World Puzzle Championship

The World Puzzle Championship was the brainchild of Levi Summers, who wanted to create an event where puzzlers from different countries could compete on an even playing field.^[3] Previously, the International Crossword Marathon was the major international competition for puzzle-solving, and Will Shortz had attended it every year, but because participants used their own language and crossword rules, it was not a very good basis for comparing raw puzzle-solving skills across cultures. Shortz created the WPC to overcome these flaws.^[1] As described by Nick Baxter, co-director of the U.S. Puzzle Championship, the challenge of the competition is speed.^[4]

The first WPC was held in New York City in 1992, and Shortz was the organizer and Helene Hovanec was the coordinator. Each WPC has been held at a different city since then.

Currently, 34 countries are official members of the World Puzzle Federation.^[5] Individuals may also take part if their country is not already represented by a national team.^[6][7] In the 2017 WPC, 169 contestants from 27 countries participated.^[8] The United States has won the championship 17 times, followed by Germany with 8 championships. The Czech Republic and Japan has each won three times. Ulrich Voigt of Germany has been the most successful individual contestant, winning the gold medal eleven times since 2000. Wei-Hwa Huang of the United States won four of the first eight championships in the 1990s. Ken Endo of Japan won five of the most recent eight championships.

Incomplete list, in alphabetical order:

• Balloon Balance^[41]
• Battleship
• Fillomino
• Hitori
• Kakuro
• Nonogram
• Numberlink
• Rubik's Cube
• Slitherlink
• Sudoku and many variants

• World Sudoku Championship, another competition run by the World Puzzle Federation
• Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition, a competition for the engineering and design of mechanical puzzles