The 24-Hour Puzzle Championship, also known as the puzzle marathon, is held annually in Hungary. Participants in this puzzle championship must solve the puzzle continuously for 24 hours throughout the championship. The participants have to solve 13 times a 100-minute puzzle part each for 1000 points. There are only 10 10-minute breaks between the two sets, except for two 'big breaks' with 20 minutes (when they have dinner and breakfast). And that is altogether 1440 minutes = 24 hours. In fact, there will be 14 sets of puzzles created for this, and each participant has to skip one puzzle set. This is to accommodate puzzle authors as participants. If someone has provided a puzzle set for this championship, that person will miss their own set while participating. Nowadays, many authors across the world are providing puzzles for this championship, even though some of them will not be able to participate in this championship. The largest event was in 2005, Eger, when we had 77 participants (in the beginning, there were only 14).
The first championship was in 2000. Some photographs of this championship can be found on Gyorgy Istvan's Picasa account. It was organized every year, always in Budapest - with a few exceptions, when 24HPC held the event right after the World Puzzle Championship (WPC) in Eger.
Originally, there was an international Crossword Puzzle Compiler championship in the 1980s between Eastern European countries, named Puzzle Marathon, where each country compiled crosswords in its own language (on the given sheets, there were some given well-known person and town names, so they had no opportunity to prepare puzzles in advance). And that lasts for 24 hours. In 1999, at the WPC in Istanbul. Mr. Ede Markos (member of the Hungarian Team in 1999-2000) came up with the idea to do something similar to the Puzzle Marathon, but with logical puzzles. Then, after a short discussion, it was agreed to organize this event. In the first two years, there were only Hungarian participants; later, this event became an international event. And now, beyond the World Puzzle Championship and World Sudoku Championship, it has become the largest on-spot yearly international championship.
Each year, there at 10-15 organizers who correct the puzzle sheets and give the result within a certain time. Some of them worked for 24 hours - just like the puzzlers.
Thanks to István György for providing above mentioned interesting information regarding this championship.
In the year 2015, The Puzzle Marathon will be held again in Budapest, 17-19 April 2015. This year, Pál Madarassy will again be in charge of the puzzle director position. More information about this championship can be found on the official Facebook page for this championship.
From India, Prasanna, Rakesh, Ashish, and Swaroop are providing two sets of puzzles for this championship. Looking forward to the participants' feedback for this championship.
The first championship was in 2000. Some photographs of this championship can be found on Gyorgy Istvan's Picasa account. It was organized every year, always in Budapest - with a few exceptions, when 24HPC held the event right after the World Puzzle Championship (WPC) in Eger.
Originally, there was an international Crossword Puzzle Compiler championship in the 1980s between Eastern European countries, named Puzzle Marathon, where each country compiled crosswords in its own language (on the given sheets, there were some given well-known person and town names, so they had no opportunity to prepare puzzles in advance). And that lasts for 24 hours. In 1999, at the WPC in Istanbul. Mr. Ede Markos (member of the Hungarian Team in 1999-2000) came up with the idea to do something similar to the Puzzle Marathon, but with logical puzzles. Then, after a short discussion, it was agreed to organize this event. In the first two years, there were only Hungarian participants; later, this event became an international event. And now, beyond the World Puzzle Championship and World Sudoku Championship, it has become the largest on-spot yearly international championship.
Each year, there at 10-15 organizers who correct the puzzle sheets and give the result within a certain time. Some of them worked for 24 hours - just like the puzzlers.
Thanks to István György for providing above mentioned interesting information regarding this championship.
In the year 2015, The Puzzle Marathon will be held again in Budapest, 17-19 April 2015. This year, Pál Madarassy will again be in charge of the puzzle director position. More information about this championship can be found on the official Facebook page for this championship.
From India, Prasanna, Rakesh, Ashish, and Swaroop are providing two sets of puzzles for this championship. Looking forward to the participants' feedback for this championship.
Last updated on: August 5, 2025
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