Our most recent variety mix week of puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.
A video talkthrough for the difficulty Kakuro (Double) puzzle from Saturday is here.
We’ve also shared our talkthrough of this Best of 2019
Sundoko Snake Shape puzzle combining three puzzle styles:
This coming week will focus on Sudoku and variations.
Here are our best Loop/Path puzzles of 2019, selected from the 42 web posts in this category based on your FAVE votes:
A couple of our “Best of” in this category are variety puzzles, starting with this loop + word puzzle combination O’utcast from Serkan Yürekli.
Guest contributor Bryce Herdt created a quite unusual Castle Wall puzzle that got a fair number of FAVE votes.
Another guest contributor, Joseph Howard, put together this challenging Yajilin variation with some “false” clues that might be covered up. The solvers who found their way to end enjoyed the journey.
Another Castle Wall, this one by Murat Can Tonta, was our second best in this category, with a noteworthy solving path if you can find it.
The best Loop/Path puzzle of 2019, and also the top vote getter across all categories as the best puzzle of 2019, is an absolutely crazy variation by Yuki Kawabe. It combines some shading, object placement, and snake path genres into a hybrid called SSS (Sundoku Snake Shape).
All of these best Loop/Path puzzles are collected in this PDF file.
Our most recent week of Slitherlink puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts. We also have two solution video for this week for the Thursday and Friday puzzles.
Later today we’ll post our Best of 2019 Loop/Path puzzles including our best puzzle of 2019 as voted on by our solvers. This upcoming week will feature a mix of puzzles across all of our categories.
Here are our best Shading puzzles of 2019, selected from the 41 web posts in this category based on your FAVE votes:
Our first best shading puzzle of 2019 is actually two puzzles. As part of his debut week at GMPuzzles, Ashish Kumar created a set of puzzles that each had two different solving options from the same clues. With some help from editor (becoming co-author) Thomas Snyder, this Kurotto (and Cave) came together really well and got a lot of favorite votes.
Many of our “best of” puzzles get attention due to unusual clues and fun Aha moments, and the center of this Nanro by John Bulten certainly fits that description.
John Bulten also was the author behind this favorite LITS puzzle with a Pi theme and a fun easter egg for our regular solvers.
Our top two were both Tapa puzzles of different forms by Murat Can Tonta. This Tapa (Regional) puzzle combined some different ways of thinking about clues in a clever and challenging package.
And our Best Shading puzzle of 2019 was this classic Tapa by Murat. While on the easier end (usually our top vote getters are very difficult puzzles), the visual theme and smooth solve stood out for our voters.
All of these best Shading puzzles are collected in this PDF file.
Our most recent week of Tapa puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts. We also have a solution video for this week for the Friday Tapa (Skyscrapers) puzzle.
From our video archive, we’re pulling out another shading puzzle variation, a Cross the Streams (LITS) puzzle by Bryce Herdt from 2017.
Later today we’ll post our Best of 2019 Shading puzzles. And this upcoming week we will feature Slitherlink and then the last Best of category with Loop/Path puzzles.
Here are our best Number Placement puzzles of 2019, selected from the 35 web posts in this category based on your FAVE votes:
We had a “pair” of Kakuro puzzles that were both on the higher end of the list for 2019 (admittedly the “pair” was more of an editorial connection given similar grid shapes but different solving paths; both were great puzzles and posted on back-to-back days). The second of the pair was this Nonconsecutive Kakuro from Grant Fikes that was a Sunday bonus for our subscribers. (Note: we are beginning to organize all of our web bonus puzzles into a new book so that those who missed these puzzles from 2014-2019 can see what they missed.)
In terms of variety Number Placement styles, this Smashed Sums by Michael Tang with a Binary theme got top marks. It is a great example of our “Grandmaster Puzzles” style: a compelling visual theme that also leads to a satisfying logical solve.
We really enjoy TomTom puzzles and two TomToms from our contributing puzzlemasters stood out this year. Both highlighted reusing a small number of clue values to create an interesting solving path. Ashish Kumar brought us this “Three Thirty” TomTom where if you can solve the puzzle that fast you’d be breaking our grandmaster time.
Murat Can Tonta brought us this “Jackpot” TomTom with all sevens to sort out, and a lot of top votes to make it our second favorite in this category.
Overall, our best Number Placement puzzle of 2019 was this Kakuro also from Murat Can Tonta, with a similar pattern to the first puzzle on this list and a challenging but fun solving path.
All of these best Number Placement puzzles are collected in this PDF file.
Our most recent week of TomTom puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts. We also have two solution videos for this week for the Thursday and Saturday TomTom puzzles.
Later today we’ll also be sharing our Best of 2019 Number Placement puzzles.
Next week will feature one of our favorite shading genres, Tapa, as well as some variations. And alongside that week of puzzles we wanted to put the spotlight on a book we (silently) released a couple months ago while updating our e-store. Tapa and Variations 2 is the second Tapa book (and sixth overall book) in the Classic Puzzles and Variations series by Serkan Yürekli. It contains a total of 61 puzzles, 21 classic Tapa including one giant, and 40 variations split across 9 different genres.
Below is a sample Tapa from the book with a hidden logical theme, and we hope you check out the full collection.
Our most recent variety mix week can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.
Next week will feature TomTom puzzles, and for one of our solving videos this Sunday we have Murat Can Tonta, constructor of the Saturday puzzle, talking through the solution path to his hard 24’s puzzle. (Link here: warning, thumbnail shows part of solution).
We also are releasing a classic Youtube video on some Star Battle puzzles, including the solution path to our July 4th puzzle from six years ago and a bonus puzzle which you can play online here (July 4, bonus).
Our Best of 2019 series will pick up again next week after all the TomTom puzzles with our best Number Placement puzzles.
Here are our best Region Division puzzles of 2019, selected from the 45 web posts in this category based on your FAVE votes:
We had two favorite Pentominous (Borders) puzzles. The first, from Murat Can Tonta, was an amazingly beautiful 12-clue puzzle with each pentomino letter appearing in “Alphabetical Order” in the grid. That this solves uniquely as a Pentominous puzzle is a true grandmaster’s touch.
The other Pentominous (Borders) that was a best of 2019 was from Grant Fikes, and had a more involved logical solve that went around the grid.
Guest contributor Michael Tang brought our favorite Cave puzzle of 2019 with another fun logical solving theme to discover.
We had a few surprises in store last year, including a hidden January connection to the 2019 MIT Mystery Hunt when some Fillomino (Cipher) puzzles by Tim Marsden (anagrams to Mastermind) were posted in January. These puzzles were actually by Dan Katz, and linked as a final step in another puzzle, Connect Four, from that Hunt. This hardest Cipher puzzle, with full top and bottom rows, was a favorite of 2019.
Overall, our best region division puzzle of 2019 went to John Bulten’s Fillomino with some trademark Bulten-Aha moments to go from a seemingly impossible puzzle to something with a logical path.
All of these best Region Division puzzles are collected in this PDF file.
A reminder that our reopening sale runs to the end of June (Tuesday) with a 20% discount on all titles in the shop (automatically applied at checkout) so please check out the e-book store if you want to purchase some puzzle PDFs.
Our most recent week of Pentominous puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.
We have two solving videos for Pentominous puzzles from this week, for the Wednesday and Saturday puzzles.
Later today we will be back with our third “Best of 2019” post highlighting Region Division puzzles, and for the rest of the week we will be posting a variety mix of puzzles ranging from easy to hard in difficulty as the week progresses.