2026 UK Sudoku Championship

[Calump]

This is the discussion thread for the 2026 UK Sudoku Championship.

Duration: 2 hours
Dates: Friday 22nd - Monday 25th May 2026
Contest Page: https://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=75
Instruction Booklet: [to add]

Please post any questions about the competition here.

The puzzles are currently going through testing for difficulty level and calibration of points, I hope to get the instruction booklet out within the next week or so.

[Calump]

The instruction booklet has now been uploaded to the contest page.

https://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=75

[pinkagape]

Not sure if this is the best place, but how do we get started on the example Search Nearest Nine? I got the 9 right in the centre, which I thought was very elegant, but I can’t get anything else.

[Calump]

Not sure if this is the best place, but how do we get started on the example Search Nearest Nine? I got the 9 right in the centre, which I thought was very elegant, but I can’t get anything else.

The break-in involves the diagonal arrows in boxes 2,4,6 and 8 and how they interact with box 5.

To be specific, r1c5 and r5c1 have to be different, so one of them needs to be a 1.

[jonsav]

I find most Sudoku variants to be new to me.

[pinkagape]

Chapeau, Calum. That’s really elegant. Took me a while to break that down even after you told me where to look. Really enjoyed that.

[Calump]

Contest starts in about 1 hour, good luck everyone!

[Glosna]

Is it too late to join? If not for some reason I can’t registered…

[puzzlemad]

Hi Glosna, as you are able to post on the forum you are registered so you should be able to take part.

[Calump]

Results and solutions now posted, thanks everyone for taking part! Hope you enjoyed the puzzles

Many thanks to Liane and Tom for their help in the competition setup.

[david mcneill]

Great puzzles. Thank you Calum.

[detuned]

Congrats Freddie, and great to see a leaderboard featuring David and Sam as well. Having been under the weather I'm very pleased to have a clean submission, even if not quite a clean solve. I suppose if you're going to make mistakes it's better to know about them!