Jaipur teen Nityant Agarwal bags U-18 gold for India at World Sudoku Championship

Nityant Agarwal at the winners podium for the World Sudoku Championship (Junior) title in Krakow, Poland. (Image courtesy: Logic Masters India)

India’s A-Team, which Agarwal is part of, also comprises veteran solvers Prasanna Seshadri (who ranked 16th, the highest this year), Kishore Kumar Sridharan (21st), Pranav Kamesh (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. 

Seshadri says an organisational snafu at the WSC  this year caused the team to narrowly miss out on winning the bronze. “A lot of top solvers agree it was a bit of a lottery to do well,” he explains. “One of the team rounds was very weird and caused a lot of topsy-turvy results. We (the Indian team) were going strong for 3rd until then.” Nevertheless, they’re optimistic for 2023’s championship, with the teenaged Agarwal now having learned how to navigate this unique global contest.

Scenes from this year’s World Sudoku Championship, where India finished 7th overall. (Image: wspc2022.com)

All players on the Indian sudoku team are self-taught, with some mentorship and practice provided by the enthusiast group, Logic Masters India (LMI). LMI holds national qualifiers like the Sudoku Mahabharat (online) and the Indian Sudoku Championship (hybrid) each year to scout for the country’s most talented sudoku players, age no bar. These players then go on to represent India at the World Championship. 

To know what kind of sudoku variants show up at competitive events, you can attempt this sampler from 2022’s Sudoku Mahabharat. Happy solving!

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