Ateneo student is new PH Sudoku champ

Alvin Ian Chan. PHOTO BY MATHEMATICS TRAINERS’ GUILD-PHILIPPINES

MANILA, Philippines—Alvin Ian Chan, a 19-year-old BS Applied Mathematics student at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City is the country’s new Sudoku champion, one of the contest’s organizers announced Tuesday.

Dr. Simon Chua, president of the non-governmental organization Mathematics Trainers’ Guild-Philippines, which co-sponsored the annual competition with SM Malls, said Chan topped the finals of the Grandmaster Division of the 2014 Philippine Sudoku Super Challenge that was held on Sunday at the SM North Edsa mall.

Chan, a mainstay of the Philippine math team, placed second in last year’s edition of the contest.

Last year’s PSSC champion, Kaye Janelle Yao, a senior high school student at the Grace Christian College, also in Quezon City, placed second in this year’s competition, according to Chua.

Ralph Joshua Sarrosa, a BS Applied Math student at the University of the Philippines in Miag-ao, Iloilo, placed third in a repeat of his finish last year.

Apart from trophies, Chan, Yao and Sarrosa won cash prizes of P60,000, P40,000 and P20,000, respectively.

In the competition’s Whiz Kid Division, Jonathan Conrad Yu of the Philippine Christian Gospel School in Cebu City placed first. The 12-year-old Grade 6 student won P20,000 and a trophy.

Raymund Carlo Masbano of St. John’s Institute in Bacolod City and Kirsten Dominique Chan of Bayanihan Institute in Tarlac City took second and third places. They took home trophies and P10,000 and P5,000, respectively.

In the Wizard Division, Natalia Beatrice Dy, 13, also from St. John’s Institute, emerged champion. She was followed by Errol John Suarez of  Aquinas University in Legazpi City and Gerrick Spencer Limsiy of Grace Christian College

They won P50,000, P30,000 and P20,000, respectively, apart from trophies.

A total of 176 contestants, all winners of the PSSC regional contests held in SM malls nationwide and which saw over 5,000 participants, competed in the finals, according to Chua.

This year’s PSSC winners will represent the country in various international Sudoku contests in Singapore and Thailand, among other places.