A ten-year update to our first puzzle post ever.
Solve our logo puzzle online by clicking here or download this PDF to solve offline (go back to the original post for solution tracking).
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A few stats for our past decade of puzzles:
Longer form thoughts follow, including some introspection:
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While we are still closing out 2022 here on the west coast of the US, we wanted to wish a Happy New Year to those already in 2023 and those who soon will be.
We’re closing out the year on a great note with the release of our Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly Volume 6, with 60 puzzles across Sudoku, Kakuro, Parking Lot, Nanro, Snake Pit, and Round Trip styles. This is our 17th collection published in a busy 2022, and you can see all the books listed by release date here or can search for favorite puzzle types in our e-store directly.
Our latest book, Loop Variety Collection 2, is now posted in our e-store.
We’re also putting the finishing touches on Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly Volume 6 now, and our most recent week on puzzles taken from the styles in that GPQ6 book is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.
The puzzle solution videos are on the posts and linked below.
We’re done with posting puzzles for this year, and will be sharing some updates about what is to come in 2023 soon.
Our most recent week Loop Variety puzzle week is collected together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. Our new book Loop Variety Collection 2, with more Geradeweg, Mukkonn Enn, Yajilin (Regional), Equality, and Line of Sight puzzles, will be released in the few days at our e-store. Until then, you can find the first volume which has more Country Road alongside other puzzles here.
The puzzle solution videos, including our first from a guest contributor Martin Ender for the Friday Country Road, are on the posts and linked below.
We will have a Sunday Stumper posting in five minutes. This coming week, our last of new puzzles for 2022, will feature puzzles (and variations) that will be part of the sixth volume of our Grandmaster Puzzle Quarterly series which will also be released this month.
Tomorrow marks an important anniversary for Grandmaster Puzzles. On 12/12/12 at 12:12:12 PM (PT) I emailed out my first business plan/organizing documents to the original group of GMPuzzles team members. A few weeks later marked the first blog posts on the site, as well as a new journey in my life as I’d just made a hard decision to leave a science role/project I’d been working on for several years and relocated to Seattle, aiming to rediscover my goals in life starting with Grandmaster Puzzles.
A lot has changed in the time since. For GMPuzzles, this includes a much larger group of contributing puzzlemasters and other authors, Serkan becoming my partner in GMPuzzles as managing editor, regular YouTube solving videos, and digital solving options via Penpa-Edit for all new web posts and some of our books. Professionally and personally, I’ve also gone through a lot from (f)unemployment for a year in 2013 to growing responsibilities as a scientist and team leader, moving back to the San Francisco Bay Area, all while still supporting GMPuzzles through time and money.
Throughout these years though nothing has changed in our mission to bring you “hand-crafted logic puzzles, by the best puzzle designers, for all who love puzzles”. We’ve posted over 2,600 free web puzzles, released over 55 books/collections including several thousand more original puzzles, and never published a “broken” puzzle with an error in the puzzle art, even if I’ve caused a fair share of typos on our posts through the years.
A lot of thoughts come to mind thinking back through this GMPuzzles journey to date, and we’ll be writing more as we hit the end of the year about what are plans are for 2023 and beyond. We expect to make some changes (doing more of some things, less of others) as we update our business plan and explore other new paths to get revenue by supporting other puzzle projects and competitions. For now, let me share my thanks with everyone on the GMPuzzles team, everyone who has ever submitted a puzzle, and you the audience for solving our puzzles and adding your comments to the website. This community of puzzlers has been great to see come together, to support each other including me through some tough times. I’m excited for what comes next.
If you’ve enjoyed our web content, please continue to support the site by sharing gmpuzzles with your friends, by buying some of our books or by making a donation using the button in the menu to the left to give back to our puzzle authors.
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Zooming back to the regular content, our most recent week of puzzles to highlight the “Starter Pack” series is collected together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. You can find all of our Starter Pack books in our e-store, and the 6th volume of “Jigsaw Sudoku” will be released in 2023.
The daily puzzle “talkthrough” videos are on the posts and linked below.
Like this most recent week, our last two weeks of the year will focus on upcoming books starting with the “Loop Variety Collection 2” where we will have some less common loop styles this week including some from the genres in that collection. We’ll also have an unusual Sunday Stumper in one week. Our last week of blog puzzles will then focus on styles from Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly Volume 6 as we close out ten years of puzzles.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Downward Spiral
Author/Opus: This is the 429th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Sudoku rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.
Difficulty: 3 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:15, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30
Solution: PDF and solving video.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Square Dance
Author/Opus: This is the 428th 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 = 1:40, Master = 2:30, Expert = 5:00
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.
Our most recent week of Nanro puzzles is collected together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. You can find more Nanro puzzles in our e-store.
The daily puzzle “talkthrough” videos are on the posts and linked below.
Our next week of puzzles looks back at our Starter Pack series, with a new puzzle in each of the styles from the first five books, and then has a Jigsaw Sudoku from me as a teaser for volume 6 that is still being worked on.
Our most recent week of Sudoku puzzles and variations is collected together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. You can find more Sudoku puzzles in our e-store.
The daily “speed solve + talkthrough” videos are on the posts and linked below.
Our next week of puzzles features Nanro puzzles including three variations.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Blossom
Author/Opus: This is the 427th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Arrow Sudoku rules.
Difficulty: 3.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 8:45, Expert = 17:30
Solution: PDF and solving video.
Note: Follow this link for more Arrow Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Arrow Sudoku to get started on. More Arrow Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2 and Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 3.