I didn't think to look at his board, but from what my husband told me, he hardly solved any of it. Which I thought was bizarre, but this is an interesting turn of events.

Will comment more when I get back to LA.

Indeed, I only saw about 4 or 5 numbers filled in (not all the 9's and 3's before the stopping point with triples).

Congrats again to you - this "controversy" does not affect your deserving victory - but adds another weird twist to me about problems with the organization of the tournament in general.

I competed in the advanced session yesterday as well. I came in 4th in the last round (although I must have had an error because my time was not counted). After watching the final and being EXTREMELY curious as to how someone who could finish 3 hard puzzles in 14 minutes could stand in front of a puzzle for 8 minutes and fill in only 3 cells, not to mention the fact that he didn't even make any notes, which any experienced solver would certainly do, I was pretty suspicious to the point that I figured he had to be cheating. Without any theory on how he could actually cheat, I dropped the thoughts, but this certainly seems to confirm it. I feel really bad for Chris Narrikkattu who finished 2nd in the final round (and was not a fluke, finishing 2nd in the first round as well) who would have been guaranteed $3000 by making the finals. He deserves an investigation, although I'm not sure what they can do.

James Wilson

Wow. Yeah, I hope it gets determined what happened here.

First of all, congratulations on two remarkable performances:
1) powering through the whiteboard puzzle in 4:14, thrilling to watch!
2) your aplomb in handling the error. It had to have been crushing to spot those misplaced digits, but to this audience member you appeared cool and pragmatic about it. A commendable response to an awful situation.

Regarding Eugene: I didn't recognize him from the qualifiers either, which was odd since he had a pretty distinctive appearance. His attempt on the stage was beyond bizarre - he pulled his hoodie up as the timer started and then stood frozen for most of the ~8 minutes as you and Tammy completed your puzzles. No notation whatsoever, though this is not entirely outside of possibility - the bearded Yankees fan who sat behind you also solves without notation (I sat next to him each of the past two years and he is quite fast), and I believe the winner of the intermediate round also solved without notation. I don't understand it, but some people are clearly capable of navigating relatively difficult puzzles without taking notes. Hence my thought watching Eugene's bizarre finals performance was, "epic meltdown." It never occurred to me he might have cheated until I read your Oct 25 post. And in that case it really is unfortunate for Narrikkattu, who had superb times in two of the qualifying rounds.

On the other hand, considering the size of the prizes and the format of the tournament, it's easy to imagine someone attempting to cheat. We hear of people utilizing video/relay devices in casinos, and if such tactics can be employed in a casino environment then certainly they could be employed at the convention center.

Another thing the organizers need to consider - every finalist should get their full 20 minutes regardless of whether the others are finished, in case errors or blanks are found. Technically, Eugene should have earned second place if he'd finished his puzzle within the 20 minutes. It's a bit embarrassing that your and Tammy's puzzles weren't vetted before he got the tap, and the same thing could easily have happened in the intermediate round as well.

Nathan

Its not clear to me that a judge ever tapped the third solver to get them to stop, but still in each of the three rounds this year it seemed to me that an unfinished grid (or a grid someone sort of said finished, then sort of wanted to write again, then sort of said finished again) led to a lot of confusion, at least to me as a spectator. When it happened in my round, knowing I would likely really be third after having an error, I was concerned for what the third finisher would do after Tammy finished. I certainly noticed him stop and then come over to our side, so restarting at the moment is impossible regardless of the spirit of the rules as he's seen full boards and could pick a number or two or 60 depending on his powers of memory. But I also took note of where his board was, to see if a careful discussion of him deserving second with the judges was needed. I stand by the fact that it wasn't, as you can now read elsewhere.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20091025_Going_for_2d__she_wins_1st.html

"Coming in third was Eugene Varshavsky of Lawrenceville, N.J., who registered as a walk-up contestant yesterday morning. He received $3,000."

Nathan