The World Puzzle Championship is an annual international puzzle

Puzzle

A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...

 competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. The first one was held in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1992. All the puzzles in the competition are designed to be language- and culture-neutral.

The World Puzzle Championship was the brainchild of Will Shortz

Will Shortz

Will Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor, and currently the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times.-Early life and education:...

, who wanted to create an event where puzzlers from different countries could compete on an even playing field. The first WPC was held in New York in 1992. Shortz was the organizer and Helene Hovanec

Helene Hovanec

Helene Hovanec is a former elementary school teacher who has authored 66 puzzle books, 59 of which are for children.Hovanec earned a B.S. in Child Development from Cornell University and an M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Hunter College. She taught elementary school in New York and New Jersey...

 was the coordinator.

National teams are determined by local affiliates of the World Puzzle Federation. Of the 20 championships held between 1992 and 2011, 13 have been won by the U.S. team (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998-2001, 2004, 2006-2008, 2010-2011), 3 by the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 (1993, 1994, 1997), 1 by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 (2002), and 3 by Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (2003, 2005, 2009). Most successful individual contestant is Ulrich Voigt (Germany) with 7 titles since 2000.

Past Locations:

Year	Place	Country	Individual			Team
			Gold	Silver	Bronze	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2011	Eger Eger Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...		Palmer Mebane	Ulrich Voigt	Thomas Snyder
2010	Paprotnia Paprotnia, Sochaczew County Paprotnia is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Teresin, within Sochaczew County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Teresin, east of Sochaczew, and west of Warsaw....		Taro Arimatsu	Ulrich Voigt	Hideaki Jo
2009	Antalya Antalya Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. With a population 1,001,318 as of 2010. It is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.- History :...		Ulrich Voigt	Peter Hudak	Mehmet Murat Sevim
2008	Minsk Minsk - Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...		Ulrich Voigt	Mehmet Murat Sevim	Roger Barkan
2007	Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...		Pal Madarassy	Thomas Snyder	Ulrich Voigt
2006	Borovets Borovets Borovets , known as Chamkoria until the middle of the 20th century, is a popular Bulgarian mountain resort situated in Sofia Province, on the northern slopes of Rila, at an altitude of 1350 m...		Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Maho Yokota
2005	Eger Eger Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...		Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Niels Roest
2004	Opatija Opatija Opatija is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. , the town proper had a population of 7,850, with the municipality having a total 12,719 inhabitants.-Geography:...		Niels Roest	Ulrich Voigt	Roger Barkan
2003	Arnhem Arnhem Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...		Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Roger Barkan
2002	Oulu Oulu Oulu is a city and municipality of inhabitants in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the sixth most populous city in the country. It is one of the northernmost larger cities in the world....		Niels Roest	Roland Voigt	Ulrich Voigt
2001	Brno Brno Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...		Ulrich Voigt	Robert Babilon	Zack Butler
2000	Stamford Stamford, Connecticut Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...		Ulrich Voigt	Wei-Hwa Huang	Niels Roest
1999	Budapest Budapest Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...		Wei-Hwa Huang	Zack Butler	Niels Roest
1998	Istanbul Istanbul Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...		Wei-Hwa Huang	Akira Nakai	Zack Butler
1997	Koprivnica Koprivnica Koprivnica is a city in northern Croatia. It is the capital of the Koprivnica-Križevci county. In 2011 the city administrative area had a total population of 30,872, with 23,896 in the city itself.-Population:...		Wei-Hwa Huang	Ron Osher	Robert Babilon
1996	Utrecht Utrecht (city) Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...		Robert Babilon	Zack Butler	Wei-Hwa Huang
1995	Poiana Brasov Poiana Brasov Poiana Braşov is the most popular Romanian ski resort and an important tourist centre preferred by many tourists not only from Romania, but also from Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and other European states....		Wei-Hwa Huang	Gyorgy Istvan	Pavel Kalhous
1994	Cologne Cologne Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...		Ron Osher	Pavel Kalhous	Pero Galogaza
1993	Brno Brno Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...		Robert Babilon	Wei-Hwa Huang	Pavel Kalhous
1992	New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...		David Samuel	Darren Rigby	Daniel Johnson

As of October 2010, 45 countries are members of the World Puzzle Federation.

Some classic puzzles used at WPC

Incomplete list, in alphabetical order.

• Balance
  Balance (puzzle)
  A balance puzzle is a mathematical puzzle which challenges the solver to distribute a subset of numbers so that the several sides of a stylized diagram representing a balance scale are equal...
  
  
• Battleship
  Battleship (puzzle)
  The Battleship puzzle is a logic puzzle based on the Battleship guessing game...
  
  
• Fillomino
  Fillomino
  Fillomino is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. Other published titles for the puzzle include Allied Occupation. As of 2005, three books consisting entirely of Fillomino puzzles have been published by Nikoli.-Rules:...
  
  
• Hitori
  Hitori
  Hitori is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli.-Rules:Hitori is played with a grid of squares or cells, and each cell contains a number...
  
  
• Kakuro
• Nonogram
• Number Link
  Number Link
  Numberlink is a type of logic puzzle involving finding paths to connect numbers in a grid.-Rules:The player has to pair up all the matching numbers on the grid with single continuous lines...
  
  
• Slitherlink
• Sudoku
  Sudoku
  is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contains all of the digits from 1 to 9...
  
  and many variants

External links

• Official web site