Star Battle by Anurag Sahay
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: One Corner Off
Author/Opus: This is the 2nd puzzle from guest contributor Anurag Sahay.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region.
Difficulty: 3 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the book Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.
1:29. Fun puzzle, an interesting theme which led to some good logic.
Great, more trash by Anurag. Are you guys absolutely sure this puzzle wasn’t horribly broken before putting it on the site?
No solve from me thanks. Anurag has broken my trust he is a competent constructor one too many times.
Thanks for the feedback, and I appreciate your perspective.
We receive many submissions from many authors (including some constructing their very first puzzles). We accept some, we reject some, but we always send feedback to highlight what we are looking for to get to masterpiece-type puzzles and how to be a better puzzle designer. My attitude is to (1) judge the puzzle, not the author; and (2) that with a good editor and helpful feedback, most anyone can learn to construct great puzzles.
This puzzle from Anurag did not need any extra work by us. It had a unique solution at submission, and an interesting solving path and theme from the get go. I stand behind its inclusion here. This is not the same story for all of Anurag’s submissions, or for all of any other authors’ submissions. We take our editing job seriously, and highlight the puzzles we enjoy.
After reading your comment, I decided to go back and solve this one. It wasn’t as painful as I was expecting. I still have a long way to go to put Anurag on the same level as someone like Grant or Serkan, but maybe a competent editor is what he needs.
This is only the second star battle I’ve ever done, so I had a bit of trouble with it, but I eventually got it. I appreciated the puzz.link tool, to play online. I don’t think I would have stuck with the puzzle if I was only doing it on paper.
Thanks
Anurag, nice puzzle. Interesting and unexpected logical solution path. It kept making me think it was harder than it was which is a good trick I think.
🙂 The effects of this puzzle on mental health re debatable 😉
Nice Puzzle Anurag. 3.49 mins to solve this one.