Beijing Int'l Sudoku Tournament will kick off

Sudoku experts will gather in Beijing for the 2012 Beijing International Sudoku Tournament from May 17 to 21.

A total of 52 Sudoku contestants from 14 countries and regions in Europe, North America and Asia have registered for the tournament, including World Sudoku Championship winner Snyder Tomas from the US and Jan Mrozowski from Poland.

Fourteen Chinese contestants will join, ranging from 13 to 54 years old.

Sudoku is a popular logic and number base puzzle. The object is to fill a nine-by-nine grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of nine three-by-three sub-grids contain all of the digits from 1 to 9.

Chen Chaoyi, a 21-year-old Sudoku fan, started doing the puzzles six years ago in high school.

"It's kind of a great sense of achievement when I solve a puzzle," said Chen. "Now I don't do it every day, but I do one or two puzzles when I want to beat my brain."

However, Chen also said that if there was a chance to watch the tournament, he wouldn't go.

"A bunch of people sitting there and using their brains, I don't see any interest to watch a contest like that. The only excitement might be someone shouts ‘Hey, I got it.' For me, it's not an audience friendly game."

Su Renxian, one of the organizers, said the tournament will interest more Beijing residents about Sudoku, and make it a popular puzzle in China.

"We are arranging for the Beijing Sudoku Union now," Zhang Zhaohui, head of the Beijing Sports Federation, said at a news conference on Monday, adding that the establishment will encourage Sudoku popularity among community sports.