Kurotto (Even Rows and Columns) by Prasanna Seshadri
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Odd Numbers
Author/Opus: This is the 177th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.
Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, each row and column has an even number of shaded cells.
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 with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:00, Master = 13:00, Expert = 26:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other Kurotto puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kurotto to get started on. More Kurotto puzzles can be found in the ebook Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri.
Had to quickly check the rules to make sure that something which never happens in normal Kurotto wasn’t formally forbidden. Very nice puzzle.
If there was a rule forbidding it in normal Kurotto, it would be a redundant rule. (assuming I have correctly guessed what you are hinting at)
Please ignore the above comment. It was posted shortly before going to sleep and my brain was not being clever.
For those of you wondering, Jack is probably referencing the fact that (ROT13) gurer vf n pbaarpgrq tebhc bs pryyf juvpu qbrf abg gbhpu nal pvepyr.
Right. Which can’t happen in a uniquely solvable normal puzzle, and therefore feels a bit “wrong”.
I found this closing aspect of the puzzle neat, while other testers commented it was the “worst thing” about the puzzle since it violated an implicit rule of the puzzle. So I’m not surprised it is having the same polarizing aspect here in the comment thread.
I also made the uniqueness/reachability assumption based on the standard rules and thus had to redo the puzzle after reconsidering that assumption.
Nice ah-ha moment when I realized my initial mistake.
25:20.I had the same doubt as Jack and only after the answer keys got accepted, I was convinced that that is permitted.Excellent puzzle to solve !
I never new you could do that @Freddie, I was starting to think this was impossible!