Note that our solving widget/fave button is being fixed over this week and may temporarily be inaccessible; hopefully after the update is complete the issue that was keeping some people from logging in will be resolved. We will share more info when we know all functionality is working again.

This past week’s set of Tapa puzzles are collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and also linked below. We’ve been getting some helpful feedback on what you like about these videos as well as things we can be doing differently; please feel free to share your own comments as we continue to make these. We will eventually be making tutorial videos for how to use Penpa-Edit for each style, but as the interfaces are still being improved we have not done this for any genre yet.

This upcoming week will feature Sudoku puzzles and variations. We also expect to be releasing The Art of Sudoku 2 next Sunday. This long-awaited book features 180 hand-crafted sudoku puzzles, including 60 classic Sudoku, 20 Tight Fit Sudoku, 20 Consecutive Pairs Sudoku, 20 Even/Odd Sudoku, 20 Thermo-Sudoku, 20 Arrow Sudoku, and a variety section with 20 other Sudoku of different styles. We’ll be selling it as a complete collection or as three partial packs split out by sections (Classic only; Tight Fit + Consecutive + Even/Odd; Thermo- + Arrow + Other).

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Rising Up

Author/Opus: This is the 377th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, there may not be four consecutive black cells in any row or column.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:15, Master = 11:45, Expert = 23:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Faraday Cage

Author/Opus: This is the 321st puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Additionally, shade two separate Tapa walls that do not overlap or cross each other. All digits in a clue cell refer to the shading of just one Tapa wall within the puzzle and provide no information on the shading of the other wall around that clue.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Author/Opus: This is the 193rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, similar to Nurikabe, each Tapa clue cell is part of an island of horizontally and vertically connected white cells and the area of the island must be one of the numbers in the clue (as an example, if a clue is 1 5, then the island containing that clue must be either 1 cell or 5 cells large). Islands are allowed to touch diagonally, and there may be islands without any number clues in the grid.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Explosion

Author/Opus: This is the 20th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

We have now added the solution to the Linking 200 Cells puzzle to the website (and if anyone was looking for “hints” as opposed to solutions, we will now be able to add those into the comments on the website). There were 33 correct submissions out of about 40 entries. The three randomly selected winners, who have each won an e-book from Prasanna Seshadri, are Yossi Fendel, Tom Luo, and Arthur Nebout. Congratulations to these three, and we hope you all enjoyed the puzzle!

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: White Space

Author/Opus: This is the 75th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:40, Master = 2:45, Expert = 5:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Matrix

Author/Opus: This is the 203rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

This year, we have started to have some extra difficult Sunday Stumpers, about once a month. These will be quite tough puzzles, but with a logical path to be found (and solution videos to help). This second Sunday Stumper is a challenging Sudoku variation with a special theme for Pi Day, whether you like Pi or are in the Anti-Pi = Tau camp.

PDF

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

Theme: Pinenut

Author/Opus: This is the 320th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules. Also, no two of 3, 1, and 4 can appear in adjacent cells. Some cages are marked by dashed lines; the sum of the digits in each cage must equal the value given in the upper-left corner of that cage (digits cannot repeat inside a cage). Some arrows given outside the grid indicate the sum of the digits along that diagonal path (digits can repeat on a diagonal). The value of any ungiven sum in either a cage or an arrow must not be a number composed solely of the digits 3, 1, and 4 (like 4, 11, 14, 31).

Difficulty: 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 28:00, Master = 1:00:00, Expert = 2:00:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here from Dr. Sudoku and another video here from Cracking the Cryptic.

Note: Follow this link for other variations on Sudoku.

Today is the last day to submit an answer to Prasanna’s 200th puzzle submission contest. We’ll be back with a contest summary and list of winners later in the week (no later than Sunday the 21st).

Today we will also have a new Sunday Stumper (Anti-Pi Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli) as another bonus puzzle which will post in a few minutes.

The past Variety puzzle week of Even Rows and Columns puzzles are collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

We’re starting to try releasing the solving videos the day after the puzzle posts, and will continue that this week although the blog entry may not get updated as routinely. So please subscribe to our Youtube channel if you want to always see the latest solution video. For the week, here are the six solving videos:

This upcoming week will feature Tapa puzzles and variations.