It was 17-year-old Nityant Agarwal’s first time at the sudoku contest— not a school event, mind you, but the back-breaking finals of the World Sudoku Championship (WSC). The young solver, from Jaipur, not only won, but also set three new benchmarks for India at this brainiac tournament. He bagged the ‘Best Newcomer’ award at the championship among others.
Commendable performance by Team-A of India at WSC
The WSC, organised by the World Puzzle Federation, is held in a different global city each year, and 2022’s tournament was hosted in Krakow, Poland. With a final rank of 24th out of 191, the first-timer Nityant Agarwal won the World Sudoku Championship’s Under-18 (Junior), the Best Newcomer title, and also set a record for the best-ever finish by an Indian debutant.
The country’s current Gold medalist team comes as a defining shift in perception for those under the impression that sudoku is ‘a game for the old’. The team which Agarwal is part of, also comprises veterans- Prasanna Seshadri (ranked 16th), Kishor Kumar Sridharan (ranked 21st), Pranav Kamesh (ranked 29th), and reserve player Jaipal Reddy Mogiligundla.
With their combined scores, the Indian team has ranked 7th overall at the WSC, with four solvers making it to the Top 30 for the first time. WSC was held in Krakow, Poland.