Our most recent week of LITS puzzles can be found in this PDF.

This year we are working to reconstruct parts of our website to be more friendly for beginning solvers who are not familiar with all of these types. One part of this plan includes a new book, that we are releasing online today, called Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli. Serkan has constructed 252 elegant puzzles across 12 genres (21 puzzles per genre) to introduce solvers to the beauty and logic possible in Sudoku, Tapa, and other puzzle styles featured regularly at Grandmaster Puzzles. The puzzles are on the easy-medium side of difficulty, perfect for beginners but with some tricks and Aha moments even experienced solvers will enjoy.

So to mark the release of the book, we will have a 12-puzzle sampler this week with one puzzle from each genre released throughout the week. We’ll be back next week with a new variety mix week.

Our subscribers receive access to bonus puzzles each week. We make these posts so those supporters have a space to comment on these puzzles, mark as FAVES, or log their solving. If you are interested in subscribing, click here for more info.

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 278th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules. Also, the shaded region must be able to be split into tetrominoes to form a valid LITS solution (meaning all tetrominoes are connected but no two tetrominoes sharing an edge are the same shape, including rotations and reflections).

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from top to bottom for the marked columns, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 7:00, Expert = 14:00.

Note: Follow this link for variations of Cross the Streams and this link for other classic Cross the Streams. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cross the Streams to get started on.

PDF

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

Theme: 1ST

Author/Opus: This is the 2nd puzzle from guest contributor Yunus Emre Büyükkale.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments 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 = 4:15, Master = 8:00, Expert = 16:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

PDF

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

Theme: S for Superman

Author/Opus: This is the 211st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Same as LITS, except that each region must contain two shaded tetrominoes. These two tetrominoes within a region cannot touch each other, and can be the same or different shapes.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments 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 = 2:00, Master = 4:45, Expert = 9:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more variations of LITS and this link for classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 277th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments 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 = 2:45, Master = 3:45, Expert = 7:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 276th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments 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 = 1:30, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

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

Theme: August

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Bahar Açılan.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments from top to bottom for the marked columns, starting at the left. Separate each column’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 2:45, Expert = 5:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

PDF

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

Theme: T Time

Author/Opus: This is the 108th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments 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 = 1:20, Master = 1:40, Expert = 3:20

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

Our subscribers receive access to bonus puzzles each week. We make these posts so those supporters have a space to comment on these puzzles, mark as FAVES, or log their solving. If you are interested in subscribing, click here for more info.

Theme: 9×9×9

Author/Opus: This is the 210th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments 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 = 1:30, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

Our most recent Kakuro week can be found in this PDF.

This coming week features a set of LITS puzzles. (We will be taking one of our normally scheduled break weeks next week.)

This week, Master+ subscribers to the site are getting a bonus LITS by Serkan Yürekli and a bonus Cross the Streams (LITS) by Grant Fikes, as well as images of the puzzle solutions. If you want to become a subscriber and get access to bonus puzzles, solutions, e-books, and other rewards, check out this page.

Bonus news: As we mentioned last week, the book Puzzlecraft that I co-authored with Mike Selinker is being re-released. It has example puzzles and text describing how to make dozens and dozens of kinds of puzzles, including many of the standard genres here.

A print copy of the updated Puzzlecraft can be pre-ordered at Lone Shark Games. If you want a PDF e-book now, you can support this Game Design and Puzzlecraft Humble Bundle with proceeds going to Girls who Code and Girls Make Games. With the Humble Bundle, you will also receive a 20% off coupon for the print copy or other items from the Lone Shark Games site.