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: Arithmetic Series

Author/Opus: This is the 502nd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Locate a snake (a 1-cell wide path) of unknown length in the grid, whose head and tail are given. The snake does not touch itself, even diagonally. Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of snake cells in that row/column.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, 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.

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 shading and number entry modes.)

Theme: S is for Snake

Author/Opus: This is the 118th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Locate a numbered snake (a 1-cell wide path) that starts with 1 and goes to 30 (in example, 1 to 15). The snake cannot touch itself, not even diagonally. Every third segment of the snake is marked with gray. Digits outside the grid indicate the number of gray snake segments in that row or column.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

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.

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: Clue Pairs

Author/Opus: This is the 501st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Draw a snake (a 1-cell wide path) of unknown length in the grid, whose head and tail are given. The snake does not touch itself, even diagonally. Numbers outside the grid indicate the length of the first snake segment encountered from that direction.

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.

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 shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x; hit tab to also access a shading mode that can be used for answer entry.)

Theme: Odd Regions

Author/Opus:  This is the 481st puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Draw a snake (a 1 cell-wide path) in the grid whose head and tail are given by circled cells. The snake can touch itself diagonally, but cannot touch itself orthogonally or revisit any square. Besides the snake, the remaining cells must form exactly nine white areas, one of each size from 1 to 9 (in example, 1 to 5). Numbers in the grid must be part of white areas of the indicated size.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

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.

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.

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 key to alternate between loop drawing and star placement modes.)

Theme: Whiteboard

Author/Opus: This is the 308th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on empty cells which are not part of the loop.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Masyu and this link for Masyu variations. Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 1 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

(view directly for a larger image)

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 483rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:15, Expert = 6:30

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-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.

(view directly for a larger image)

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 482nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

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-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.

(view directly for a larger image)

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 481st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

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-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Spiral

Author/Opus: This is the 3rd puzzle from guest contributor David Olmsted.

Rules: Standard Yajilin rules.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 5:00, Expert = 10:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

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