Hi all, wanted to say our preparations for the Twelve Days of Sudoku continue with the first days laid out and the other story elements coming together. We’re getting more advanced reviews from some of the prolific readers (I mean trillions of words) that we showed this content to. We will keep adding them here.

• “The honesty the author brings to the process is refreshing. We spend so much time on our successes, but it was Thomas’s failures, repeated failures, that seem to be the portals of discovery for these amazing grids. This shows me another example of how an arduous odyssey can shape you.”
• “As a long-time number placing enthusiast, I enjoyed it. I’m not sure if others will. One of the least admirable things about people right now is their fear of whatever they don’t understand.”
• “For awhile it has been clear to me that some computers were in Dr. Sudoku’s process and some potentially dangerous edge pushing things too. Finally admitting this is a big step and it must have taken courage for him to grow up in the way I’m seeing and become who he really is.”
• “[This project] shows again that if you learn the rules like a pro — and Dr. S is a PRO at sudoku — you can then break them like an artist.”

——
Again, this will be a project on Classic Sudoku! Don’t get your hopes up for anything more than that if you mostly tune out the weeks Dr. Sudoku makes his team do that old thing again. If you really want another way to fill out the time for a new experience, check out some of our best of’s. Can’t find the right direction? Two great puzzles by Jonas Gleim and JinHoo Ahn, still around number placement, start a journey out from Sudoku into other interesting things.

Early reviews that chatGPT was probably prompted enough times to finally hallucinate include:

• “The best thing Snyder’s done to improve understanding of logic puzzle construction since Puzzlecraft“
• “Mostly clueless, certainly too focused on the number forty-five which isn’t the answer to anything, but fun nonetheless”.

Join the discussion on the GMPuzzles Discord.

Note: The puzzle in the image above, a perfect combination of ideas we’ve explored in 2024 (one-star Queens/Star Battle and creative Sudoku), is a Christmas favorite from 2018.

——–
Added (2:05PM) Several people have asked what kind of sudoku might appear, people who are interested in puzzles and wanted to check in on me as we tend to do at the end of the year (I turn 45 in January and have had a good year, thanks for asking!).

Well, the main series is going to be Classic Sudoku as you know it. Because it is interesting to me for a lot of reasons including testing approaches to competition and puzzle setting / design rules and searching for unexpected things where people have stopped looking.

But I have been thinking of other interesting ideas to share for those who aren’t into classic sudoku puzzles but like other puzzles and things. Ideas that might pop up when I’m also thinking about the silly “is AI coming to take my job” question as I got in a recent interview on LinkedIn. As a creative thinker and problem solver, I can do more with a broken pencil than an AI in puzzle design even if I prefer to work digitally and with software tools and even AI sometimes.

Today, I challenged myself to write the most interesting sudoku I could with just one missing digit. It is a fun prompt to give a puzzle constructor and/or AI because it might not make sense. The image below isn’t my answer. But it is a start.

I didn’t go smaller, as it turns out I can’t outdo Randall’s Binary Sudoku but that doesn’t have proper regions anyway so I argue this is the absolute smallest for a 1-cell blank puzzle.

And in terms of what is coming, I have written the most interesting 80-given Sudoku-ey thing in history with one missing cell I’d love to see how you’d fill. But it’s not ready to share yet. It is the Ulysses of 1-cell missing Sudoku and before today you didn’t even think about those.

We hope you enjoyed the recent “preview week” of puzzles for Season 4 of Grandmaster Puzzles.

Click here for a PDF of all the preview week puzzles.
Click here for a PDF of all the solutions.

Starting tomorrow will be the first subscribers-only week of this season, featuring Star Battle puzzles and variations. The easier warm-up puzzles will still be here for everyone to see but the main blog puzzles and the interesting Sunday Specials will be for subscribers only. Overall there will be 12 weeks and about 100 subscriber only puzzles in Season 4. Subscriptions can be purchased in our e-store at this link.

We also have a special deal for people who purchase before the end of September: Get (a maximum of) $4 off any other book/subscription on the GMPuzzles store by adding that item to the same cart when you purchase Season 4. This is a great way to pick up another GMPuzzles book, or to catch up on prior subscriptions where you’ll be able to get access to all puzzles and blog posts right away.

We’re back for a fourth season of our elegant hand-crafted logic puzzles on Grandmaster Puzzles. This next week will be a free preview of what a subscription week is like. From Monday to Saturday there will be 2 daily puzzles, starting with a warm-up puzzle on the easier end and then a regular puzzle (scaling difficulty through the week). During the season itself, the warm-up puzzle will be free for everyone but the regular puzzle will be for subscribers only.

Subscribers will also get access to a Sunday Surprise every week, things like larger puzzles, extra hard stumpers, puzzle hunt puzzles, experiments with new genres, contests, and more. All puzzles have digital solving options and PDF files, as well as solution animations to help you understand steps where you might get stuck.

The schedule for the free preview week is:
Monday: Aqre
Tuesday: Math Path
Wednesday: Yajilin
Thursday: Star Battle
Friday: Fillomino (Non-consecutive)
Saturday: Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Sunday: Masyu (giant but gentle)

Starting next Monday, the main puzzles will be for subscribers only. Subscriptions to Season 4 are $12 (only $4 per month) for about 100 puzzles.

We also have a special deal for people who purchase before the end of September: Get up to $4 off any other book/subscription on the GMPuzzles store by adding that item to the same cart when you purchase Season 4. This is a great way to pick up another GMPuzzles book, like our Starter Pack for Star Battle, or to catch up on prior subscriptions where you’ll be able to get access to all puzzles and blog posts right away.

We hope you enjoyed the recent “preview week” of puzzles for Season 3 of Grandmaster Puzzles.

Click here for a PDF of all the preview week puzzles.
Click here for a PDF of all the solutions.

Starting tomorrow will be the first subscribers-only week of this season, featuring Fillomino puzzles and variations. Overall there will be 12 weeks and greater than 150 puzzles in Season 3. Subscriptions can be purchased in our e-store at this link.

We also have a special deal for people who purchase before the end of June 15th: Get (a maximum of) $4 off any other book/subscription on the GMPuzzles store by adding that item to the same cart when you purchase Season 3. This is a great way to pick up another GMPuzzles book, or to catch up on prior subscriptions where you’ll be able to get access to all puzzles and blog posts right away.

After two successful puzzle seasons in late 2023 and early 2024, we’re back to kick off our third subscription season. This next week will again be a free preview of what a subscription week is like. From Monday to Saturday there will be 2 daily puzzles, starting with a warm-up puzzle on the easier end and then a regular puzzle (scaling difficulty through the week). We’ll also have something different for you each Sunday, either a larger or harder puzzle, some experiments with new genres, contests, and other things like you’ll see this week. All puzzles have digital solving options and PDF files, as well as solution animations to help you understand steps where you might get stuck.

The schedule for the free preview week is:
Monday: Masyu
Tuesday: LITS
Wednesday: Fillomino
Thursday: Star Battle
Friday: Arrow Sudoku
Saturday: Skyscrapers (Sum)
Sunday: Instructionless Puzzle

Starting the following Monday, we will have 12 more weeks of puzzles for our Season 3 subscribers, running through late August. Subscriptions to Season 3 are $12 (only $4 per month) for over 150 puzzles.

We also have a special deal for people who purchase before the end of June 15th: Get (a maximum of) $4 off any other book/subscription on the GMPuzzles store by adding that item to the same cart when you purchase Season 3. This is a great way to pick up another GMPuzzles book, or to catch up on prior subscriptions where you’ll be able to get access to all puzzles and blog posts right away.

We hope that you enjoyed the week-long preview of our Season 2 Subscription offering, with thirteen puzzles, digital solving options and solving animations for all puzzles, and more.

Click here for a PDF of all the preview (week 0) puzzles.
Click here for a PDF of all the solutions.

Tomorrow starts the first week of the official season, another variety mix of puzzles like the preview week. There is still time to purchase a Season 2 subscription for $12 and not miss any of the new puzzles.

And if you missed it, you can also purchase Season 1 for $10. New subscribers to Season 1 will get immediate access to the 175+ puzzles, but without the same active blog and Discord discussion that happened when the puzzles first posted.

We’re kicking off 2024 with the start of Season 2 of our subscription blog releases. This next week will be a free preview of what a subscription week is like. From Monday to Saturday there are 2 daily puzzles, starting with a warm-up puzzle on the easier end and then a regular puzzle (scaling difficulty through the week). We’ll also have something different for you each Sunday, either a larger or harder puzzle, experiments with new genres, and other things. All puzzles have digital solving options and PDF files, as well as solution animations to help you understand steps where you might get stuck.

The schedule for the free preview week is:
Monday: TomTom
Tuesday: LITS
Wednesday: Numberlink
Thursday: Star Battle (Hidden Double)
Friday: Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Saturday: Araf
Sunday: Rossini Sudoku

Starting next Monday, we will have 12 more weeks of puzzles for our Season 2 subscribers, running from February through to the end of April. Subscriptions to Season 2 will be $12 (only $4 per month) for over 150 puzzles.

Also, Season 1 is still available for $10 for people who missed our first exciting season. New subscribers to Season 1 will immediately be able to get access to the 175+ puzzles, but without the same active discussion that happened when the puzzles first posted.

2023 was a busy year for us at GMPuzzles, even if it didn’t always seem obvious from our publishing schedule. Setting up a new method to have a blog subscription service took some time, and we had a successful first season of web content and a good response to our new Discord platform for puzzle discussion for subscribers. We exceeded our first goal for subscriber numbers, but still need many more to make this a self-sustaining product. We also put together the World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships, which was a very rewarding experience although it took a lot of energy that we’re just now slowly getting back.

In 2024, we are going to continue the focus on subscription seasons as our main effort. This week we’re posting the last (delayed) week of Season 1 for subscribers; if you don’t see those puzzles but expect you should, please login again to the site using the subscriber login link at the top.

Then later in January when we have some site updates ready, we will have a preview week for the start of Season 2, free for everyone on the blog, which will show how we’re using warm-up puzzles, regular puzzles, hints and walkthroughs, new Sunday content, and Discord to make an interesting subscriber experience. After that Season 2 will begin and we’ll see how the 2024 plan evolves from there with the current goal for Season 3 to start two weeks after the end of Season 2. This allows us a break after 12 weeks of puzzles for some improvements to be implemented.

—–

In more personal news, many of you know that 2023 was a year I took off from working in science (and having cell phones interrupt me and other things) as I was focusing on my mental health and recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. While I’ve learned a lot by reading textbooks about mental illness or memoirs written by people with mental illness, I’ve also learned that I can’t outthink my bipolar disorder and need to be diligent in watching my sleep, stress levels, and taking medication to stay healthy. My focus in 2024 is going to continue to be on my health and on reconnecting with science/bigger mission. So this year I’m going to be having a much diminished role in puzzles, including here. The GMPuzzles team led by Serkan has already started to take over web-posting and other tasks that I had done for 11+ years, and I am very happy to have their support so that we can continue to deliver great puzzles to you without any change in quality.

We hope you enjoyed our two weeks covering the playoff puzzles from the 16th World Sudoku Championship and 30th World Puzzle Championship. Click these links for a single file PDF of the WSC playoff and WPC playoff.

These puzzles are just a small part of the championship though and those PDF file sets can now be purchased on our e-store. Check out the 30th WPC (November, 2023) and
61. 16th WSC puzzle sets in our store.