One of the most exciting events in puzzles
happened on October 31, 2003, when
Bill Cutler, one of the top computer
programmers for puzzle solving, derived the number of distinct
solutions for Archimedes' Square (Stomachion): 536.
The New York Times ran a front-page
article on the subject on December 14, 2003, about the team of
scholars studying an ancient manuscript, the Palimpsest, with writings
of Archimedes from 2200 years ago. Bill was asked for his help in
getting the solution count by Kate Jones of
Kadon Enterprises, Inc., who make the
puzzle at the suggestion of Joe Marasco, whose curiosity about the
Stomachion led him to start the great search. Receiving one of Kadon's
sets of Archimedes' Square set the scholar heading the research team,
Professor
Reviel Netz, to thinking about the
puzzle in new ways and getting new insights. The news spread like
wildfire, and the Internet is abuzz about this hot topic.
The PQRST 07 (the traditional quarterly puzzle online competition run
by Cihan Altay)
results are available on-line. 116
participants from all over the world took part in this competition. As
usual, they were solving 10 puzzles in 7 days.
The next PQRST - PQRST 08 - will be held in January, 2004.
The 12th World Puzzle Championship took place from October 14 through
October 19, 2003. For the second time in WPC-history it was held in
the Netherlands. This time the location was Papendal National Sports
Center in Arnhem, and 21 puzzle teams from all over the World
participated in the Championship.
After several days of competitions the winners are...
The team winners 2003:
1st Place - Germany;
2nd Place - USA;
3rd Place - Netherlands.
The individual 2003 winners:
1st Place - Ulrich Voigt, Germany;
2nd Place - Wei-Hwa Huang, USA;
3rd Place - Roger Barkan, USA.
Our special
Photo Report from the Championship is meant to bring you
the spirit of this puzzling and thrilling event. Let those captured
moments speak for words!
Please, visit the
World Puzzle Federation official
site for more information on WPC. Also you can visit the official
US Team web site.
The 13th WPC will be held in 2004 in Croatia, and the 14th WPC - in
2005 in Hungary.
The next PQRST - PQRST 07 - will be held in October, 2003. Also the
PQRST 06 results are already posted.
PQRST is a quarterly and online puzzle competition open to everybody.
Competition is held in January, April, July and October.
Each PQRST test includes 10 puzzles of different kinds downloadable as
a pdf file at the exact time of the competition. Each puzzle will have
an "answer key" provided to check your answers (if you solve the
puzzle you'll get the correct key).
The solvers have exactly seven days to submit their answers and
ratings to all puzzles via answer page. All the results for every
PQRST will be posted within one week after the deadline.
This will be the second time the Netherlands hosts this event (the
first time the Netherlands hosted the 5th WPC in
1996 in Utrecht). This time it will
take place from Tuesday, October 14 through Sunday, October 19, 2003.
The competition will take place at
Papendal National Sports Center, the
headquarters of the Dutch Olympic Committee and the Dutch National
Sports Federation.
For more information on competition itself, organizing committee,
program and more, visit the
World Puzzle Federation official
site.
The 23rd International Puzzle
Party was held in Chicago, USA, July 31-August 4, 2003.
In conjunction with IPP23 the third annual IPP Puzzle Design
Competition was held too. The goal of the IPP Puzzle Design Competition is to
promote and recognize innovative new designs of mechanical puzzles.
52 puzzles have entered this year competition.
Puzzlers' Award, which is selected by IPP attendees, goes this time to
Clutch Box by Lee Krasnow. All other prizes are selected by Judging Committee. Grand
Prize goes to Cube in Cage 333 by Mineyuki Uyematsu. Two First Prizes
go to Binary Burr by Bill Cutler and Six Key Mine by R. D. Rose. And
two Honorable Mention awards go to Camera Conundrum by
William Waite and Decorated Box by Kagen Schaefer.
To see more details (available in PDF version too) on the prize
winners, all the participating designs visit
IPP Design Competition home page.
The 2004 competition will follow the same rules and procedures as the
IPP23 competition.
Garfield Goes to Pieces
-
The World’s Favorite Cat Turns 25!
Puzzles.COM Features Jigsaw Collections by Playtonium
The world's favorite cat is
celebrating his 25th birthday, and you're invited to the
party!
Dedicated to this event
Playtonium.com brings a collection of jigsaw puzzles
based on the Garfield theme.
We've partnered with
Playtonium.com in the way to feature this collection
on several of our pages and thus to bring you something
from jigsaw experience via our site as well.
This project is not going to be our mainstream activity,
but it is our first effort in building of commercial
partnerships in puzzling with other sites. This initiative
could be considered as an experiment within the bounds of
our site and hope it will make some good and delightful
impressions on you, our fellow visitors.
The entire collection includes jigsaw challenges for all
ages: 12- and 15-piece puzzles for the youngsters,
200-piece puzzles for the grand masters. 45 classic images
of Garfield and friends - images used to make more than
170 different jigsaw puzzles. The price of the collection
- $19.95.
Wei-Hwa Huang wins
2003 Google Puzzle Championship
Wei-Hwa Huang, competing for a
spot on the U.S. Team for the first time in ten years, held off a
challenge from teammate Roger Barkan to win the 2003 Google U.S. Puzzle
Championship by a narrow 345 to 340 point margin. Germany Ulrich Voigt was
close behind with a score of 330. He also led the international scoring.
To learn more about solutions and scores for the top contestants (those
scoring 150 points or more) - visit the
Results Summary page.
2003 Google U.S. Puzzle
Championship Results Pending
SF, USA (June 4, 2003) The
final results for the Google U.S. Puzzle Championship are still
pending individual review. Official results will be announced
Thursday, June 5.
Scoring status and solutions are available at the test
summary page.
The top U.S. solver will be crowned the U.S. Puzzle Champion; and the
top two will qualify for the U.S. Puzzle Team and participate in the
World Puzzle Championship in the Netherlands in October.
The top 25 US contestants will receive a prize, donated by team
sponsor
ThinkFun.
The top three Canadian contestants will be invited to join the
Canadian Team to complete at the World Puzzle Championship.
The 12th World Puzzle Championship will be held in Papendal, the
Netherlands, October 14-19, 2003.
For more information visit the home page of the U.S. Puzzle Team -
wpc.puzzles.com.
This traditional quarterly puzzle online competition run by Cihan
Altay starts on 11 January, Saturday, at 20:00 (GMT +02). As always,
there are 10 puzzles to be solved in 7 days.
