Tapa (Black Hole) by Zoltán Horváth
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode, a circle entry 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: Blind Spots
Author/Opus: This is the 16th puzzle from guest contributor Zoltán Horváth.
Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, each row and each column must contain N black holes on the Tapa wall. For the purposes of surrounding clues, a cell with a black hole counts as M consecutive shaded cells instead of 1. (If M equals zero, a cell with a black hole does not divide the group of shaded cells around a clue into different shaded groups; that cell is simply not counted.) Black holes may touch each other.
Or see here:
Difficulty: 4 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:00, Master = 13:30, Expert = 27:00
Solution: PDF and solving video.
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 and 2, and in our beginner-friendly books Intro to GMPuzzles and Starter Pack 2: Tapa, all by Serkan Yürekli.
Woah.. Amazing puzzle here, this is my pick for favorite of the year (so far). Great work with the theme, especially thanks to yesterday’s puzzle. And a great exploration of the ruleset, without being horrendously difficult.
Overall, the puzzle had a bit of a liar-variant feel to it, except instead of clues lying, it was more like individual cells were false with the “massless” black holes! Took me a second to wrap my head around it, but once I did it was surprisingly smooth sailing. Just had to be careful not to make any incorrect assumptions in a couple places…
Looking back, I think I made a lucky incorrect assumption — that (rot13) n bar-ahzore pyhr unf rknpgyl bar tebhc bs funqrq pryyf nebhaq vg — vg’f cbffvoyr sbe n funqrq tebhc gb unir n fvatyr pryy jvgu n mreb-jrvtug oynpx ubyr naq gurersber abg or pyhrq ng nyy — nygubhtu guvf fvghngvba arire nccrnef va guvf chmmyr.
Lbh ner nofbyhgryl evtug. Va zl bcvavba n 5 pyhr pna or 2 oybpxf, vs gur frpbaq vf n ybaryl 0. Ohg V qvqa’g jnag gb hfr guvf ba gur chmmyr. Fb rirelobql pna fbyir guvf chmmyr rvgure svaq guvf cbffvoyvgl be abg.
Hi Leo!
Thanks. In my opinion this is a reverse Black Hole Tapa. Because if M>1 then each block can be shorter. In this case the blocks can be longer than originally. So I understand your liar feeling. 🙂