[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): My very first book from Sterling Publishing (their name at the time) was Battleship Sudoku, taking one of my livejournal puzzle ideas and turning it into a full-sized book. While the combination is simple in its rules as other Sudoku variations more commonly featured here, I found I could write a lot of interesting puzzles by slowly placing sets of numbers into the grid via the outside clues. The future “Shape Sudoku” style would be motivated by seeing how placing groups of numbers all at once (maybe with rotations) from the fleets worked very well to hide different sudoku deductions.]

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between number placement, ship placement, and shading modes. The shading mode in gray, which numbers can be written on top of, may work better than default ship placement.)

Theme: Even Steven; the fleet has only certain kinds of numbers.

Rules: Standard Battleship Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

Solution: PDF

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Battleships is one of the few “classic” puzzle styles we feature to come from the Southern Hemisphere, in this case Argentina and Jaime Poniachik and other members of his magazine editorial team. With this small but a little bit challenging Battleships grid we launched “fleet week” on GMPuzzles.]

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between ship placement and shading modes. In ship placement mode, right click gives sea, left click gives circle/square, left click and drag for rounded ships.)

Theme: Rising or Falling? Patterned digits in the rows.

Rules: Standard Battleships rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:50, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF

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

Our seventh Smashing the Sudoku video (which also announces the prizes for our Ten-Year Anniversary Contest) is now live:

This coming week will be “fleet week” of sorts, with Battleships and Battleship Sudoku alternating every other day.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): I created this unusual layout for a Sudoku puzzle for the Sudoku Cup several years before re-using the pattern here. The twisted geometry plays a really key role in the logical solving path which means that the difficulty of the puzzle will depend on if you’ve ever solved a sudoku on this grid shape before.]

PDF

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

Theme: Totally Twisted: a challenging grid shape

Rules: Standard Sudo-Kurve rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Advice on solving this puzzle has now been posted in “Ask Dr. Sudoku #7“

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): The first week of Tapa puzzles ended with this large challenge where the size as well as different clue patterns set up the “block party”. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the challenge of getting all the way around this tightly packed grid.]

(View image directly for larger form.)

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: Block Party — repeated clues in each corner.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 8:00, Expert = 16:00

Solution: PDF

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 1, 2, and 3, and in our beginner-friendly books Intro to GMPuzzles and Starter Pack 2: Tapa, all by Serkan Yürekli.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Certainly more thematic the first time it was posted (on Valentine’s Day in 2013), this geometry of grid is still a special one in my puzzlemaking history as it was part of a special project to create the first sudoku marriage proposal.]

PDF

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

Theme: Happy Valentine’s Day – a heart of given numbers inside a heart-shaped grid.

Rules: Standard Sudo-Kurve rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00

Solution: PDF

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Slight spoiler: While a lot of Tapa puzzles solve from single clue patterns (and where they sit around the grid), this mid-week puzzle highlights how clues can sometimes work together in a given area of the grid.]

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: Greek Cross

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:20, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00

Solution: PDF

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 1, 2, and 3, and in our beginner-friendly books Intro to GMPuzzles and Starter Pack 2: Tapa, all by Serkan Yürekli.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Geometric variations of Sudoku hold a lot of potential, and this “bend-y” style has a few good natural grid variations including this most basic one that takes sudoku down to just three “rows”, three “columns”, and three boxes.]

PDF

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

Theme: A simple start: a Sudo-Kurve with just three regions.

Rules: Standard Sudo-Kurve rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Tapa is a very special shading puzzle, that grow instantly to be one of my favorites when it was focused on for the World Puzzle Championship in Turkey in 2009. While my puzzles would introduce the genre on the website, Serkan Yürekli who created Tapa would write the full “The Art of Puzzles: Tapa” section as his first of many projects with Grandmaster Puzzles.]

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: A little of everything — clues from 1 to 8 exist in value-mirrored (9-x) symmetric locations throughout the middle of the grid.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:30, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF

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 1, 2, and 3, and in our beginner-friendly books Intro to GMPuzzles and Starter Pack 2: Tapa, all by Serkan Yürekli.

We’re excited to announce that Grandmaster Puzzles will be organizing the puzzles for the next World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships. This news is now confirmed yesterday following a successful vote of the general assembly of the World Puzzle Federation. The next WSPC event will be held October 15-22 in Toronto, Canada. Thomas Snyder and Serkan Yürekli will be coordinating the puzzles, with a much larger team from Canada and the US working together on all the other details.

Organizing the world championships will be a big project for us in 2023, and we are considering how “competitions” and “rankings” can be a larger theme for our new content on the website and YouTube this year. Please keep on the watch for more news and updates, and do reach out to us if you are interested in contributing to the WSPC (particularly North American authors).

In addition to this exciting news, we have our posted our sixth episode in our Smashing the Sudoku series, looking back at our launch puzzle set from 2013: