National Sudoku Champion Crowned in Philadelphia

Wei-Hwa Huang Upsets Reigning World and U.S. Champion

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Wei-Hwa Huang of Mountain View, CA,
was crowned the U.S. Sudoku Champion today at the second-annual Philadelphia
Inquirer Sudoku National Championship in Philadelphia. Wei-Hwa won the
championship by solving an advanced puzzle in a time of 7 minutes, 39 seconds
and took home a $10,000 cash prize. He defeated previous World and U.S.
Champion Thomas Snyder who finished in 8 minutes, 5 seconds.
In addition to the $10,000 first place cash prize, Wei-Hwa earned a spot
on the U.S. World Sudoku Team that will compete in the Fourth Annual World
Sudoku Championship to be held next year in Slovakia. The Philadelphia
Inquirer will also cover his travel and accommodation expenses for the trip.
While Wei-Hwa won in the advanced division, other winners included Lisa
Haffner of Bensalam, PA in the beginner division and Chris Namikkattu of
Bronx, NY in the intermediate division. Mr. Namikkattu took home $5,000 in
prize money and Ms. Haffner took home a check for $3,000.
"It was another great event and it was wonderful to see so many returning
faces from last year," said Brian P. Tierney, Chief Executive Officer of
Philadelphia Media Holdings and Philadelphia Inquirer Publisher. "I am
constantly amazed at the number of people this championship attracts, and I am
proud The Inquirer is hosting an event that brings people from all across the
country, who are so diverse in age and background, to our great city.
Congratulations to our champions, Wei-Hwa, Chris and Lisa, and I hope everyone
will join us again next year."
The Championship was open to a national and international field of
contestants from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. The oldest participant
was 88 years old and the youngest was 7 years old. Players came from as far
away as Ireland and Canada and as near as Center City Philadelphia.
"The simplicity of sudoku and the fact that there is no language barrier
has allowed this game to cross boundaries and appeal to a broad group of
people," commented Championship Director Will Shortz. "As I have said, it was
a long-time dream of mine to host a U.S. Sudoku Championship and I thank The
Philadelphia Inquirer for another exciting year and for inviting me to be part
of this new and growing tradition."
There were three main skill divisions - beginner, intermediate and
advanced. In addition to the winners of those three categories, prizes were
awarded to 30 more players including those who competed in a variety of age
groups ranging from under 10 years to greater than 80 years.
According to a survey conducted in 2007 by The Philadelphia Inquirer, more
than 167 million Americans have played sudoku. Forty-percent or 67 million
people play it in newspapers. Sudoku solvers are evenly split among men and
women, and are from all parts of the country.
The title sponsor for the championship is Philadelphia Park Casino. The
partner sponsors were Jacob's Music, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Giant and
Freedom Village.
The Third Annual U.S. National Sudoku Championship will take place in
October 2009 and again be sponsored by The Philadelphia Inquirer and hosted by
Mr. Shortz.
About Sudoku
Sudoku is a numerical logic-based puzzle. Its standard format is a 9 x 9
square grid that is further divided into nine 3 x 3 boxes. The goal is to
fill the grid with numbers from 1 to 9 so that every row, column and box
contains each of those digits only once. The puzzle's author provides a
partially completed grid to start. The predecessor to Sudoku, "Number Place,"
was invented in 1979 by American Howard Garns. The game was popularized in
Japan starting in 1986, where it was renamed and introduced by Nikoli Co. Ltd.
as Sudoku. Sudoku is short for suji wa dokushin ni kagiru, which means "only
single numbers allowed." Sudoku was introduced to the U.S. in 2005 and has
quickly become the most popular puzzle format in the country.
About Philadelphia Media Holdings
Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC, is the leading media company in the
Philadelphia region. Privately held and locally owned, PMH is the owner of The
Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, philly.com, related online products and
several community newspapers. With almost one million people reading The
Inquirer each day, and 1.6 million on Sundays, The Inquirer is the region's
most-read daily newspaper. Together with the Daily News, the #1 tab newspaper
in the region, which reaches 500,000 readers each week, and philly.com, the #1
website in the region, Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC, reaches almost two
million people each day.
SOURCE Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC

Rebecca Morley, +1-215-370-5619, or Jay Devine, +1-215-880-0200, both for
Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC