All the puzzles from last week have been grouped in this PDF.
Earlier this month the comedy Ghostbusters celebrated its 30th anniversary. This coming week on GMPuzzles will focus on a puzzle style whose name is based on a famous line from that film, with puzzles by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta. The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will also be from that style. Do you know what puzzle we’re talking about?
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Cage Symmetry and Logic (contributed by GMPuzzles to the Indian Puzzle Championship)
Author/Opus: This is the 181st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Variation of TomTom rules. The letters A through J represent different digits from 0 to 9. Identify which letters stand for which digits and then solve the TomTom puzzle using the digit set {A < B < C < D < E < F} so that no digit repeats in any row or column and the value of each cage is correct using standard TomTom rules. Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right followed by the 5th row from left to right. Separate all rows with a comma. Use digits (and not the letters A-F) for entry.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:00, Master = 8:45, Expert = 17:30
Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.
Note: Follow this link for other variations of TomTom and this link for more classic TomTom. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest TomTom to get started on.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use Tab key to alternate between shading and letter entry)
Theme: Indian States (contributed by GMPuzzles to the Indian Puzzle Championship)
Author/Opus: This is the 180th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Variation of Nurikabe rules. Here, the islands are made up of words given in the list below the grid. The words must appear “snake-like” without forming 2×2 white squares or branching. Each given letter belongs to a separate word from the list. This example from the IPC instructions may be helpful:
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments (the unnumbered, connected “ocean”) from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.
Note: Follow this link for classic Nurikabe puzzles on this website and this link for other variations on Nurikabe puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabe puzzles to get started on.
All the puzzles from last week have been grouped in this PDF.
We have now launched our e-book store. This is a secured, PayPal-based ordering system and right now contains the first 4 (of 5) parts of “The Art of Puzzles”. You can get an individual part of The Art of Puzzles for $4, or the entire collection for $16. If you start by buying individual parts, the cost to complete the collection will continue to decrease (-> $12 -> $8 -> $4) so you can choose to try a few before you buy them all. If you have a solving account for the website already, that should work as your log-in to get to the secure store page. Once you purchase an e-book you will be able to download it anytime in the future by logging in to this account. As this is a new feature for us, if you run into any problems please email us using the link at the bottom of the page. We’ll be announcing more titles and a release schedule soon.
Puzzle-wise, this week highlights two things: an author and a championship. We’ll be posting six puzzles from Bram de Laat, a talented puzzle solver and author from the Netherlands. His puzzles are “extras” from the Indian Puzzle Championship as Bram made two puzzles of each type to allow the organizers some choice. The “extras” are actually some of the better puzzles, but also harder which probably motivated the competition choice. So be prepared for a harder week than usual. We will also have some bonus posts which highlight other Indian Puzzle Championship puzzles from GMPuzzle authors.
The exact schedule is this (highlight to view):
Monday (AM): Battleships by Bram de Laat
Monday (PM): Star Battle variation by Prasanna Seshadri
Tuesday (AM): Slitherlink by Bram de Laat
Tuesday (PM): Cross the Streams by Grant Fikes
Wednesday (AM): Slitherlink (Toroidal) by Bram de Laat
Wednesday (PM): Pentominous by Prasanna Seshadri
Thursday (AM): Araf by Bram de Laat
Thursday (PM): Word Nurikabe by Thomas Snyder
Friday (AM): Araf (Different Neighbors) by Bram de Laat
Friday (PM): TomTom by Grant Fikes
Saturday (AM): Battleships (Observers) by Bram de Laat
Saturday (PM): TomTom (Cipher) by Thomas Snyder
The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a Star Battle by Thomas Snyder.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: June Sun
Author/Opus: This is the 179th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Thermo-Sudoku rules.
Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th row from left to right.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:45, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Thermo-Sudoku to get started on. More Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2.
All the puzzles from last week have been grouped in this PDF.
Soon we will be making some updates to the site including finally adding an e-book store. When we launch (tentatively this Friday), 4 e-books comprising 80% of “The Art of Puzzles” collection will be available. Within the month we expect to add the last part of “The Art of Puzzles” and also an electronic form of “The Art of Sudoku”. You can get an individual part of The Art of Puzzles for $4, or the entire collection for $16. If you start by buying individual parts, the cost to complete the collection will continue to decrease (-> $12 -> $8 -> $4) so you can choose to try a few before you buy them all.
In coming months, we will release e-books and sometimes print books for titles with LITS, Caves, and an easier puzzle collection from Grant Fikes that will be a good introduction to several of our puzzle styles.
This coming week is another variety week (highlight to view):
Monday: Slitherlink by Grant Fikes
Tuesday: Skyscrapers by Grant Fikes
Wednesday: Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta
Thursday: Cave by Prasanna Seshadri
Friday: Tapa (Transparent) by Prasanna Seshadri
Saturday: Thermo-Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a Tapa (Transparent) by Prasanna Seshadri.
All the puzzles from last week have been grouped in this PDF. While Gemini continues, this marks the official end of our twin “Twin Weeks”. I hope you enjoyed the ~24 puzzles over the last couple weeks. I say ~24 as even I’m not sure I’ve found them all.
Next week will debut a slightly new format idea which is the split author week. I’ve let both Prasanna and Serkan focus on a single puzzle type and develop it over three puzzles. Prasanna will take the first three days with Tapa-Like Loop and Serkan will take the last three days with Light and Shadow, a new variant for this site.
The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters is a Skyscrapers by Grant Fikes.
All the puzzles from last week have been grouped in this PDF. There were a lot of puzzles last week, so even if you think you’ve solved them all it might be worth taking another look.
This week marks Grant Fikes’ birthday, and we will have an unusual mix for the week with puzzles from Grant, Prasanna Seshadri, and guest contributor Bobby Liu. The theme will be quite obvious from the start this week at least. The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters is a Fillomino by Grant Fikes.
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 number entry mode.)
Theme: Logical
Author/Opus: This is the 178th puzzle from Thomas Snyder aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.
Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows/columns, enter the area of the polyomino it belongs to. Enter both digits of any two-digit values. Start with the 5th row, followed by a comma, followed by the 5th column.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other classic Fillomino. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Fillomino puzzles to get started on.
All the puzzles from last week have been grouped in this PDF.
This coming week is another variety week (highlight to view):
Monday: Nurikabe by Prasanna Seshadri
Tuesday: Masyu by Grant Fikes
Wednesday: Tapa-Like Loop by Prasanna Seshadri
Thursday: LITS by Craig Kasper
Friday: Fillomino by Thomas Snyder
Saturday: Statue Park by Prasanna Seshadri
The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a Fillomino (Cipher) by Grant Fikes.