PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 28th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Cave rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the cave 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 = 1:50, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Caves. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cave Puzzles to get started on.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 27th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Yajilin rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. If the loop only has vertical segments in the marked row, enter 0. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Yajilin. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Yajilin to get started on.

Next week will feature another variety mix from our newest puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta. The specific schedule is:

Monday: Yajilin
Tuesday: Cave
Wednesday: Masyu
Thursday: Slash Pack
Friday: Pentominous
Saturday: Cross the Streams

For the first quarter of 2016, we’re aiming to post full weeks of puzzles at least 3 times each month, and I’m adding more help from our other team members to ensure more regular posting, e-books, and other GMPuzzles releases. We’re also reworking site rewards, to be weekly and not monthly this year, and we will post an update here soon about the new campaign.

All of the puzzles selected by our solvers as the “Best of 2015” are gathered in this PDF.

We’ll be back next week with new puzzles, and some thoughts on what is ahead in 2016 for GMPuzzles.

Here are our best Shading puzzles of 2015. As shading puzzles are (still) our most frequent category with 42 posts, there are five awards this year with just four in the other categories.

Leading off this list is a very neat geometry of cages in this Nanro by Grant Fikes.

This classic Tapa puzzle by Tapio Saarinen with an antisymmetry theme also got a lot of Fave votes.

Hex week was by far our most favorited week of puzzles in 2015, and every puzzle from that week was either a Best of … winner or a close runner-up. In the shading genre, Prasanna Seshadri’s Tapa (Hex) was amongst the best shading puzzles of 2015.

Also from Hex week, this SLICY by Thomas Snyder (a LITS variant) was a top shading puzzle and tied for third for votes across the year.

The best puzzle in this category, and the best puzzle of the year based on number of Fave votes, was this Unique Clues variation of Tapa by Tapio Saarinen. It was truly a special puzzle with many different insights hidden in a quite elegant package.

Here are our best Region Division puzzles of 2015.

While the year would mostly belong to great Fillomino puzzles, this Cave puzzle by Thomas Snyder with an antisymmetry theme earned a “Best of …” honor.

Grant Fikes’ Valentine’s Day Fillomino earned a lot of love from our solvers.

(View image directly for larger form.)

Palmer Mebane’s Fillomino “Married or Single?” also earned a fair share of Fave votes.

The most votes in this category though, and the second most favorited puzzle of 2015, was the Shape Fillomino by Palmer Mebane written for one of our patrons.

Here are our best Loop/Path puzzles of 2015.

The first best “Loop” puzzle is a hybrid with object placement and featured twelve pentomino shaped loops. Serkan Yürekli wrote this favorited Slitherlink (Pentomino) puzzle.

Prasanna Seshadri introduced a new puzzle style this year in the form of Balance Loop; this particular puzzle was one of the best of 2015.

Prasanna included Balance Loop as part of his quite special Birthday Loop mix. Alongside his 100th puzzle spectacular, Prasanna definitely made a lot of great combo/other puzzles this year.

(View image directly for larger form.)

The best 2015 Loop/Path puzzle came from our newest contributing puzzlemaster. With just two clues, Murat Can Tonta’s Snake Egg still yielded an elegant and surprising challenge.

Here are our best Object Placement puzzles of 2015.

Pentominoes are a frequent element in this category and were part of several of our best puzzles including this Pentopia from Grant Fikes with only single-direction clues.

Two Star Battle puzzles got very high marks this year, both from guest contributors. Carl Worth gave us a theme based around Pentominoes with a smooth solve.

Also quite special was this Star Battle from Bryce Herdt with “twin” galaxies across the top and both halves.

Finally, one of the best object placement puzzles of 2015 was this tough Statue Park from Palmer Mebane with an antisymmetry theme.

Here are our best Number Placement puzzles of 2015 (excluding Sudoku which is treated as its own category).

Creating a complete puzzle taxonomy is challenging. Here at GMPuzzles we limit ourselves to just five logic puzzle categories, but that means our “number” placement term may seem a misnomer when you see logic puzzles with letters or words like our first winner here. At GMPuzzles, whenever a transformation of letters into numbers or other symbols could leave a fundamentally identical puzzle, we consider “Number Placement” to be the proper categorization. That said, this recent Scrabble variant from Murat Can Tonta — despite not yet having a lot of solvers — got a lot of Faves in December.

Our remaining “best” puzzles in this category are more obviously number placement puzzles; all received approximately the same number of votes. First is a classic Skyscrapers puzzle from Tom Collyer with a great solving path.

This Skyscrapers (Sum) variant by Thomas Snyder, part of a New Year’s week highlighting 2014 –> 2015, also received a lot of votes.

Finally, this Kakuro (Hex) from Serkan Yürekli was another of our best Number Placement puzzles of 2015.

While my relocation back to the San Francisco area and new job commitments limited our posts in 2015 compared to other years, we still had almost 200 puzzle posts in 2015 and many amazing puzzles. Today we will be presenting the “Best of 2015” selections, using data from the FAVE button at the bottom of each post. Because of a variable number of solvers over the year (particularly after the hiatus), the selection process included raw FAVE counts, FAVE/solver ratios, and internal discussions when those values brought up ties. We start with our BEST SUDOKU.

This past year, the best Sudoku puzzles featured either arithmetic constraints or series-based constraints. One of our best sudoku featured both, namely this Arrow/Thermo-Sudoku by Prasanna Seshadri.

Another highly rated puzzle was this Killer Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli.

The highest ratings though went to two Thermo-Sudoku. Both were puzzles originally created for the magazines Will Shortz’s Sudoku and Sudoku Spectacular where we regularly contribute puzzles. But these were kept for this site due to their unique look and solving feel.

On the easier end was this very fun Thermo-Sudoku from guest contributor Ashish Kumar.

And on the harder end was this self-titled “THERMO” puzzle from Dr. Sudoku.