We just released our latest Starter Pack book, Starter Pack 4: Slitherlink by Takeya Saikachi. Like our other Starter Packs, this book contains a great set of elegantly hand-crafted easy-to-medium difficulty puzzles to get started with some of our different puzzle genres. Slitherlink is a loop puzzle style with a lot of depth of logic stemming from its very simple rules, and we’ve featured it a lot on this site. Like our other Starter Packs, all of the puzzles in this book also have a penpa link for digital solving. This book is also the first time we have saved penpa “solving animations” for each puzzle, so you can watch step-by-step how someone can go through the puzzle to get to the final answer which may help solvers know where to look when they get stuck. We are planning to bring Penpa solving tools and these solution animations to more of our upcoming titles, so please share your feedback here.

The new Starter Pack book connects to our most recent “Starter Pack” variety mix week of puzzles which included a Slitherlink by Takeya. Those puzzles are is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

In the background we’ve been continuing our project to digitize our full puzzle archive for Penpa solution modes. All Sudoku puzzles of any type as well as all Skyscrapers puzzles have now been covered. This week we expect to finish Minesweeper and Battleships too. This will leave us with only a couple main genres and five “Other” categories to go to get nearly every puzzle in our soon-to-be ten year history available for solving in this mode.

This coming week features two different Number Placement styles that I often connect with the World Puzzle Championship: Smashed Sums (aka Doppelblock) and Terra X (which I first saw in 2019 at the last live WPC).

We hope you really enjoyed Takeya Saikachi’s debut week of puzzles; the full week is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. Takeya is the author of our Starter Pack 4: Slitherlink, which will be released next Sunday, and we expect to see a lot more great contributions from this puzzlemaster in the future. This coming week will be another “Starter Pack” variety mix week including a Slitherlink puzzle by Takeya Saikachi like those in the book.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This weekend has also been a time to celebrate Sudoku. Currently running is the US round for the Sudoku Grand Prix, with 14 different puzzles by me that show off a lot of what sudoku can do. Please check out the competition if you haven’t had a chance to yet.

We also just released two new volumes in our Masterpiece Sudoku Mix series, #7 – Sudoku and #8 – Shape Sudoku, which continue to show what the best puzzlemakers can do with different Sudoku ideas. Purchase 2 or more MSM books and use the code MASTERPIECE to get a 10% discount at checkout.

Our past week of Sudoku puzzles and variations is gathered together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. You can find more Sudoku puzzles in our e-store, and in particular if you enjoyed the classic or Shape Sudoku from this week, those two genres will be part of our next two Masterpiece Sudoku Mixes being released in August.

We will have a special Sunday Stumper puzzle coming out shortly for more Sudoku, and also check out the US round for the Sudoku Grand Prix next weekend for several more sudoku puzzles from me.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This coming week is a special week for us as we’ll be welcoming a new puzzle grandmaster with a variety mix week of puzzles. Who will the new contributing puzzlemaster be? Come here tomorrow to find out.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between Sudoku number entry mode and a shading mode to manage the shape inventory.)

Theme: Offset Frame

Author/Opus: This is the 418th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Shape Sudoku rules.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:30, Master = 13:00, Expert = 26:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other Shape Sudoku. More Shape Sudoku are in Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 8.

This variation from Dr. Sudoku will appear on the 8th round of the Sudoku Grand Prix opening August 5th and running through August 8th. This puzzle was created as the “example” puzzle for the style, and is a representative puzzle (in difficulty and style) to help prepare for the competition.

PDF

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

Theme: Boxes

Author/Opus: This is the 417th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules. Also, some numbers are given on the edges between two adjacent cells. Treating those cells as a two-digit number (reading left to right or top to bottom), the two-digit number must be a multiple of the clue. (For example, near a 7 clue, the two digits can be 14, 21, 28, 35, ….)

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 10:00, Expert = 20:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other variations of Sudoku and this link for classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on.

Our past week of Minesweeper puzzles is gathered together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. You can find more Minesweeper puzzles in our e-store in The Art of Puzzles 2 and in Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly Volume 4.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This coming week will feature Sudoku puzzles and variations, particularly classic Sudoku and Shape Sudoku which will be the two styles in our next Masterpiece Sudoku Mixes coming out in a couple weeks. The styles in this week will appear in the US round for the Sudoku Grand Prix, featuring 14 sudoku by me, from August 5th-8th.

Our past week of Nurikabe puzzles is gathered together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Nurikabe puzzles can be found in our e-store in several collections here.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This coming week will feature Minesweeper puzzles and variations.

Our recent variety mix week (at “Starter Pack” level difficulty) is gathered together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. The Wednesday TomTom by me is indicative of the puzzles in our latest book, Starter Pack 3: TomTom, which was released this morning in our e-store.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This coming week will feature Nurikabe puzzles and variations.

We’re excited to announce the publication of the third volume of our “Starter Pack” series, Starter Pack 3: TomTom. Like the rest of our Starter Packs, this collection contains a set of easy to medium (Monday to Wednesday) puzzles perfect for solvers wanting to learn a new style or for experienced solvers who want familiar, but not impossible, challenges.

This is a particularly exciting collection for me as it is my first time coming back to make a TomTom collection in many years. While the cover art features my famous first calcudoku from 3/3/09, the book itself contains 36 original puzzles, 18 with operations and 18 without operations. There are also a set of links to Penpa-Edit versions for online solving with answer/error checking enabled.

The next Starter Packs will feature Slitherlink and Star Battle, and we welcome your continued feedback on this series.

PDF

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

Theme: Even Steven

Author/Opus: This is the 416th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-6.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

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