The last Number Placement playoff puzzle from the World Puzzle Championship was a Skyscrapers (Gap) puzzle with an empty cell in each row and column. How long will it take you to solve David Altizio’s puzzle?

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or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between number entry modes and a shading mode to mark the unused cells.)

Author/Opus: This is the 15th puzzle from guest contributor David Altizio.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers rules. Insert numbers into some cells of the grid so that each row and column of the grid contains the numbers from 1 to 5 once each and one gap. Each number in the grid represents the height of a building and the clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction. Taller buildings block the view of smaller buildings.

Estimated Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all Number Placement playoff puzzles.

Note: Follow this link for classic Skyscrapers puzzles and this link for variations on Skyscrapers puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Skyscrapers Puzzles to get started on. More Skyscrapers puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli, and in the e-book Skyscrapers by Ashish Kumar.

The second Number Placement playoff puzzle was a Cross Sums, for the Canadian puzzle invention by Jacob E. Funk that is now mostly known as Kakuro. Can you solve Serkan’s easy puzzle?

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

Author/Opus: This is the 414th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Kakuro rules.

Estimated Difficulty: 2 stars

Solution: PDF for all Number Placement playoff puzzles.

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

The 30th World Puzzle Championship had five “mini-playoffs” to determine the top solvers in five different genres. The puzzles were designed to be on the easier side, able to be solved in marker on an easel, and sometimes themed with “trophy” shapes or important championship numbers like 30 and 23. Today we’ll be releasing the Number Placement puzzles starting with this TomTom puzzle by Thomas Snyder.

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

Author/Opus: This is the 458th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-6.

Estimated Difficulty: 2-2.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all Number Placement playoff puzzles.

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 these books in our e-store.

Update: 2023/07/27 – We have opened up a few more of our subscription puzzles to give people a sense of what they may be missing if they aren’t a subscriber, including this pair of TomTom puzzles from Grant Fikes.

Grant Fikes has created this clever PairPair of TomTom puzzles, where this is the second part.

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

Theme: Half Off (Part 2)

Author/Opus: This is the 401st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-5.

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 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 these books in our e-store.

Update: 2023/07/27 – We have opened up a few more of our subscription puzzles to give people a sense of what they may be missing if they aren’t a subscriber, including this pair of TomTom puzzles from Grant Fikes.

Grant Fikes has created this clever PairPair of TomTom puzzles, where this is the first part.

PDF

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

Theme: Half Off (Part 1)

Author/Opus: This is the 400th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-5.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:35, Master = 1:00, Expert = 2:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

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 these books in our e-store.

See these earlier posts 1, 2, and 3 for the other Microsoft Puzzle Hunt challenges

Puzzle PDF

Author/Opus: This is the 433rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Hints:
1. How do I get started? Pbafvqre gur fvatyr pryy ahzorerq fdhnerf dhvgr pnershyyl gb uryc svther bhg jung xvaq bs chmmyr guvf vf.
2. How do I solve this? Guvf vf n UVQNGB chmmyr jvgu ahzrevpny pbafgenvagf nf va n GbzGbz/Pnyphqbxh npebff pryyf. Sbe rknzcyr, gur 8÷ pntr pbagnvaf n 3 naq 24 (nf 24/3 = 8).
3. How do I get a final answer? Gur sbhe ? fdhnerf pbagnva gur inyhrf 46, 73, 85, naq 97 va fbzr beqre. Ohg gurfr inyhrf jba’g or nf vzcbegnag gb svavfu gur chmmyr nf gur cngu gb trg guebhtu gurz.

Solution: PDF

Answer String: Enter the final answer (a word or phrase) in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS without spaces to confirm. There may be intermediate answer phrases that are not the final answer; our answer checker is not able to send the message “Keep going” like the Microsoft Hunt solving software does so if you do not see what you expect, treat it like “Keep going” and potentially send an email to us or watch out for hints.

(view directly for a larger image)

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

Theme: Cross the Streams

Author/Opus: This is the 249th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Kakuro Rules. Also, some cells may remain empty but empty cells cannot share an edge with other empty cells.

Difficulty: 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 15:30, Master = 20:00, Expert = 40:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other Kakuro puzzles. More Kakuro puzzles can be found in Kakuro and Variations by Serkan Yürekli and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

PDF

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Three Square Meals

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor Jeffrey Bardon.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-6.

Difficulty: 2 stars

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

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between number entry and shading modes.)

Theme: Almost All Triples

Author/Opus: This is the 19th puzzle from guest contributor Salih Alan.

Rules: Fill some cells with numbers 1-5 so that each row and column contains each number from 1 to 5 exactly once as well as three empty cells (1-4 and two empty cells in the example). Numbers outside of the grid indicate the sum of all numbers in the first connected group in that direction as in a Japanese Sums puzzle.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:30, Master = 17:15, Expert = 34:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other Japanese Sums puzzles.