Japanese, German players lead in Sudoku championship

A team of players from Japan and a puzzle solver from Germany were leading the pack early Saturday as the second and final day of the World Sudoku Championship unfolded in Center City, with 120 contestants from 32 countries vying for national and individual titles.

The players from Japan had a slight lead over a team from Germany, with a Czech Republic team coming in subtantially behind them for third place. The leading player at the beginning of the day's play was Florian Kirch, a German man who has played in many tournaments. Behind him were Japan's Hideaki Jo and Poland's Jan Mrozowski.

A United States team had come in tenth in early scoring Saturday, and Jason Zuffranieri, captain of the six-member team, was the top scorer from that team, coming in at 14th place.

Those scores reflected five rounds of play for individuals and and two rounds of team play Friday. Early Saturday morning, contestants met in a mezzanine room at the Courtyard Marriott on Juniper Street, across from City Hall, to begin the second day of play: five more individual rounds of traditional and odd Sudukos in the morning, three rounds for teams from the different countries in the afternoon.

In the last hour of play, late Saturday afternoon, the top four individuals will compete, faced with 10 Sudokus and an hour to finish them, for the title of world champion player. The total of individual scores and team scores, up to that final contest, will determine which country wins the national title.

This fifth world Sudoku contest is the first to be held in the United States, and is sponsored by The Inquirer. Unlike the national Sudoku championships, which the newspaper sponsors each year in Philadelphia with prize money for the winners, the world championship offers only trophies to the best player and team.