or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Peace!
Rules: Standard Isodoku rules, using numbers 1-8.
Answer String: Enter the 1st “row” on the left edge, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th “row” on the left edge.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00
Solution: PDF
Ninth in a series with puzzle solving tips. This time with advice on Slitherlink and loop puzzles in general.
Even if you had a good time on the TIME Slitherlink, the following walk-through might offer you some new tips — besides just memorizing Slitherlink patterns — to get better at loop puzzles.
I wanted to start this week by reintroducing this site for readers who may be visiting for the first time after reading a TIME magazine feature on the US Puzzle Team this week. Grandmaster Puzzles is the home to a range of logic puzzle types that may be familiar to you or completely new. I recommended that you start with the familiar, like Sudoku, and then move onto the new; every puzzle has a link to some rules and history that should help you get started. The puzzles get harder throughout the week so starting with the Monday/Tuesday tagged puzzles is a good way to sample the site too.
This is the last week in my 10-week “introduction” phase as I showcase puzzles in the last remaining style for The Art of Puzzles (Fillomino) and also bring you another view of sudoku from my past. While I intended this week to be the end of the first contest period at Grandmaster Puzzles too, with the indicated number of entries each getting a signed copy of one of our books (some spots remain), I am considering leaving the contest open until even more submissions have come in.
As we reach the end of the beginning, maybe it is time to reminisce a bit. Grandmaster Puzzles was a dream born in 2007 at the 2nd World Sudoku Championship to have a domestic source of quality logic puzzles. US magazines then primarily used, as today, computer-generated puzzles and mostly seemed to know that sudoku exists but nothing else. I knew something better could be made, and I suspected there were puzzle authors out there hungry for a place to submit their creations instead of just putting them up for free on the web. While it has taken some time to get off the ground, as other puzzle writing tasks and real-life have crowded out starting a puzzle publishing company, the pieces are clearly coming into place now. Having sampled some of the really excellent puzzle submissions I’ve been getting for The Art of Puzzles recently, I know that this dream will soon be accomplished. All that remains is to grow the audience of puzzle lovers aware of how amazing hand-crafted puzzles can be!
– Dr. S
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: L’s Big and Small
Rules: Combined Deficit and Surplus Sudoku rules, with some regions with fewer numbers (no repeats but one number missing) and others with more numbers (1-8 plus one repeat) than expected in a Sudoku. Use numbers from 1-8.
Answer String: Enter the 4th row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 8th row from left to right.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 7:00, Expert = 14:00
Solution: PDF
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)
Theme: Just in TIME? A hard Slitherlink puzzle from US Puzzle Team member Thomas Snyder, one of the “Answer Men” profiled in this week’s issue (subscription required).
Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the internal loop segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00
Note: Advice on solving this puzzle has now been posted in “Ask Dr. Sudoku #9”
Solution: PDF