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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Empty Center

Author/Opus: This is the 305th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Slitherlink and this link for Slitherlink variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Slitherlink puzzles to get started on. More Slitherlink puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 12 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between ship placement and shading modes. In ship placement mode, right click gives sea, left click gives circle/square, left click and drag for rounded ships.)

Theme: 1234

Author/Opus: This is the 304th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Battleships rules. Use the indicated fleet.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:25, Master = 0:30, Expert = 1:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Battleships and this link for Battleships variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Battleships to get started on. More Battleships puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 12 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

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

Author/Opus: This is the 300th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, white circles, representing the centers of the largest rectangle containing them, indicate centers of symmetry; both the shaded and unshaded cells within this rectangle must demonstrate rotational symmetry. Rectangles containing different circles can intersect.

See also this example:

and this colored image will help visualize the five largest rectangles in the example for each of the five colored circles:

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

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.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 9 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Consecutive Inner Numbers

Author/Opus: This is the 299th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Cave rules. Also, numbers outside the grid show the number of separate cave segments (unshaded cells) visible in that direction. A segment of length N in a given direction is taken as a building of height N. Buildings of height N block the view of all buildings behind them of equal or lesser height.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Caves and this link for Cave variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cave Puzzles to get started on. More Cave puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 8 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: A Huge Gap

Author/Opus: This is the 298th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Cave rules. Also, the shaded cells (outside the cave) cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid. Additionally, an even number of cells in each row and in each column must be inside the cave.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Caves and this link for Cave variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cave Puzzles to get started on. More Cave puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 8 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Author/Opus: This is the 297th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: (Standard Balance Loop rules.) Draw a single, non-intersecting loop that passes through all circled cells. All white circles must have equal segment lengths on both sides of the circle before turning. All black circles must have unequal segment lengths on both sides of the circle before turning. Numbers indicate the sum of the segment lengths on both sides of the circle.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 7 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: LITS

Author/Opus: This is the 294th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules. Also, some white circles may be shaded to become black circles.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:30, Master = 0:50, Expert = 1:40

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Masyu and this link for Masyu variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Masyu to get started on. More Masyu puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Additional Shading

Author/Opus: This is the 293rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, each row and column has an even number of shaded cells.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:40, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Kurotto puzzles and this link for variations on Kurotto puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kurotto to get started on. More Kurotto puzzles can be found in the ebook Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 4 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools with a composite mode where left click inside cell marks as O or X, left click + drag draws line segment; hit tab to also access a shading mode that can be used for answer entry.)

Theme: Knight Steps

Author/Opus: This is the 291st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Draw a snake in the grid with a 1-cell wide path, its head and tail represented by gray circles, and some segments represented by white circles. The snake does not touch itself, even diagonally.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:30, Master = 1:00, Expert = 2:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 2 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

The Season 4 preview week starts with this “warm-up” Aqre puzzle by Murat Can Tonta with a Rectangles theme. The warm-up puzzles have blue stars at the top and use the same 1-5 star system as other puzzles on the site. Most warm-up puzzles will be 1 to 1.5 stars with a couple 2 star examples here and there.

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: Rectangles

Author/Opus: This is the 290th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Aqre rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one connected group. Regions with numbers must contain the indicated count of shaded cells, and it is allowed to shade over the numbered cells. There may not exist a run of four or more consecutive shaded or unshaded cells horizontally or vertically anywhere in the grid.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:20, Master = 0:30, Expert = 1:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for more Aqre puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Aqre to get started on. More Aqre puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our week-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.