for some solving sudoku puzzles is more than just a hobby they enjoy indulging in along with breakfast these people are not just obsessed with the puzzle but want to get better at it by practicing every day more than 800 such enthusiasts turned up for the delhi leg of the times sudoku championship in association with dy patil university competing to qualify for the finals out of the 800 only three were to be selected dividing all participants into three groups the first round began with four easy sudoku puzzles that had to be solved within 20 minutes for the second round about 80 participants were shortlisted and naturally this was meant to be a very tough one with eight puzzles to be solved within an hours time two out of the eight puzzles are variants which means that they dont have the same format as the usual ones and not everyone is familiar with them so theyre tougher to solve than the others three participants who will be selected from among those who can solve these will then compete in the finals in mumbai from there four winners will go to bulgaria for the world sudoku championship said deb mohanty from logic masters india akash doulani rajesh aggarwal and ritesh gupta were the talented three selected to go to mumbai for the finalsno other hobby akash doulani thirty sixyearold akash doulani blitzed through the contest solving the sudoku puzzles in 33 minutes akash who has a family business of bricks production started solving sudoku puzzles in 2007 when the times of india first organized the sudoku championship he has participated in the championship thrice before this and has made it to the finals each time only this time aakash came first my eightyearold daughter and my 60yearold mother also love solving sudoku puzzles it feels good after i solve a puzzle within the time limit i set myself i want to get better at this put all of my dedication into it so that i can be the best it would be an amazing feeling if i qualify for the world championship this time he said in fact akash has no hobby apart from sudoku i dont get much time for anything else i find it better to concentrate on sudoku in the little free time that i have which is 30 minutes every day he addedfamily thinks its a waste of time rajesh aggarwal rajesh aggarwal who came second after solving the puzzles in 36 minutes is a 45yearold businessman who has a retail clothing shop in paharganj his love for sudoku also started in 2007 when tois championship began i love it because it involves maths and logic maths has always been a strong subject for me after 2007 sudoku became my passion i came fifth when i participated in the championship in the past three years but this time i came second and it feels good my family thinks its a big waste of time