Numbers game scores a hit

Number crunching could not have been a more serious business than on Sunday, when the city hosted the Times Su-Doku Championship. Similar rounds were also hosted in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.
From a family of three generations to eight-yearold twins, 4,000 people signed themselves up at B N Vaidya Sabhagraha in Dadar, the place where the numbers puzzle contest was hosted.Buzzing with activities, the venue donned a festive look right from the morning when contestants started trickling in, armed with writing boards and other stationeries.
For the Vanamalis, it was a day to cherish as the entire family of four decided to spend the day together , solving the numbers game. The patriarch, 61-year-old R Vanamali, and his eight-year-old grandson, Dhruv B Vanamali, could be seen engrossed solving 2*3 grid problems. “All of us in the family solve Su-doku and we had an exciting time today. We are used to solving 9*9 grids but 2*3 does put up a challenge,” said R Vanamali, even as his grandson sat hiding behind his father, Abhishek Vanamali . “Usually, my father and son stay engrossed in Su-doku . Today, I thought I too should join them,” said Abhishek.
In the first row of the hall, a pair of eight-year-old twins, Arnav and Akshay Nevgi, seemed to be completely lost to the rest of the world, concentrating soleley on their puzzles.
At the end of the day and several rounds, four young boys topped the list and on July 22, they are all set to take on 12 other finalists from across the country. The four highest scorers in that contest will get the opportunity of representing the country at the World Sudoku Championship in Croatia this October. Though they emerged winners on Sunday, the four—Rohan Rao (21), Gaurav Korde (26), Dr Omkar Hendre (25) and Himanshu Mittal (23)—said the competition was not easy for them at all. “It was a difficult contest,” said Rao, who has earlier represented the country in many international Su-doku championships . “Many strong candidates could not make it to the finals,” said Korde.
Incidentally, it was at other Su-doku contests that the four got acquainted to each other.
An IIT-graduate, Mittal, like the other three, complains that they hardly have any platform in India where they can prtactise to hone their skills. “In European countries, dedicated Sudoku magazines are published where enthusiasts can solve puzzles. But here, we only have a few newspapers carrying the puzzles and those are too elementary for us,” he said. “So, we have to depend on online puzzles.”