Sudoku Mahabharat, the fiery national puzzle contest, is back

Competitive sudoku: How it works

LMI is the body which recruits India’s national sudoku team each year. It hosts Sudoku Mahabharat to discover the country’s best budding solvers, who later go on to participate in the Indian Sudoku Championship, which is the national final. Its winners can then join India’s A-team, and fly out to compete in the World Sudoku Championship (WSC) at the end of the year.

Solvers Prasanna Seshadri (left) and Nityant Agarwal, who won the silver and U-18 gold respectively, at the 2022 World Championships. (Source: LMI)

Whether you’re 16 or 60, absolutely anyone can sign up for this contest, and first-timers often steal the show — did you know teen debutant Nityant Agarwal won India a gold in Poland last year?

What to expect at Sudoku Mahabharat

The 9×9 ‘classic’ sudoku you see in newspapers is just one element of this contest — the real challenge lies in solving sudoku variants, where the grid can have various shapes, custom instructions or overlapping blocks. For this year, there will be four rounds of sudoku with a mix of classics and variants:

Round 1: Standard & Odd Even Sudoku (solve within Jan 20 to 26)

Round 2: Outside & Hybrid Sudoku (solve within Feb 10 to 16)

Round 3: Math & Irregular Sudoku (solve within March 3 to 9)

Round 4: Neighbours & Converse Puzzles (solve within March 24 to 30)

To participate, every player must register on logicmastersindia.com and read the contest rules. 

Examples of sudoku variants to expect in Round 1 of Sudoku Mahabharat. (Source: LMI)

Each round will have 18 sudokus to be solved in 90 minutes, and players must finish them in one sitting when the solving window opens. LMI releases a booklet with variant examples beforehand, and newcomers are strongly advised to go through them. For queries or advice, you can visit LMI’s online forum or Discord community.

Scoring and practice

While online sudoku has auto-checker tools to help you finish, the grids in Sudoku Mahabharat do not. Every puzzle you submit will be final, and participants will be instantly graded on their speed and accuracy. Overall rankings will depend on a player’s best-three scores out of all four rounds.

Since each round features 18 sudokus to be solved in 90 minutes, you will need a solving speed of five minutes per puzzle to finish in time. Try one of Indian Express’ hard sudokus, and see how you stack up:

For a quick study of solving techniques and popular variants, you can read our beginner’s guide to sudoku. For more intensive practice (similar to mock tests) you can visit the ‘LMI Monthly’ tab on Logic Masters India’s website. 

Good luck, and happy solving!

This story is part of Express Puzzles & Games, where we do daily crosswords, three levels of sudoku and a weekly quiz. Sign up to start playing, and follow @iepuzzles for more brainy fun.