Minesweeper (Even Rows/Columns) by Serkan Yürekli
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools. Use left click to place mine, right click (in cell) to mark unused, right click (on edge/corner) to mark a note; hitting tab will also enable a shading mode. If you want more solving options, turn off Penpa-Lite option.)
Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 139th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.
Rules: Place a mine into some of the empty cells so that each number represents the total count of mines in neighboring cells, including diagonally adjacent cells. Also, an even number of mines must be placed in each row and in each column.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each group of consecutive cells with mines from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 10:30, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00
Wow this one was a doozie, one of the toughest puzzles I’ve seen here. After I (finally) found the break in things went fairly smoothly. Well worth the effort!
It took me 3 days to even think of the break-in. Other puzzles with similar break-in don’t tend to take me that long. I guess it’s just pure unfamiliarity with the type.
And on top of that, after “solving” the puzzle, I found a thankfully easily-corrected error in my solution.
Had to play around for a very long time before figuring this one out, extremely frustrating when I couldn’t work it out, but after days of struggling, finally appreciate it’s quite an ingenious puzzle design.
The other even row/columns puzzles this week didn’t seem too much different from the usual puzzle solve, but this really opens up solving strategies unique to this puzzle variant, quite impressive and really made it worth the effort, thanks!
You don’t normally expect a minesweeper puzzle to require anything other than very local thinking — very interesting construction.