Officials for the World Puzzle Federation have released the results for the third round of the 2015 Puzzle Grand Prix, Palmer Mebane from the U.S. taking a commanding first place win.

Mebane took a hefty lead from the rest of the group, separating himself by 34.5 points ahead of second place finisher Kota Morinishi of Japan, with Mebane earning 612.5 points in 1:28:45, solving each of the competition’s 37 puzzles without error.

Morinishi finished with a solve time of 1:28:43 but suffered errors in two lower point valued puzzles, costing him the first place position. The Japanese competitor went on to 578 points, placing him above Germany’s Ulrich Voigt that earned 570 points, receiving one error after submitting all of the puzzles.

Ken Endo completed the round in the fastest time, but had an errors in two puzzles, one valued at 38 points.

Featured in this round of the tournament were six of each of the puzzle forms Tapa, Skyscrapers, Scrabble, Magic Summer, Pentominous, and Castle Wall. There was an additional Find The Differences puzzle that challenged players to spot the differences in an image, what made this different from a traditional children’s puzzle is that the image was a reflection of the other.

Puzzles for the third leg of the Puzzle Grand Prix were designed author Serkan Yürekli, editor for Turkish puzzle magazine Akil Oyunlari.

Top 10 Finishers For Round 3

1. Palmer Mebane – U.S.
2. Kota Morinishi – Japan
3. Ulrich Voigt – Germany
4. Neil Zussman – U.K.
5. Przemysław Dębiak – Poland
6. Yuta Nagata – Japan
7. James McGowan – U.K.
8. Tomasz Stróżak – Poland
9. Bram de Laat – Netherlands
10. Ken Endo – Japan

Mebane has continued his slow ascent in the overall standings, placing third place in the initial  round of the competition, and in subsequent stage moving one place ahead to finally reaching the front of the pack with an 8.04-point lead.

The tournament is still far from over as only six rounds scored by players will count to their final total. Even though just over 72 points separates Mebane and tenth place holder Robert Vollmert, a couple of tossed out lower scores or a few stumbles by Mebane could setup a major shift in the final standings.

Ulrich Voigt, currently holding fourth overall, took first place in the Puzzle Grand Prix last year, only having participated in five of the six online rounds, he would go on to win in the finals in London held during the World Puzzle and Sudoku Championship.

Current Grand Prix Top 10

1. Palmer Mebane – U.S.
2. Ken Endo – Japan
3. Hideaki Jo – Japan
4. Ulrich Voigt – Germany
5. Przemysław Dębiak – Poland
6. Yuta Nagata – Japan
7. Taro Arimatsu – Japan
8. Tomasz Stróżak – Poland
9. Takeya Saikachi – Japan
10. Robert Vollmert – Germany

The fourth leg of the tournament will be presented by the Netherlands, and will run from April 10 – 13, with the competition will open up on the Puzzle Grand Prix at 5 a.m. ET. Duties assigned to the Dutch involve providing puzzles constructed by designers from the hosting country.

Each round of the Grand Prix give contestants 90 minutes to solve and submit all of the puzzles. Players can enter the tournament at any time, but can’t solve any of the rounds that they’ve missed out on.

Registration through the Puzzle GP website is all that’s required to participate and is free of charge to all international participants, no matter skill level or at what stage of the competition solvers have entered.

Puzzle Grand Prix Round Schedule

1. Serbia: Jan. 16 – 19
2. Slovakia: Feb. 13 – 16
3. Turkey: March 13 – March 16
4. Netherlands: April 10 – 13
5. U.S.: May 8 – 11
6. Germany: June 5 – 8
7. Switzerland: July 3 – 6
8. Japan: July 31 – Aug. 3

Source: Full, Round 3