and of itself, and doesn’t take too long unless you are into serious preparation, and other than the World Championships, competitions are generally online and free for everyone to enjoy. So as a competitor, there is an abundance of puzzle/Sudoku contests to expand the enjoyment.

As a puzzle author, it is more likely to make an earning. GM Puzzles in the USA is a place that always rewards quality. While I am a main contributor there, GM Puzzles also encourages guest contributors. There is also the World Grand Prix, where we generally submit an Indian round. The announcement was made recently that the author teams receive a payment starting this year.

However, here you’d need to work with senior Indian authors who direct the puzzle sets.

It is important to note what makes a quality puzzle. My puzzle section here should give an idea. An attractive visual theme and a good logical solve are a must. Puzzles having multiple solutions/no solution/no logical path (guesswork) are all discouraged. So I would suggest that any aspiring author first starts their own free blog, sees how the puzzle community receives their puzzles, hones their craft, and then looks at earning. This is basically the path I myself followed.

So basically, as of now, any form of earning in this area can only happen if you become one of the world’s best at it. It is doable however. I’m not the only example. Indians like Swaroop Guggilam and Ashish Kumar have begun creating puzzles recently and have already reached the quality level to have their puzzles published on Logic Masters India and GM Puzzles. I’m always available for guidance, and have my own mail-chains and such with many eager Sudoku/Puzzle enthusiasts –Ashish is an example of this.

It is a growing field though, so maybe soon it’ll be possible for competitors and authors to earn through projects within India too.

 

COVER STORY: PUZZLES

Q&A WITH PRASANNA SHESHADRI