Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition is an annual award and competition in the engineering and design of

mechanical puzzles A mechanical puzzle is a puzzle presented as a set of mechanically interlinked pieces in which the solution is to manipulate the whole object or parts of it. While puzzles of this type have been in use by humanity as early as the 3rd century BC ...

. The location of the competition rotates between North America, Europe, and Japan. It was founded in 2001, and has been known since 2005 as the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition, after the renowned puzzler

Nob Yoshigahara Nobuyuki Yoshigahara ( ''Yoshigahara Nobuyuki'', commonly known as "Nob"; May 27, 1936 – June 19, 2004) was a Japanese inventor, collector, solver, and communicator of puzzles.Jerry Slocum Jerry Slocum (born July 5, 1931) is an American historian, collector and author specializing on the field of mechanical puzzles. He worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft prior to retiring and dedicating his life to puzzles. His personal puzz ...

in 1978, an event dedicated to discussing, showing, and trading of mechanical puzzles. Due to the postponement of the 2020 International Puzzle Party as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

the 2020 competition was held online only and not in conjunction with the puzzle party event.

2019 winners

The 2019 competition had 61 entries. The judging took place at the IPP39 which took place in

Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Etymology The name "Kanazaw ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in August 2019. The Puzzlers' Award went to Koichi Miura for his puzzle 4L Basket. The Jury Grand Prize was given to Slammed Car by Juniche Yananose. The Jury 1st Prize was shared by Laszlo Mero, Gergely Kapolnas and Imre Kokenyesi for Mondrian Blocks, and ali Morris for HoKey CoKey Lock by ali Morris. Mazeburr L and Rotor were Jury Honorable Mentions created by Diniar Namdarian and Kyoo Wong, respectively.

2018 winners

The Puzzle of the Year (Jury Grand Prize and Puzzlers’ Award) went to Casino by Volker Latussek. The Grand Jury 1st Prize was awarded to both the 5L Box by Hajime Katsumoto and Trinity by Kyoo Wong. Jury Honorable Mentions went to: Auzzle A2 by

Ilya Osipov Ilya Vyacheslavovich Osipov (, born May 1, 2005), better known as m0NESY, is a Russian professional ''Counter-Strike 2'' player for Team Falcons. He is widely recognized for his exceptional skills and is considered one of the top young talents ...

, Jigsaw Puzzle 29 by Yuu Asaka, Nosey Puzzle by Alexander E Holroyd, and TicTac's Tactics by

Eric Harshbarger Eric Harshbarger (born 1971) is an Alabama-based builder of large-scale Lego brick mosaics and sculptures. From around 2000 to 2006 he was commissioned to build for television shows and magazines for promotional purposes. Harshbarger is also we ...

2017 winners

Puzzlers' Award: Identical Twins by Osanori Yamamoto; Jury Grand Prize: Kakoi by Shiro Tajima; Jury 1st Prize: Barreled Bolt by Eitan Cher and David Tzur, No Full Pirouette! by Namick Salakhov; Jury Honorable Mention: BurrNova by Jerry McFarland, Free Me 5 by Joe Turner, Puzzle Bracelet by Yael Friedman, and In a Cage by Shiro Tajima.

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://puzzleworld.org/DesignCompetition/ Puzzle competitions Recurring events established in 2001

2019 winners

2018 winners

2017 winners

See also

References

External links