This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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)

Theme: Avoiding the Center

Author/Opus: This is the 489th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Shade some empty cells black to create a single connected group. Cells with circles cannot be shaded, and the shaded cells cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid. Each numbered cell indicates the total count of shaded cells connected vertically and horizontally to that numbered cell.

Also, there may not exist a run of four or more consecutive shaded or unshaded cells (including clue cells) horizontally or vertically anywhere in the grid.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other shading puzzles. More Canal View puzzles are in Shading Variety Collection by Prasanna Seshadri.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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)

Theme: LITS

Author/Opus: This is the 294th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules. Also, some white circles may be shaded to become black circles.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:30, Master = 0:50, Expert = 1:40

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

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

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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

Theme: Orderly Boxes

Author/Opus: This is the 509th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More Sudoku including variations can be found in these books in our e-store. Also, visit this page to purchase all of the puzzles from the 16th World Sudoku Championship including classic Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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

Author/Opus: This is the 493rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers rules. All exterior clues are false and should be either one higher or one lower than the value given.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

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.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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

Theme: 3×3

Author/Opus: This is the 51st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Takeya Saikachi.

Rules: Standard Pentopia rules: Place some of the given pentominoes in the grid so that no pentominoes are in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner. Pentominoes cannot repeat in the grid; rotations and reflections of a pentomino are considered the same shape. The arrow clues indicate all the directions (up, down, left, and right) where the nearest pentominoes are located when looking from that square. (Arrow clues cannot contain pentomino shapes.) Also, see this example:

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for more Pentopia puzzles and this link for other puzzles involving Pentominoes. More Pentopia puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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.)

Theme: 2024

Author/Opus: This is the 125th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: (Hybrid of Fillomino and Snake Puzzles.) Divide the grid along the boundary lines so that every cell belongs to a snake. A snake is a one-cell-wide path at least two cells long that does not touch itself, not even diagonally. Circled cells must be at one of the ends of a snake. A snake may contain one circled cell, two circled cells, or no circled cells at all. Numbered cells must be part of a snake with a length of exactly that number of cells. A snake may contain one number, multiple identical numbers, or no numbers at all. Two snakes of the same length cannot touch each other horizontally or vertically.

Also see this example:

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:25, Master = 0:40, Expert = 1:20

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for more Snake Pit puzzles. Follow these links for other Fillomino or Snake puzzles.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 5 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

Earlier this year, Thomas helped provide puzzles for the launch of the LinkedIn game Queens, a very accessible, one-star version of Star Battle puzzles. We will be posting some weekly Queens bonuses here through this season, including this surprisingly tough puzzle with a framed set of hexomino-shaped regions.

PDF

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.)

Theme: Hexomino Frame

Author/Opus: This is the 508th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. One star per row, column, and region.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:30, Expert = 5:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other one-star Star Battle puzzles exactly like Queens, and this link for our easiest Star Battles, including many with two stars per region, which are a great way to get started on this version of the puzzle. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store including our Starter Pack 5: Star Battle book.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 4 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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

Theme: Additional Shading

Author/Opus: This is the 293rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, each row and column has an even number of shaded cells.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:40, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Kurotto puzzles and this link for variations on Kurotto puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kurotto to get started on. More Kurotto puzzles can be found in the ebook Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 4 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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

Theme: The Different Quadrant

Author/Opus: This is the 133rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Variation of Nanro rules. Label some cells with numbers to form a single connected group of labeled cells. No 2×2 group of cells may be fully labeled. Each label number must be equal to the total count of labeled cells in that bold region, and all bold regions contain at least one labeled cell. The given numbers indicate how many cells are labeled in that region (but not necessarily which cells are labeled). When two label numbers are orthogonally adjacent across a region boundary, the numbers must be different.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:40, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for Nanro puzzles on this website and this link for variations on Nanro puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nanro Puzzles to get started on. More Nanro puzzles can be found in A Number o’ Nanro by Prasanna Seshadri.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 4 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

This is a free “warm-up” puzzle; Season 4 subscribers will see today’s main puzzle in the same style posted at 9:05 AM PT.

PDF

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

Theme: Consecutives

Author/Opus: This is the 122nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, all shaded groups must be diagonally connected. There is no restriction on the number of diagonal touches for shaded cells.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for classic Kurotto puzzles and this link for variations on Kurotto puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kurotto to get started on. More Kurotto puzzles can be found in the ebook Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 4 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.