National Sudoku Champion Crowned in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA -- Thomas Snyder of Palo Alto, California was crowned the U.S. Sudoku Champion today at the first-ever
Philadelphia Inquirer National Sudoku Championship in Philadelphia. Dr. Snyder won the championship by solving an advanced puzzle in a time of 7 minutes; 9 seconds. The tournament, which was sponsored by The Philadelphia Inquirer and hosted by world-renowned puzzle master Will Shortz, attracted over 1,159 participants including 857 contestants and 302 spectators, making it the largest live puzzle tournament ever.

In addition to the $10,000 first place cash prize, Dr. Snyder earned a
spot on the six person U.S. World Sudoku Team which will compete in the
Third Annual World Sudoku Championship to be held next year in Goa, India.

The Philadelphia Inquirer will also cover his travel and accommodation
expenses for the trip to India.

While Dr. Snyder won in the advanced division, other winners included
Lori Desruisseaux of Elverson, Pa. in the easy division and Ron Osher of
Stamford, CT in the intermediate division. Mr. Osher took home $5,000 in
prize money and Ms. Desruisseaux took home a check for $3,000.

"Sudoku hit a home run in Philadelphia this weekend," noted Brian P.
Tierney, Chief Executive Officer of Philadelphia Media Holdings and
Philadelphia Inquirer Publisher. "The appeal of this puzzle cuts across so
many social, economic and geographic areas. I am proud of the role
newspapers, like The Inquirer, have played in the growth of sudoku and I
add my congratulations to Thomas Snyder, Ron Osher and Lori Desruisseaux, our new U.S. Sudoku Champions."

The Championship was open to a national and international field of
contestants from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. The oldest
participant was 87 years young and the youngest was six years old. Players
came from as far away as California and as near as Center City
Philadelphia.

"The interest in Sudoku is truly global and its amazing success lies
both in the simplicity of its rules and its non-language nature," commented
Championship Director Will Shortz. "I congratulate each of the winners. And I would like to thank The Philadelphia Inquirer, our sponsor, for a memorable tournament."

There were three main skill divisions -- advanced, intermediate and
expert. In addition to the winners of those three categories prizes were
awarded to 15 more players who competed in a variety of age groups ranging from under 10 years to greater then 80 years.

The age group winners are:

-- Under 10: Rachel Hart
-- 11-12: Mira Pomerantz
-- 13-14: Drew Farber
-- 15-16: Amy Mount
-- 17-19: Chris Narrikkattu
-- 20s: Thomas Snyder
-- 30s: Kirstin Boes
-- 40s: Ron Osher
-- 50s: Jeff Weiss
-- 60s: Carol Peckman
-- 70s: Donald Russell
-- Over 80: Milton Schwartz

According to a recent survey conducted 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 survey also asked
about political orientations and that too showed an equal number of
conservatives, moderates, liberals and independents.

The Second Annual U.S. National Sudoku Championship will take place in
October 2008 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