The Times Sudoku championship

partly-filled partial sudoku gridTom Collyer writes:

The 5 qualifying puzzles have been in The Times every day this week – they are well hidden away in “The Register” which is a section after the business pages but before the sport. The finals will be happening in London (presumably The Times office in St. Katharine’s Dock as in previous years) on Saturday 30th August.

It is worth noting that the competitions puzzles state: “Entries must be received within seven days of the puzzle being in the paper.”
It also states that the 20 fastest times for each day will make the final (I have no idea how they’ll handle repeats – contestants may enter on each day).

So if you want to enter, then make sure you don’t hang around – get on it straight away!

Some write-ups of the finals exist from 2008, 2011 (see also…) and (briefly) 2013. It certainly sounds like people who make it to the final enjoy the day and hold the organisers in very high regard. Additionally, if you are a Times subscriber, you can find discussion of past finals in their archives behind the paywall.

If you like a wider variety of puzzles, it’s still World Puzzle Championship qualifier season, with the two-hour Dutch qualifier in a fixed slot next Tuesday evening. The instruction booklet is available, though all in Dutch without translation.

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