World Sudoku Championship

The World Sudoku Championship (WSC) is an annual international puzzle competition organised by a national member of the World Puzzle Federation. The first event was held in Lucca, Italy, in 2006. National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzzle Federation. The competition typically consists of 100 or more puzzles solved by all competitors over multiple timed rounds, including classic sudoku, variations and other puzzle types, normally followed by a playoff for the top qualifiers to determine a champion. Examples of rounds include the Relay round, where an answer from one puzzle contributes digits to the start of the next sudoku, and the "World Record" round, in which solvers competed to set a Guinness World Record for fastest sudoku solution.

Of the 16 championships held so far, Kota Morinishi of Japan (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018) has been the most successful winner with four individual titles, over Thomas Snyder of United States (2007, 2008 and 2011) and Jan Mrozowski of Poland (2009, 2010 and 2012) who have each won three.

From 2007 there has also been a team competition. Japan is the most successful team, having won the title six times (in 2007, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2023); Czech Republic (2008, 2016, 2022), and China (2013, 2017, 2019) have each won the title three times.

Starting from 2011, the event has been held alongside the World Puzzle Championship series, which is also organised by the World Puzzle Federation.

Participants

Currently, 30 countries are official members of the World Puzzle Federation. Individuals may also take part if their country is not already represented by a national team.^[1]

The 2025 World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships is planned to take place in Eger, Hungary^[2].

Results summary

Year	Host city	Host nation	Individual			Team
Year	Host city	Host nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2024	Beijing	China	Ming Letian	Dai Tantan	Hu Yuxuan	China	Japan	United States
2023	Toronto	Canada	Dai Tantan	Tiit Vunk	Kota Morinishi	Japan	Czech Republic	United States
2022	Kraków	Poland	Tiit Vunk	Dai Tantan	Kota Morinishi	Czech Republic	Japan	Estonia
2021	Shanghai	China	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic^[3]
2020	Shanghai	China	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic^[3]
2019	Kirchheim	Germany	Ken Endo	Kota Morinishi	Dai Tantan	China	Japan	Czech Republic
2018	Prague	Czech Republic	Kota Morinishi	Bastien Vial-Jaime	Tiit Vunk	Japan	China	Germany
2017	Bangalore	India	Kota Morinishi	Tiit Vunk	Qiu Yanzhe	China	Japan	France
2016	Senec	Slovakia	Tiit Vunk	Jakub Ondroušek	Kota Morinishi	Czech Republic	China	Japan
2015	Sofia	Bulgaria	Kota Morinishi	Tiit Vunk	Jakub Ondroušek	Japan	China	Czech Republic
2014	London	United Kingdom	Kota Morinishi	Tiit Vunk	Bastien Vial-Jaime Jakub Ondroušek	Japan	Germany	China
2013	Beijing	China	Jin Ce	Kota Morinishi	Jakub Ondroušek	China	Czech Republic	Japan
2012	Kraljevica	Croatia	Jan Mrozowski	Kota Morinishi	Hideaki Jo	Japan	Czech Republic	China
2011	Eger	Hungary	Thomas Snyder	Kota Morinishi	Tiit Vunk	Germany	Czech Republic	United States
2010	Philadelphia	United States	Jan Mrozowski	Jakub Ondroušek	Hideaki Jo	Germany	Czech Republic	Japan
2009	Žilina	Slovakia	Jan Mrozowski	Branko Ceranic	Robert Babilon	Slovakia	Czech Republic	Serbia
2008	Goa	India	Thomas Snyder	Yuhei Kusui	Jakub Ondroušek	Czech Republic	Japan	Germany
2007	Prague	Czech Republic	Thomas Snyder	Yuhei Kusui	Peter Hudák	Japan	United States	Czech Republic
2006	Lucca	Italy	Jana Tylova	Thomas Snyder	Wei-Hwa Huang	-	-	-

Starting from 2013, titles have been awarded also for the best players in two age groups, Under 18 and Over 50 years of age.

Year	Under 18			Over 50
Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2024	Suzhe Qiu	Can Erturan	Yang Leduo	Philippe Meyer	Svetlozar Stefanov	Claudine Thiry
2023	Suzhe Qiu	Can Erturan	Tina Bratim	Mark Goodliffe	Philippe Meyer	Laura Tarchetti
2022	Nityant Agarwal	Can Erturan	Valerio Stancanelli	Mark Goodliffe	Taro Arimatsu	Philippe Meyer
2021	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2019	Ming Letian	Hu Yuxuan	Huang Mingrui	David McNeill	Zoran Tanasic	Joshua Zucker
2018	Ming Letian	Dai Tantan	Chen Shiyu	Michael Smit	Mark Goodliffe	Taro Arimatsu
2017	Dai Tantan	Hu Yuxuan	Ming Letian	David McNeill	Mark Goodliffe	Michael Smit
2016	Qiu Yanzhe	Chen Shiyu	Sun Cheran	Zoran Tanasic	Mark Goodliffe	Taro Arimatsu
2015	Sun Cheran	Dai Tantan	Chen Nuo	David McNeill	Mark Goodliffe	Zoran Tanasic
2014	Dai Tantan	Jin Ce	Sun Cheran	David McNeill	Jiri Hrdina	Stefano Forcolin
2013	Jin Ce	Sun Cheran	Qiu Yanzhe	Henning Kalsgaard Poulsen	Liang Yue	Stefano Forcolin