Nikola, Robert and Zoltan tops 15th 24HPC

The 15th 24 Hour Puzzle Championship is already behind us and I had a blast! Undisputed winner Nikola Zivanovic was in a league of his own and soared away from the competition very early on, earning another (his second or third?) victory at the 24 HPC. The race for second place was won by the very consistent Robert Vollmert. Zoltan Horvath, who came straight from his third place win at the Poland Championships, rounded off the three podium finishers.

Left-Right: Robert Vollmert (Germany), Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia), Zoltan Horvath (Budapest)
[Photo courtesy of: Rejtvényfejtők Országos Egyesülete]

Speaking of consistency, I scored 774 (just 3 point less than my last year’s score) appropriately finishing at the exact same position: 12^th place. A clear and mildly depressing indication that one year went by with no improvement whatsoever. My thumb is still numb from 24 hours of pencil-gripping.

Full results

Big thanks to the organizers, authors and the lovely company of Neil, Tom, Liane, Michael, Rob, Adam and Katrina for such an amazing weekend. A little funny story before ending this post. Our booklets are returned after each round and at one point, Neil’s had “Sorry, no points” written in red pen next to a sad face. Wondering for a second why he wasn’t awarded his points for the Futoshiki, we realized that he was solving the accompanying example! Even better, the answer was right next to it! I have another 24-hour adventure in the form of 4 long flights back to New Zealand starting tomorrow. Only this one, I’m not looking forward to with as much enthusiasm.

15th 24HPC this weekend

The 24 Hour Puzzle Championship has reached its 15^th edition this year and is happening this weekend. I will be taking part for the second time so if you’re making the trip I’ll see you there!

Last year after hanging around in the top 10 most of the time, I ended up at 12^th likely due to the many 5 minute naps that I stole during the early morning rounds. The podium spots are personally unrealistic for now so I hope to just improve on my last year’s numerically-beautiful score of 777.

Ever since I knew about the 24HPC, flicking through the newly-released instruction booklets was an exciting moment to look for new puzzle ideas. Now that I’m fortunate enough to participate, it won’t be a casual browse anymore!

Instructions for Minesweepers with Duds

A little bit about my set: every year I more or less follow a prototype of my original set back in 2010. A new variant this time is the Minesweepers with Duds which the harder one will be worth the most points in my round. I will be eager to see if anyone can haul in the maximum 1000 points in those 100 minutes. Very plausible.

Safe travels and see you in Budapest!

Cranium-Crushing Tapa

The hardest Tapa ever written.
You have been warned.