Each month Dr. Fun from
Clever Puzzles brings up to your attention a little
contest. The first person to submit the correct answer wins a copy of
the booklet “Dr. Fun’s Sampler”. The answer and the name of the person
submitting it is also published on the site next month.
After the break in the last year the
"domino Day" with
RTL is back again! On November 12 the
sixth domino Day will set 4,250,000 stones in attempt to break the
3,847,295 stone record of 2002. The topic of the domino Day 2004
carries very intriguing name - "The Challenge." The topic is
subdivided in six sub-topics, which are used as a main point to reach
the characters, shows and settings within which the stones will fall.
100 builders work around the bell to complete the Challenge.
Like in previous years this large-scale project is a cooperation of
several countries. Except the Netherlands other countries which take
part in the show are: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Hungary,
Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland. The spectators from these countries
will be able to observe the sensational TV hit live. This year the
largest nuclear "domino" chain reaction of the world will be moderated
by front woman Frauke Ludowig of RTL. She will get the support from
sport expert Uli Potofski. The Dutchman Robin Paul Weijers will take
over again the guidance and direction of the domino retransmission
which is planned to be on Friday, November 12, from 19:30 till 23:00
(GMT +01:00).
Some historical facts about domino Day. In 2002 it lasted 92 minutes
until almost 3.8 million stones had tilted to an artful object. The
domino world record was increased steadily from year to year: 1.6
million in 1998, over 2.4 million in 1999, 2.9 million in 2000, 3.5
million in 2001 and 3.8 million in 2002. Of course, this year all
expect the record to be broken again!
The 13th WPC took place October 12 - 17 in
Opatija, Croatia. It was organized by the Croatian Puzzle Federation,
supported by puzzle magazine Feniks and it was for the second time
that WPC was held in Croatia (First was 1997 in Koprivnica).
Puzzlers from 25 countries attended WPC this year. After three days of
competitive solving, Team USA emerged to be the winning team, with the
teams from Germany and Hungary close behind. This was Team USA's
eighth team title.
And the individual winners are... Niels Roest of The
Netherlands became the Champion this year, just as he made it 2002.
Ulrich Voigt of Germany was second, while American Roger Barkan
placed third. As usual, our Congratulations to all!
PQRST 11 Competition (the traditional
quarterly puzzle online competition run by Cihan Altay) starts at
20:00 (GMT+02) Saturday on October 30th. As usual, you'll have one week
to solve and rate 10 puzzles.
The 13th World Puzzle Championship started
on October 12 at Opatija, Croatia and will last till October 17.
Simultaneously with the competition the WPF General Assembly will be
held too.
All participants of the WPC will have the accommodation at the Hotel
Ambassador in Opatija, in which all the competitions and meetings will
also take place. Hotel Ambassador is located near the sea, close to
the center of the town of Opatija, which is recognized as the first
Croatian tourist resort with the tradition for over one century...
More detailed information on program, accommodation and puzzles
including Puzzles from Croatian WPC qualifications and Booklet for WPC
'04 Opatija can be found at
www.feniks.com.hr.
The 8th Mind Sports Olympiad took place
from Thursday August 19th to Monday August 30th inclusive in its new
permanent home at the Renold Building at Manchester Conference Centre.
This year the Olympiad took place in collaboration with the British
Historical Games Society's Britcon Olympiad event, featuring the UK
National Championships for a number of different periods.
The total prize fund was over £17,000 cash ($30,000 or ˆ25,000) plus
prizes in kind.
For more information about MSO 8 results, highlights and schedule
visit www.msoworld.com/2004/.
We join to the congratulations to the new
National SCRABBLE® Champion, Trey Wright!
The 2004 National SCRABBLE® Championship was held on July 31 - August
5 at the Marriot Hotel in New Orleans, LA. Over 800 players played
eight games Sunday, seven games Monday, eight games Tuesday and seven
games Wednesday. After those thirty games, the top two contenders in
Division 1 played a best-of-five final match on Thursday, which will
be telecast in the fall on ESPN.
The fourth IPP Puzzle Design Competition
took place this summer in Tokyo, Japan, in conjunction with IPP24. The
judging was directly at IPP24 on August 1-2, 2004. The goal of this
annual competition is to promote and recognize innovative new designs
of mechanical puzzles.
59 puzzles have entered the competition this year.
Both main awards, Puzzlers' Award, selected by IPP attendees, and
Grand Prize selected by Judging Committee, go to one puzzle -
Dodecahedron Box by Kagen Schaefer. A First Prize goes to Monkey's
Palanquin by Shirou Tajima. Four extra puzzles receive Honorable
Mention awards. Our congratulations to the winners!
To see more details (available in PDF version too) on the prize
winners, all the participating designs visit
IPP Design Competition home page.
The 2005 competition will follow the same rules and procedures as the
IPP24 competition.
PQRST 10 Competition (the traditional
quarterly puzzle online competition run by Cihan Altay) is finished.
189 participants took part in PQRST 10 which was held July 17-24,
2004. All results of the competition are posted at
the site already.
PDT 2004, the third annual Puzzle Design
Tournament, is over. The results of this year Tournament are posted at
the site.
There were 14 participants (designers) in PDT 2004. You can see the 14
puzzles of these designers in a special
PDF file.
Puzzle designs for PDT 2005 will be collected in May 2005.
*****
Puzzle Design Tournament is an online and annual event organized by
Cihan Altay. It's simply a "send one-solve multi optimization puzzles"
competition.
The details about the Tournament - puzzle types, design publication
and answer checking, rating and scoring systems, results - can be
found directly at
the site.
Roger Barkan, the last year's
runner-up, wins this year Championship with top score of 367 points.
Second is the 2001 runner-up Jonathan Rivet
with 342 points. Third place is shared by
Joseph DeVincentis and Wei-Hwa
Huang, each scoring 317 points. Among the Canadian
participants the top scored is Derek Kisman
with 303. The top one from UK is David
McNeill with 277 points and from other international - Andrei Bogdanov from Russia with
267 points. Our Congratulations!
The detailed individual results, including U.S., Canada and
International are already
posted.
The results for the top contestants, those scoring 150 points or more,
can be found
here.
The individual results for the score below 150 points can be found
here.
For more information visit the home page of the U.S. Puzzle Team -
wpc.puzzles.com.
The test will start on Saturday, June 19 at 1pm EDT (GMT-4). You will
have 2 1/2 hours to solve as many puzzles as you can, and submit your
answer via The Answer page.
The top two US contestants will be selected for the U.S. Team to
compete at the World Puzzle Championship in the Opatija, Croatia in
October, 2004.
The top 25 US contestants may receive prizes, to be determined.
The top Canadian contestants: The test results will be used to invite
three qualified puzzlers to join the Canadian team, as well as for
determining team alternates as needed.
Scores for participants from other countries will be tallied and may
be forwarded to the corresponding WPC team organizer for
consideration. If there is no organized team, you may be contacted
regarding potential individual WPC participation.
The 13th World Puzzle Championship will be held in Opatija, Croatia in
October, 2004.
For more information visit the home page of the U.S. Puzzle Team -
wpc.puzzles.com.
Mind Games® is an intense weekend of play.
Mensans judge and critique games released in the past year and award
the coveted Mensa Select® seal to the top five.
This year’s Mind Games® competition was held April 16-18 in Chicago,
IL. More than 180 players were challenged by the 60 game entries.
Participants, called “Judges,” play the year's newest board games in a
40-hour gaming marathon which begins on Friday afternoon and ends
Sunday morning. At the end of the event, Mensa judges rank their
favorite games. The top five vote-getters earn Mensa Select®
distinction. This year’s winners are: 10 Days in Africa (Out
of the Box Publishing), Basari (Out
of the Box Publishing), The Bridges of Shangri-La (Uberplay
Entertainment), Rumis (Educational
Insights), Yinsh (Rio
Grande Games).
The 16th Mind Games® competition will take place April 15-17, 2005 in
Tampa, FL. In the past 15 competitions 70 games have earned Mensa
Select® distinction. Among them are
Smart Mouth™ and
Rush Hour® from ThinkFun Inc.
The 2004 National School Scrabble®
Championship (NSSC) will be held on April 23 & 24, in Boston, MA. The
event is for students in grades 5-8.
Though the registration for this year Championship is closed already
you can log onto the site on April 23 & 24 for live Internet coverage
of the event.
Registration for the 2005 NSSC will open in October, 2004.
PQRST 09 Competition (the traditional
quarterly puzzle online competition run by Cihan Altay) starts on
April 17th Saturday at 20:00 (GMT+02). As usual, you'll have one week
to solve and rate 10 puzzles.
The 27th Annual American Crossword Puzzle
Tournament will take place in Stamford, Connecticut on March 12-14,
2004. This is the US oldest and largest crossword competition directed
by New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz. Solvers will
tackle eight original crosswords created and edited specially for this
event. And prizes will be awarded in more than 20 categories,
including a $4,000 grand prize.
Following the success of the first "Test
the Nation" from June 2003, FOX network will unveil "Test the Nation
2" on Friday, March 5. The national I.Q. test will start at 8 p.m. ET
and Leeza Gibbons with Mark L. Walberg will host the two-hour special
again. Anyone who wants to check his or her I.Q. score is welcome to
join it. The test will be available on-line from the show's web site -
testonfox.com.
Test the Nation is a live two-hour FOX television event that allows
every person in the U.S. to determine his or her I.Q. score. In the
FOX studio, selected participants will be drawn from various walks of
life and sit in specified groups. These groups will all be competing
against one another as they try to prove just how smart they really
are. After learning how the studio groups fared on the test, results
from Internet users around the country will be revealed live on the
show.
For more comprehensive details about the Test please visit the
testonfox.com website itself.
Once or twice a year Al Zimmermann runs a
Programming Contest, offering a cash prize for the winning entry -
ranged from a low of $100 to a high of $500. Cash prizes for the
second places are usually awarded as well.
Each contest specifies a problem you must solve and as usual it is
quite hard, though there are no restrictions on the tools which you
can use for solving. To enter, you just email your solution. The best
solution received wins the prize money. To feel the spirit of the
Contests you can take a closer look at several of them run in the
past.
The next (6th) contest is called "Pancakes" and is divided into two
parts. Part I: start date - January 31, deadline - February 21. Part
II: start date - February 22, deadline - May 22. Both parts are
equally awarded.
There is a discussion group associated with the contests. If you think
you might enter a contest, you should join
the discussion group.
PQRST 08 Puzzle Competition (the traditional quarterly puzzle online
competition run by Cihan Altay) starts on January 17th Saturday, at
20:00 (GMT+02). You will have one week to solve and rate 10 puzzles -
just as usual.
