By Zack Butler (USA)
Contested on Oct 23-26 in the resort town of Poiana Brasov, Romania, the World
Puzzle Championships (Campionatul Mondial de Rebus) were won by the American
team who narrowly defeated the team from the Czech Republic by a final score
of 17463 to 17305. You can check out the trophy. I was honored to be chosen for the team, and (if I do
say so myself) did quite well, finishing fourth as an individual. Wei-Hwa Huang
of the U.S. won the individual title. Also on the U.S. team were Ron Osher,
the defending individual World Champion, who was fifth, and Nick Baxter, who
ended up 19th. More results.
So what type of puzzles are used at the World Puzzle Championships? Ideally,
all are language-neutral and culture-neutral. Language-neutral puzzles are,
as the name would imply, puzzles that require no knowledge of any specific language,
and include mazes, visual logic puzzles, and other (much) more devious items.
See some samples. Many puzzles (especially this year)
have involved the use of the Latin alphabet in puzzles such as fill-ins (a word
list and a grid are given and the solver must determine how the words fit in
the grid), but these are somewhat biased against those people who do not use
this alphabet (even if all the words are Albanian), and will not be used next
year. (The Dutch are hosting next year and have promised.)
Here is my personal recap of the trip and competition:
The whole time was great - people from all over the world in friendly competition
trying to communicate and often succeeding. the english-speaking clique (us, the
token canadian, the dutch, some of the germans and hungarians, one czech) hung
out together all week and only seriously tried to drink each other under the table
after the competition was over. It started out on Monday when we hiked down a
ski area after riding a somewhat rickety gondola up. This was quite exciting,
except for Helene Hovanec, the American "observer", who sprained her ankle and
was a bit slowed up for the rest of the week. Monday night was the official opening
party, which was a lavish affair and included a Vegas-style show starring showgirls
and the most famous singer in Romania. Tuesday and Weds. were the competition,
totaling 9 1/2 hours, which induced neck strain in all but the most relaxed competitors.
Again a lavish dinner each night, with some shopping at a department store (sort
of odd) before dinner on Wednesday. On Thursday we went to visit "Dracula's Castle"
(rather a disappointment, both architecturally and mythologically), but I bought
a cheap wool sweater at the nearby market (25000 lei or about $11). At every dinner
we listened to hours of Romanian folk music and each night we heard the latest
euro-techno-pop in the hotel bar. Thursday night an intrepid group stayed up partying
until sunrise, getting our only sleep in the bus back to Bucharest.
