World Puzzle Championship

The World Puzzle Championship is an annual international puzzle competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. The first one was held in New York in 1992. All the puzzles in the competition are designed to be language- and culture-neutral.

The World Puzzle Championship was the brainchild of Will Shortz, who wanted to create an event where puzzlers from different countries could compete on an even playing field. The first WPC was held in New York in 1992. Shortz was the organizer and Helene Hovanec was the coordinator.

National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzzle Federation. Of the 20 championships held between 1992 and 2011, 13 have been won by the U.S. team (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998-2001, 2004, 2006-2008, 2010-2011), 3 by the Czech Republic (1993, 1994, 1997), 1 by Japan (2002), and 3 by Germany (2003, 2005, 2009). Most successful individual contestant is Ulrich Voigt (Germany) with 7 titles since 2000.

Past Locations:

Year	Place	Country	Individual			Team
			Gold	Silver	Bronze	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011	Eger	Hungary	Palmer Mebane	Ulrich Voigt	Thomas Snyder	United States	Germany	Japan
2010	Paprotnia	Poland	Taro Arimatsu	Ulrich Voigt	Hideaki Jo	United States	Japan	Germany
2009	Antalya	Turkey	Ulrich Voigt	Peter Hudak	Mehmet Murat Sevim	Germany	United States	Japan
2008	Minsk	Belarus	Ulrich Voigt	Mehmet Murat Sevim	Roger Barkan	United States	Japan	Czech Republic
2007	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Pal Madarassy	Thomas Snyder	Ulrich Voigt	United States	Japan	Belgium
2006	Borovets	Bulgaria	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Maho Yokota	United States	Germany	Japan
2005	Eger	Hungary	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Niels Roest	Germany	United States	Japan
2004	Opatija	Croatia	Niels Roest	Ulrich Voigt	Roger Barkan	United States	Germany	Hungary
2003	Arnhem	Netherlands	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Roger Barkan	Germany	United States	Netherlands
2002	Oulu	Finland	Niels Roest	Roland Voigt	Ulrich Voigt	Japan	Germany	United States
2001	Brno	Czech Republic	Ulrich Voigt	Robert Babilon	Zack Butler	United States	Czech Republic	Belgium
2000	Stamford	United States	Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Niels Roest	United States	Netherlands	Germany
1999	Budapest	Hungary	Wei-Hwa Huang	Zack Butler	Niels Roest	United States	Netherlands	Czech Republic
1998	Istanbul	Turkey	Wei-Hwa Huang	Akira Nakai	Zack Butler	United States	Japan	Hungary
1997	Koprivnica	Croatia	Wei-Hwa Huang	Ron Osher	Robert Babilon	Czech Republic	United States	Hungary
1996	Utrecht	Netherlands	Robert Babilon	Zack Butler	Wei-Hwa Huang	United States	Czech Republic	Turkey
1995	Poiana Brasov	Romania	Wei-Hwa Huang	Gyorgy Istvan	Pavel Kalhous	United States	Czech Republic	Hungary
1994	Cologne	Germany	Ron Osher	Pavel Kalhous	Pero Galogaza	Czech Republic	United States	Croatia
1993	Brno	Czech Republic	Robert Babilon	Wei-Hwa Huang	Pavel Kalhous	Czech Republic	United States	Canada
1992	New York	United States	David Samuel	Darren Rigby	Daniel Johnson	United States	Argentina	Poland

As of October 2010, 45 countries are members of the World Puzzle Federation.

Some classic puzzles used at WPC

Incomplete list, in alphabetical order.

• Balance
• Battleship
• Fillomino
• Hitori
• Kakuro
• Nonogram
• Number Link
• Slitherlink
• Sudoku and many variants

See also

• World Sudoku Championship

External links

• Official web site