One of this blog’s numerous tags is On Site where I recap events I attended. Since the pandemic, I’ve been swamped by life and haven’t been stringent enough to keep up. I type up a lot of my impressions after each event, but I’ve never gotten around to polishing it up and posting them.
A lot of the upcoming posts will clearly be outdated. Heck, the Kirchheim WPC happened 5 years ago. Remember the world before COVID? I’ve went back and re-read these unpublished recaps and added inserts to remind readers that these words were written long ago.
Since the 2024 edition of the 24-Hour Puzzle Championship is happening this weekend, I’ll start this trip down memory lane by recapping the 2023 event across 2 posts. That’s a lot of words. Get cosy.
Enjoy!
This is part 1 of 2 posts about my experience at the 2023 24 Hour Puzzle Championship which happened on 28-30th April 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. This first part will be a personal account of events leading up to, during and after the competition. Part 2 will be a breakdown of my thoughts on each round. Note that this report was written last year, so the many instances of “this year” means 2023.
It finally happened. After 5 successful bouts with the Hungarian Embassy, this year was not meant to be as there were no empty appointments that would get me VISA in time for the 24HPC. I had to enter Europe from elsewhere. Austria came to the rescue as I trekked my way to the 24HPC through Vienna.
Guten tag, Wien
The 20th anniversary Jubilee edition of the 24HPC was delayed from 2020 for reasons known to everyone. I shamefully recall my ignorance when György István asked my opinion about this new virus that was rampaging in Italy and China at the time. Like many pundits, I initially scoffed at the potential magnitude the pandemic could cause, only to see straight from the front-line shortly after, how devastating it was.
The logic puzzle world attracted many new solvers since the pandemic, and many were Hungary hungry to attend offline events. The hotel was fully booked, and many entrants were pushed onto the waiting list. There were rumours about this being the final edition of the Marathon and I asked György – the founder himself – to confirm the rumour when he picked me up from the train station. Rest easy. I was told that if such positive reception continues, he will gladly continue the tradition. Contacting bigger venues was also already on his mind.
A top-heavy line-up, led by World Champion Ken Endo, flocked to the marathon. One rep from Japan took turns turning up to Budapest, starting from Ken Endo in 2017, then it was Taro Arimatsu (2018) and then Yuhei Kusui (2019). This year, Japan doubled its participants as Kota Morinishi decided to give 24HPC a go.
Ken Endo (left) and Kota Morinishi (right).
Aside from the two identically-initialed former winners Neil Zussman and Nikola Zivanovic; there were probably a few others like Prasanna Seshadri and Christian König who could pose a threat to the current World Champion.
My Eastern European journey unfolded with me giving up trying to find Vienna Central Station. Uber came to the rescue and I snacked on some bakery waiting for the train to Hungary. Pope Francis was also visiting Budapest which might explain why it was so difficult to find rides in and out that weekend.
Cool train.
Vienna main station
Nonetheless, the sparsely-filled train meant I got to hog a big table and chillaxed away the hours through the scenic Austrian countryside. I met Michael Mosshammer at the hotel and instead of resting; we decided to join a team of escape roomers in the city. The seven of us killed the room in about 45 minutes.
Somewhere in Budapest.
Tom Collyer and Ken Endo in the escape room.
Winners.
During the evening, I visited nearby stores to stockpile on drinks and snacks that would last the entire 24-hour event. Clerks kept rejecting my old Hungarian Forint banknotes and I later learn that their National Bank were slowly printing newer editions to replace their old 1997 series. I never convert currencies unless I’m certain I’ll never revisit a country so the few large denominations in my wallet were causing some concern. Thankfully, puzzler and local hero Viktor Samu was kind enough to swap his newer notes for my old ones that he’d have to trade in at a bank later.
Viktor Samu (in red).
After an efficient Q&A, it was time to recharge the batteries. It’s never easy coming from hot and humid Thailand and be immediately thrown into the cold European spring. I was shaking throughout the night and clocked in an unideal 5 hours of sleep.
Dinner before Q&A.
Team Serbia at breakfast.
1 hour before the start of 24HPC.
Some quick bites at breakfast and it was time to head to the starting line. The first section lasts 4 rounds (10am-5pm) and before you know it, the sun sets. By the time we head to dinner, it was pretty clear Ken Endo’s throne will be safe. He had bagged a perfect 300 with no signs of slowing. A couple more 100s later, any glimmer of hope from the chasers are all but extinguished. While others were jostling for podium positions, Ken was pursuing something else. Could he finish with a perfect 1300 score?
It certainly helped that several of the night rounds were comparatively easier. There was a slight increase in average raw points during the night. A handful of solvers even manage to obtain the full 1000 points, causing small pile-ups of 100s here and there. As for Ken, he aced the last 5 rounds, scoring 5000 points total, leaving no opportunity for anyone to catch up. His seatmate, Kota, won the battle for silver.
A closer match-up was between Prasanna and Christian for bronze. It went all the way to the wire and Christian pipped Prasanna by just 2 points.
Yeah Go Ken.
Newcomers award: Kevin Sun (3rd), Kota Morinishi (1st), Christian Konig (2nd). Best female Jana Vodickova.
Prizes.
I managed 702-points, the worst performance in my 6 appearances and so was my placement of 16th. I try to tell myself that this is due to poor puzzle selection and stubbornness as opposed to my puzzle solving speed has finally passed its peak. Physical health-wise, a wave of nausea/headache did befall me briefly after midnight and I’m blaming potassium overdose (probably one banana too many).
Pal Madarassy handing out awards.
Final results of 2023 24HPC.
The prize giving ceremony concluded this year’s event. The 24HPC has been around long enough to warrant Newcomers’ awards. I think this was the first time they started handing them out. A venue change would be refreshing though as the hotel was stuck in perpetuity since I first attended almost 10 years ago. Did anyone else find the food to be a little stingier than usual?
Hotel Amadeus. Home to the 24HPC.
The atmosphere at Hotel Amadeus after the competition has always felt bittersweet for me. Some people would immediately check-out sleep deprived while some would stay a couple more nights depending on their life schedules. I was in the latter group this time and crashed into my room until the evening. The few remaining souls gathered in the lobby and walked to a nearby mall to find whatever’s still open on a Sunday evening. The only option available was a food court and barely after getting our food, a polite security guard wanted us out within the next 10 minutes as they were closing.
Hungarian KFC.
We stayed up playing card games that Prasanna carried with him. After learning that Kota was still present at the hotel, we briefly considered whether we could extend an invite and how likely we were able to explain the game rules to him in broken Japanese. In the end, we decided to let him catch up on sleep. Some members of Team Germany were seen solving leftover puzzles in lobby. The next morning, they were still there, surely, they went to sleep in between.
Gaming on Prasanna’s bed.
Solvers extending their 24HPC experience.
Now that I was no longer semi-conscious it was time to enjoy the remainder of the trip. Austria’s finest puzzle solver agreed to show me around his hometown of Salzburg. Though he lives in Graz these days, I caught Michael while he was visiting relatives in Salzburg and ticked off most of the must-sees. You can’t miss references to Mozart and The Sound of Music here.
Michael Mosshammer – an awesome tour guide.
Beautiful Salzburg.
Mirabell Palace.
I occupied my remaining days in Vienna by scootering to the Prater where Eliud Kipchoge broke the sub-2-hour marathon record in the 2019 INEOS Challenge. I returned the next day to jog while retracing his steps. Interspersed with random sight-seeing, I spent most of the time at the hotel typing out this report.
Prater, Vienna.
Thanks for reading!
Somewhere Over the Rainbow 