Kurotto (Star Battle) by Serkan Yürekli
This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between shading and star placement modes.)
Theme: Diagonals
Author/Opus: This is the 478th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.
Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly one star. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on shaded cells.
See also this example:
Difficulty: 1 star
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:00, Expert = 2:00
Solution: PDF and solving animation.
Note: Follow this link for classic Kurotto puzzles and this link for variations on Kurotto puzzles. Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 1 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.