I’ve been doing some traveling so am a bit late in announcing the release of our fifth episode of Smashing the Sudoku, as we look back at the good (and evil?) sides of puzzle styles like Consecutive Sudoku and Masyu.

We’ve also now completed adding hints and solutions to the four Microsoft Puzzlehunt puzzles we’ve put here over recent Sundays. If you haven’t checked out these puzzles yet please find them alongside a few other “puzzle hunt” puzzles on our blog.

Several members of the GMPuzzles family are from Turkey, and our thoughts go out to them and to others from Turkey and Syria who may have been affected or may know those affected by the recent earthquakes on the Turkish/Syrian border.

GMPuzzles will be donating all proceeds from book sales for the next ten days to relief efforts like those of the Turkish Red Crescent; we will also match any donations that come in via PayPal over the same period (see Tip Jar in left menu). As an advance against those amounts, we’ve given $1,000 to https://ahbap.org/disasters-turkey.

Update 12 Feb 2023: Serkan has constructed a puzzle to help raise awareness and funding for those impacted by the earthquake. We’ve put together this simplified PDF to be able to play along with the puzzle.

The puzzle was also featured on Cracking the Cryptic:

with this link to play the puzzle online.

We’ve just published our fourth episode of Smashing the Sudoku as we look back at our first puzzles from ten years ago and try to bring back memories of these constructions from our first 60+1 puzzles:

In a few minutes we will also have our fourth Microsoft Puzzle Hunt bonus puzzle, which we hope you all enjoy.

After a tough January with assorted things like a power outage impacting our ability to compete on the United States Puzzle Championship, and many more events around my science work leading to a mental health break, we’re back on track for most of our 2023 projects. For Grandmaster Puzzles, we’ve now completed our recent “Best Of” series is now finished and we just released our third edition of “Smashing the Sudoku” to go along with our original 60+1 puzzle set.

Coming in the future will be some invites to puzzle contributors and top fans for our Discord channel where we are brainstorming what is next for the site (in 2023 and out to 2033 in a ten year plan), a new approach to web content, and more info on puzzle championships that GMPuzzles will be involved in.

Our last category for the Best of 2022 posts is “Loop / Path” puzzles, where we had 59 posts during the year. All of the best puzzles are gathered in this PDF file.

Our first puzzle to earn best of ratings is a Slitherlink (Liar) puzzle by Thomas Snyder with a Bull’s-Eye theme. This puzzle hit the mark with its solvers by highlighting several different uses of the “lying” clues during the solve.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to switch between edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s, and a shading and number entry mode to mark/update the liar clues.)

Next up on the favorites list was an Equality puzzle by Murat Can Tonta, a loop variation featured in our Loop Variety Collection 2. This Equality puzzle has several different quadrants to work through and very interesting logic.

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

Two Castle Wall puzzles earned top marks in 2022 but neither was “typical” in that they only used black clues. The first was a “Black Box” Castle Wall puzzle by JinHoo Ahn, another masterpiece from this talented puzzle designer.

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)

Second best in category was another uncommon variation, this time an “unequal lengths” variation that we had seen in other loop styles but that shone through in this Slitherlink (Unequal Lengths) puzzle by Murat Can Tonta.

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)

The best loop and best overall puzzle of 2022 was this Castle Wall gem that also uses just black clues in an interesting layout to reveal the one forced solution by an interesting logical path.

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)

What did you think of these “best of 2022” puzzles? Add your comments to the posts and send your thanks to the authors for these great constructions.

Splitting apart a large grid into subregions or shapes is the unifying element for our “Region Division” category, where we will be announcing the five best of 2022 puzzles today selected from 47 posted puzzles. The “best of” puzzles are gathered together in this PDF file.

We kick off today’s “best of region division” section with this great Fillomino puzzle by Jonas Gleim. The separation of evens and odds leads to some interesting emergent logic as one works to the unique solution.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a number entry mode.)

Contributing puzzlemaster Takeya Saikachi drew a lot of attention with his puzzles in 2022 including this Cave (Myopia) combination that takes the familiar “Myopia” arrows and applies them to another genre where this was at least my first time seeing this kind of combination.

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)

Early in each year we often post “New Year” puzzles with a clear 20XX theme. This 2022 Fillomino from Prasanna Seshadri was one of our first puzzles in the year and an instant “classic” destined for this best of ranking.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a number entry mode.)

While we can’t tell you the theme behind this Spiral Galaxies puzzle by Murat Can Tonta, one of the commenters said “This might be my favourite puzzle yet!” We think you might enjoy the solving path and hidden surprises too.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a shading mode.)

While this was a very competitive category this year, the top puzzle stood out clearly from the rest and was another masterpiece by JinHoo Ahn who keeps finding impressive ways to use very few letters to make brilliant Pentominous puzzles. This elegant 8-letter Pentominous is our best Region Division puzzle of 2022.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing, a letter entry mode, and a shading mode.)

One of our favorite categories, which has a whole host of puzzle styles, is “Shading” puzzles. Today we’re announcing our best of 2022 puzzles in this category, from the 57 posts during the year; all the winners are in this PDF file.

Veteran puzzlemaker Grant Fikes gave us our first “Best Of Shading” puzzle last year with this Cross the Streams (Matching Sections) puzzle. The interlinking within the grid was a fresh idea that our solvers loved. Based off a YouTube comment the author has made another creative subsection puzzle to follow-up on this one.

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

2022 saw a couple new puzzle styles enter our standard rotation and Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly books, and Aqre (originated by Eric Fox) was selected for two best of puzzle awards. One of the Aqre puzzles that got recognition was this Sunday Stumper by Murat Can Tonta with a “Squares” theme.

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.)

Our managing editor, Serkan Yürekli, wrote many incredible puzzles in this past year including this playful Pata puzzle with some very unusual forcing logic to reach the final solution.

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.)

Another Aqre puzzle that got lots of FAVEs from our solvers came from Eric Fox with this “sixes” puzzle from the first week we posted puzzles from this genre. A lot of different Aqre tricks are hidden within the region shapes here with just 6 clues.

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.)

Our overall best of 2022 Shading puzzle came from Sam Cappleman-Lynes who made a playful planetary theme in this Nurikabe (Cipher) puzzle. Working out how the sun and the few planets form “islands” in “space” was a clever visual and logical theme, emblematic of the best from Grandmaster Puzzles.

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

Today we continue our Best of 2022 posts with the “Object Placement” category. Throughout 2022 we had 44 posts in this area and several outstanding puzzles. The five “best of” puzzles are gathered together in this PDF file.

The first puzzle recognized in this category comes from our newest “contributing puzzlemaster”, Takeya Saikachi of Japan. This Battleships puzzle has minimal information in the outside clues but clever thinking will still let you place the full fleet.

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.)

The second puzzle also comes from Takeya Saikachi, this time with a playful “Squares” theme in a Battleships puzzle with a pentomino fleet.

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

Guest contributor Sam Cappleman-Lynes sent along two “best of” puzzles in the object placement category, starting with this Statue Park puzzle with a clean and interesting “Boxes” theme.

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

Sam also got recognition for this Star Battle puzzle that visually looks like a fighter from an iconic Sci-Fi series but embeds some creative logic in the solution as well.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)

Our best puzzles often take a standard genre and present them in an unusual way, which is the case for the top Object Placement puzzle of 2022. This Statue Park (Half and Half) by Murat Can Tonta asks “Where Are the Circles?” and generated a lot of positive reviews for its avant-garde style.

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

Our second site category for the Best of 2022 posts is “Number Placement”, where we had 50 posts during the year. All of the puzzles are gathered together in this PDF file.

We kick off the “best of 2022” number placement with a Kakuro (Hex) puzzle by Murat Can Tonta that had a marvelous solving path with very minimal clues used throughout.

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

Less familiar genres often get recognition during the best of series, particularly when they have a memorable solving path with several Aha moments. Grant Fikes’ Skyscrapers (Haido) with an Evens theme was such a puzzle and received a lot of favorite votes.

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

Our last puzzle of 2022, a Kakuro (Gapped) puzzle by Prasanna Seshadri, also ended up being a best of 2022 puzzle. The grid is fairly open yet follows a nicely hidden logical path throughout.

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

2nd best in the Number Placement category for 2022 was an elegant Skyscrapers (Cipher) by Serkan Yürekli which combined an interesting visual theme with an interesting solving path.

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; note that solution checking requires the eleven ciphered clues and the twenty-five interior cells to all be marked)

The top Number Placement puzzle of 2022 was a “milestone” puzzle, the 400th post by Thomas Snyder. This TomTom (Mystery) with just one clue also came with a YouTube video describing the puzzle-making process behind the grid.

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

We’re starting off our six part series of Best of 2022 posts with Sudoku, a puzzle category with 59 entries throughout the year as well as a place in many of our e-book releases including the Masterpiece Sudoku Mix series and the Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly series.

As in years past, we selected the top Sudoku by reviewing FAVE votes, web comments, and tested comments. All of these puzzles are gathered in this PDF file.

Our first “best of” puzzle goes to a challenging Classic Sudoku by Ashish Kumar that had some unusual steps to get to the finish.

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

Another top sudoku was the t-shirt puzzle by Thomas Snyder for the United States team at the recent World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships, with a very clean theme not needing any given digits.

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

Guest constructor Jonas Gleim made a fantastic combination of Arrow and Thermo-Sudoku puzzles with this “Compass” Sunday Stumper from May that received a lot of favorite votes.

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

A Thermo-Sudoku from Kishore Kumar Sridharan took the second overall Sudoku spot, with a “weighty” theme from the given dumbbell.

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

Surprisingly, the top puzzle for the year was a new variation, Multiples Sudoku, and the “example” puzzle that Thomas Snyder wrote for the Sudoku Grand Prix round from the United States. We haven’t featured those puzzles here yet, but the fresh logic surrounding the two-digit placements got the attention of many solvers, earning the most votes to be our best of 2022 Sudoku.

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