Last week’s puzzles are grouped together in this PDF.

As we roll into December we expect to have a few treats for you here at Grandmaster Puzzles. These are the puzzles this week (highlight to view), with more gifts to come:
Monday – Fillomino by Grant Fikes
Tuesday – Nurikabe by Tom Collyer
Wednesday – Skyscraper (Sums) by Thomas Snyder
Thursday – Tapa-like Loop by Serkan Yürekli
Friday – Star Battle by Thomas Snyder
Saturday – Sudoku +/- 4 by Palmer Mebane

Last week’s puzzles are grouped together in this PDF.

This week will have a few more “regular” puzzles than the rest of November, but still some of the variety that we hope you have become thankful for over this year. And for the first time in a few weeks we will have all of our contributing puzzlemasters providing puzzles (to whom I am especially thankful for helping to grow GMPuzzles into an even more incredible site). Highlight to view the schedule:
Monday – Cross the Streams by Grant Fikes
Tuesday – Masyu by Tom Collyer
Wednesday – Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
Thursday – Battleships by Thomas Snyder
Friday – Easy as Japanese Sums by Serkan Yürekli
Saturday – Hexa Briquets by Palmer Mebane

Last week’s puzzles are grouped together in this PDF.

This week will have a few surprises and a few less familiar puzzle types. Here are the puzzles you can expect from Monday to Saturday this week (highlight to view):
Monday – Cave by Grant Fikes
Tuesday – Letter Pairs by Palmer Mebane
Wednesday – Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
Thursday – Trid by Serkan Yürekli
Friday – Pentomino Puddles by Serkan Yürekli
Saturday – Neighbors by Palmer Mebane

Last week’s puzzles are grouped together in this PDF.

We’ve been having some harder puzzles recently, particularly as the number of new types (including WPC practice puzzles) has been high. This week will probably be no different and has certainly tested as having harder than usual puzzles on many of the days. Here are the puzzles you can expect from Monday to Saturday this week (highlight to view):
Monday – LITS by Grant Fikes
Tuesday – Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
Wednesday – Pentomino Coral Variation by Palmer Mebane
Thursday – Tren by Serkan Yürekli
Friday – Graffiti (Loop) by Serkan Yürekli
Saturday – Pentomino Coral Variation by Palmer Mebane

Last week’s puzzles are grouped together in this PDF.

Here are the puzzles you can expect from Monday to Saturday this week (highlight to view):
Monday – Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
Tuesday – Loop Variation by Serkan Yürekli
Wednesday – Fillomino Variation (Pentominous) by Grant Fikes
Thursday – Statue Park by Palmer Mebane
Friday – TomTom by Tom Collyer
Saturday – Nurikabe + Word Variation by Palmer Mebane

Congratulations to our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane for his dominant performance throughout the general competition at the recent World Puzzle Championship. Over the coming weeks we will post several of the puzzles Palmer wrote before the WPC as practice here, which should show you the dedication a puzzle champion must have to his craft.

As we get back into a regular schedule, you can find the set of puzzles we posted over the last two weeks gathered in this PDF. Here are the puzzles you can expect from Monday to Saturday this week (highlight to view):
Monday – Yajilin by Grant Fikes
Tuesday – Fillomino by Grant Fikes
Wednesday – Sudoku Variation by Thomas Snyder
Thursday – Star Battle by Thomas Snyder
Friday – Cross the Streams by Grant Fikes
Saturday – Smashed Sums Variation by Palmer Mebane

Now that the WPC is over, our focus is back on finishing our large book project “The Art of Puzzles”. This has taken awhile to put together as it has grown to be an over 250 puzzle title, with at least 25 puzzles in 10 different styles (Tapa, Nurikabe, Masyu, Slitherlink, TomTom, Skyscrapers, Fillomino, Cave, Star Battle, and Battleships). We have almost two dozen authors represented from around the world, including all of our contributing puzzlemasters to varying degrees. Grant Fikes deserves particular credit for the high quantity and quality of the puzzles he has provided (about 20%, basically tied with Dr. Sudoku) including many very large grids. One special treat is that the Tapa section was written entirely by Serkan Yürekli, the originator of the style and a true Tapa Master. You’ll definitely appreciate some of the surprises he packed into his puzzles. Some of the last tasks to do on the book now are to gather and write a really good set of hint/tutorial sections for the puzzles which may go into the book or may just end up online as an extra supplement. We are also looking through different printing and binding options and expect to offer both print and electronic forms of the book on release. Look for more announcements on “The Art of Puzzles” here soon.

Due to the World Sudoku and Puzzle Championships running now, we will have a “half” schedule of puzzles over the next two weeks as follows:

10/14 – Star Battle by Palmer Mebane
10/16 – Fillomino by Grant Fikes
10/18 – Sudoku Variation by Serkan Yürekli

10/22 – Masyu by Thomas Snyder
10/24 – TomTom Variation by Serkan Yürekli
10/26 – Tapa by Palmer Mebane

As some of you have suggested that a schedule of upcoming puzzles will be nice, I will try to give a weekly post with these plans going forward. I’ll also post a weekly PDF file after each week has concluded. Here is a PDF for week 41.

For those wondering about The Art of Puzzles and other projects, I’ll have more news on them in the next Doctor’s Note.

Best of luck and skill to all the competitors at the WSC and WPC.

–Dr. S