As the 19th World Sudoku Championship and 33rd World Puzzle Championship open in Kolkata from October 11 to 18, the pair are aiming to make their mark, with the Indian team targeting a top-five finish.
Hyderabad: For the city’s Sudoku enthusiasts, solving puzzles is a daily exercise in logic and concentration.
For one father-son duo, representing India at international championships has become a shared pursuit, blending passion, rivalry and ambition to excel on the world stage.
As the 19th World Sudoku Championship and 33rd World Puzzle Championship open in Kolkata from October 11 to 18, the pair are aiming to make their mark, with the Indian team targeting a top-five finish.
Jaipal Reddy, who has represented India since 2008, recalled the country’s best results so far — a fifth-place team finish and a 37th-place individual ranking.
“As a team, we would want to be in the top five, and individually my target is to finish in the top 40,” he said.
He noted that participation has more than doubled over the years, with Asian countries including Japan, China and India challenging the traditional dominance of Europe and America.
The championships feature a mix of standard formats and innovative variants, requiring competitors to practise regularly and adapt to unfamiliar challenges.
Selection for the Indian team is equally demanding, with top solvers advancing through online rounds to a national final, where the team is chosen after a day-long contest of timed puzzles.
Jaipal's son, Kartik Reddy, first represented India in the under-15 category in 2015, an experience he described as a turning point. “It was a game changer for me. I got a lot of exposure and met young solvers from other countries who were equally enthusiastic about Sudoku,” he said. Now pursuing an MBA, Kartik balances practice with his academic schedule.
He said he began consistently outperforming his father from 2023, though contests at home remain closely fought.
The rivalry has produced memorable moments, including the 2016 Times Sudoku Championship’s Mumbai round, where they finished first and second within 30 seconds of each other.
Kartik, confident with mathematics-based Sudoku, admits greater-than Sudoku — which uses inequality clues — remains a challenge.
At the international level, however, the focus extends beyond family rivalry.
Kartik said the Indian contingent works together as a team even as competitors battle for individual honours.
