Scandal has rocked the Sudoku community. Eugene Varshavsky of Lawrenceville, N.J. has been stripped of his third place position in the national Sudoku after cheating allegations were raised due to his sharply uneven performance. As a Sudoku addict, I am crushed. Not since the Black Sox Scandal and Shoeless Joe Jackson has such alleged depravity brought the great so low.
Officials of The Philadelphia Inquirer National Sudoku Championship stripped Varshavsky of his third-place position (and $3000) after retesting him. Varshavsky made the final three out of 646 contestants and surprised everyone by completing three puzzles in just 14 minutes. During the competition, he was notably wearing a hood over his head.
Tammy MacLeod of Los Angeles won the first prize of $10,000. Former world champion Thomas Snyder won the $4,000 second prize, but not without some drama. Notably, Synder thought that he had won and finished early — leaving Varshavsky with the simple task of completing one puzzle in 20 minutes to take second place. He suddenly could not fill in more than three digits in eight minutes.
What was particularly notable is that Varshavsky had raised similar suspicions during the 2006 Chess championship, here. They were so suspicious of Varshavsky that they searched the bathroom stall that he used and then searched him after each round of chess.
After the competition, Soduku players raised alarms on the blogosphere and Varshavsky was called in for a re-testing. He was given the same puzzle that he blazed through earlier and completed only nine of the 81 digits in 15 minutes.
In another test, he could only fill in two digits in eight minutes.
Chris Narrikkattu of New York City of given the third place award.
As with the 2006 chess competition, the organizers could not prove cheating so Vashavsky has not faced any fraud charges. However, it is possible for such charges to be based on circumstantial evidence. Yet, it appears that Vashavsky is free to compete again. I hear the American crossword championship is coming up in February.
For the full story, click here and here.
Off topic: http://kittywigs.com/wigindex.html
They should have known he was a Sith mathlord when he was seen with a hood over his head with flashes of light coming out.
Time to press a lightsaber into his digits.
I can appreciate that JT refers to himself as a Soduku addict. I have never been able to figure out those darned things. By contrast, I am a crossword puzzle addict. I can usually complete the Sunday NYTimes puzzle in 45-90 minutes, but find myself totally stumped, frustrated and have given up on Soduku puzzles within 7 minutes. Perhaps it’s a right brain/left brain thing.
nal,
I’m waiting. What is the solution to the puzzle on the post????
1 c0mpl3t3d 5umday’s in 32 minut3s s0 I fi9ure sum6ody rat3d it with one two many 5tar5.
Jan,
I’ve been informed by my four-legged bosses that you are an evil person. And they’ll take one in blue.
Since his gig providing “tech support” to George W. Bush for his 2004 presidential debates, Mr. Varshavsky has been looking for a long term position….
(I’m mostly kidding, of course. mostly.)
“Wait … wait … let me finish!” ;^)
534 678 912
672 195 348
198 342 567
859 761 423
426 853 791
713 924 856
961 537 284
287 419 635
345 286 179
Nal, that is very impressive. I assume you did this without a hood.
Prof:
no he did not use a hood:
http://www.sudoku-solutions.com/sudokusolver.php
sorry Nal, I am a dog lover. Cats are okay but I feel no compunction against dropping a dime on one.
I think he should be limited to the correction corner for at least 24 hours.
If you did solve the puzzle on your own you may have one kidney and a gall bladder.
Well, I will be far less pretentious that nal pal. He likely used a “wiki” and not a hood nor the site Byron linked.
I never heard of this silly game until today and within the 5 seconds it took to access wiki, I had the solution to the exact grid that Prof T. displayed in his original post and he may have initially gotten that partial grid from this wiki webpage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
____________________________
Checkers anybody?
I did solve it on my own, without a hood. It took about 20 min. So I’m guessing it was an easy one. I can understand why they can be addictive.
BTW, where is AY today? Must be on vacation.
Varshavsky, the Rosie Ruiz of the Sudoku community.
Nal,
AY is now some guy with an elf next to his name, must be the holidays.
AY is now headelfmaster? I missed the announcement.
Nal:
my apologies for doubting your superior soduku solution.
Just a small boast, I did it in just under 5 minutes, also without a hood.
I did announce it this morning nal.
Bryon you are clever.
nal, you skills are wasted editing. Ever thought about playing the ponies?
You won’t be able to make as much money as was exchanged in the Black Sox’s commotion.
I figure the man was getting his inspiration from the Lebanese witch.
And this is exactly why I stick with crosswords…
h.e.m.,
You went to all that trouble to create an avatar, and that’s what you come up with?
Nal,
h.e.m.,
You went to all that trouble to create an avatar, and that’s what you come up with?
*************************
I went from A to H and this was the first one that I could get to take, Oh yeah. You think I was happy not being able to lock in AY? It was already taken and apparently the screen names are locked in with email addresses. So HEM to you is fine, then again I thought it was funny, thoughtful and creative.
This is a test.
You can still have your elf avatar and your previous name.
Yes, AY. The only thing tied to the avatar is the e-mail address. You can make your nick in WordPress anything.
Somebody else had A Y at wordpress. Hence it would not let me use the name as it was already taken
AY,
You miss the point. When you sign in at an individual blog, it only checks the e-mail address for your account information (which includes the reference to Gravatar for the icon). When you sign in here, you can use any name you like as long as the e-mail is valid, it’ll show your icon. This is how Byron got banned – he was able to sign on as someone else. Setting your avatar should help prevent such abuses because even if they have your name, they won’t be able to post with your avatar without the e-mail you setup the account with.
See?
I can do this all day.
In the “Name” field you enter “Anonymously Yours”.
In the “E-mail” field you enter the e-mail address you used to get your avatar.
Your computer will remember both so you don’t have to enter them each time.
And presto, we get AY back. If you WANT to be headelfmaster, then (cue Emily Litella voice) never mind.
Ok I am trying it now
What’s taking so long?
Patience, nal.
He is from Texas after all.