Sunday Update and Solutions

Our past variety week of Star Battle puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in these books by Grandmaster Puzzles. We will have a new Star Battle 2 e-book by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta later this fall.

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

This next week will be a variety mix of six different genres. We’ll also have a Sunday Stumper (Star Battle variation) posting in a few minutes.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our past variety week of Round Trip puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Round Trip puzzles, as well as other loop variety puzzles, can be found in the book Loop Variety Collection by Ashish Kumar and Murat Can Tonta.

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

This next week will feature Star Battle puzzles, including a Sunday Stumper at the end of the week. We’re working on another Star Battle book to release before the end of the year, and hope that you enjoy the Object Placement challenges this week.

Round Trip by Thomas Snyder

Round Trip by Thomas Snyder

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in default linex mode: left-click+drag draws line, right click marks X on edge)

Theme: 345

Author/Opus: This is the 393rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Draw a single loop in the grid which may cross itself orthogonally, but otherwise does not touch or retrace itself. The clue numbers to the left/right of the rows indicate the number of squares visited by the nearest section of the loop that travels horizontally in the rows. The clue numbers to the top/bottom of the columns indicate the number of squares visited by the nearest section of the loop that travels vertically in the columns.

Also, see this example:

Round Trip by Serkan Yürekli

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 4:45, Expert = 9:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for other Round Trip puzzles. Some more Round Trip puzzles can be found in the book Loop Variety Collection by Ashish Kumar and Murat Can Tonta.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our past variety week of Spiral Galaxies puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Spiral Galaxies can be found in The Art of Puzzles 2.

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

This next week of puzzles will contain Round Trip loop puzzles. We recently finished digitizing our (small) archive of other Round Trip puzzles for Penpa-Edit solving, as well as all of our Kakuro puzzles. A full list of completed genres is on our Penpa Notes page.

Spiral Galaxies (Double) by Thomas Snyder

Double Spiral Galaxies by Thomas Snyder

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a shading mode.)

Theme: Double Ring

Author/Opus: This is the 392nd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Variation of Spiral Galaxies. In addition to the standard rules, some circles are shaded gray and must belong to galaxies containing two gray circles, not one, with the circles in rotationally symmetric spots for those galaxies.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:00, Master = 13:15, Expert = 26:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Spiral Galaxies puzzles on this website and this link for variations on Spiral Galaxies puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Spiral Galaxies Puzzles to get started on. More Spiral Galaxies can be found in The Art of Puzzles 2.

New e-book series: Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly

After many years of publishing elegant, hand-crafted puzzles across multiple genres in focused e-books and one-off collections, we have decided to start a more regular quarterly publication where every 3 months we will feature selections from six different categories of puzzles. Today marks the release of Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 1, which has 60 total puzzles split across these genres:

– 7 Sudoku and 3 Killer Sudoku
– 7 TomTom and 3 TomTom (Different Set)
– 7 Star Battle and 3 Star Battle (Isometric)
– 7 Tapa and 3 Tapa (Line)
– 7 Fillomino and 3 Fillomino (Non-consecutive)
– 7 Yajilin and 3 Yajilin (Regional)

We are already pretty far along in preparing volume 2, which will be even larger than the first volume, and we are continuing to consider additional features to put into this recurring series over time. So please try out this first volume, and then share any feedback you have so we can continue to make a great quarterly publication.

At the end of the year (at the release of volume 2), we expect to offer some options to subscribe to this series of books to receive them at a discount.

Sunday Update and Solutions

The recent mix of “Last Days of SUM-mer” arithmetic puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

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

This next week of puzzles will be themed around Spiral Galaxies puzzles.

We have recently added several more Penpa versions of puzzles to the site, completing the main entries for TomTom and LITS styles, to bring us to over 775 puzzles digitized so far this year. The six completed sudoku genres and six completed puzzle genres are listed on our Penpa Notes page.

Later today we’ll be posting the first issue of a new book series, Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly 1. This book has 60 total puzzles, with six sections containing 7 “regular” puzzles and one variation with 3 more puzzles. The first issue focuses on Sudoku, TomTom, Star Battle, Tapa, Fillomino, and Yajilin. Each section is meant to resemble a full week of GMPuzzles on the web, but packed with extra content. While this first issue took more time than expected to prepare, our managing editor Serkan Yürekli and contributing authors are pretty far along with Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly 2 which will be out by the end of the year with an even larger size.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our past variety week of Tapa puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. An extra Sunday Stumper Tapa puzzle will be posting this morning. If you are interested in more Tapa puzzles, please look here in our estore.

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

This next week of puzzles will be themed around the “Last Days of SUM-mer” with six different arithmetic puzzle types. Next Sunday we’ll also be posting the first issue of a new book series, Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly 1, with a mix of puzzles from six different genres. More details to come next week.

Make Room for Tapa by Thomas Snyder

Tapa by Thomas Snyder

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: Parquet

Author/Opus: This is the 391st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, the grid is divided into regions by bold lines; exactly five cells must be shaded black in each region.

See also this example:

Make Room for Tapa example by Serkan Yürekli

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:45, Master = 11:15, Expert = 22:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our past variety week of Statue Park puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

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

This next week will feature Tapa puzzles, including a special Sunday Stumper in a week.