(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

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

Theme: Center F’s

Author/Opus: This is the 5th puzzle from guest contributor Bahar Açılan.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:30, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for other classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri, in The Art of Puzzles 2, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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.)

Theme: Jet with 3’s

Author/Opus: This is the 17th puzzle from guest contributor Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Tapa variations and this link for classic Tapa. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

This week we are sharing easy sample puzzles from our ebook The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop which showcases six authors exploring new puzzle styles or variations with 8-10 challenges in each section. Today’s post is Turf.

PDF

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

Theme: Happy Face

Background: Shading puzzle style created by John Bulten in 2015 and now more fully explored in this book. Turf draws partially on elements from other styles like Minesweeper, and is inspired by the pseudorandom regions of bicolor tiled floors.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that one of the grid’s clues in each contiguous white or black region indicates the clued region’s area. (Each contiguous region must therefore have at least one clue.) Any other clue in the region must indicate how many of the clued cell’s immediate neighbors are white (up to 9, including itself).

Example by John Bulten:

(No official times or solution entry for this week; just click “SOLVE?” when finished.)

Solution: Last page of PDF

Note: More Turf puzzles can be found in The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop.

This week we are sharing easy sample puzzles from our ebook The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop which showcases six authors exploring new puzzle styles or variations with 8-10 challenges in each section. Today’s post is Surf.

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: LITS

Background: Shading/object placement puzzle style created by Izak Bulten in 2015 and now more fully explored in this book. Surf was inspired by Nurikabe islands and LITS paths. Along with Turf, which is the next book section, Surf is an exploration of bicolor shading logic that can yield fruitful patterns.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that the grid is divided into white and black regions. Cell with numbers cannot be shaded. Each white region must contain exactly one number and have the same area in cells as that number. Two white or two black regions may only touch diagonally. Each black region must be exactly specified by one shape graph given below the grid, where graph edges represent one-cell-wide straight paths with variable lengths, and graph nodes represent ends, turns, and branch points. Graphs can be rotated and reflected, and, if multiple graphs are given, not all need be used.

Example by John Bulten:

(No official times or solution entry for this week; just click “SOLVE?” when finished.)

Solution: Last page of PDF

Note: More Surf puzzles can be found in The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop.

This week we are sharing easy sample puzzles from our ebook The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop which showcases six authors exploring new puzzle styles or variations with 8-10 challenges in each section. Today’s post is Inverse LITS.

PDF

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

Theme: Rectangles

Background: Variation of the shading puzzle LITS, where the usual rules related to shaded tetrominoes in each region are inverted to apply to unshaded tetrominoes in each region. First explored by Bram de Laat in 2012, and now more fully explored by Chris Green.

Rules: Shade some cells black so that in each region there are exactly four unshaded cells that form an L, I, T, S, or O tetromino. When two unshaded tetrominoes share an edge across regions, they must not be the same shape regardless of rotations or reflections. All shaded cells must be connected into a single group, but no 2×2 group of cells can be entirely shaded black.

Example by Thomas Snyder:

(No official times or solution entry for this week; just click “SOLVE?” when finished.)

Solution: Last page of PDF

Note: More Inverse LITS puzzles can be found in The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode, a number entry mode for placing Tapa clues, 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.)

Theme: Sequences

Author/Opus: This is the 10th puzzle from guest contributor Chris Green.

Rules: (Style created by Chris Green as a combination of Cross the Streams and Tapa rules.)

Shade some empty cells black to create a single group of black cells that are all connected to each other through their edges. No 2×2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells.

Numbers and symbols to the left/top of the grid represent all unshaded cells in the grid in that row/column in order, either from left to right or from top to bottom. The numbers and symbols represent the value of Tapa-style clues inside the grid, specifically the length of consecutive shaded blocks in the neighboring cells. If there is more than one number in a cell, then there must be at least one white (unshaded) cell between shaded groups.

The three symbols indicate different kinds of missing information.
– A question mark (?) represents a single missing positive integer as part of a clue (either alone or in combination with other numbers/question marks).
– An octothorpe (#) represents a single white clue cell which may have any combination of values including a single number or multiple numbers.
– An asterisk (*) represents an unknown number of white clue cells, including one, multiple, or no clue cells at all. Any clue cells indicated by an asterisk can have any combination of values including a single number or multiple numbers.

Also see this example by Thomas Snyder:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from top to bottom for the marked columns, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 10:00, Master = 24:00, Expert = 48:00.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Cross the Streams and this link for other Tapa.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Threes

Author/Opus: This is the 263rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules. Also, the shaded region must be able to be split into tetrominoes to form a valid LITS solution (meaning all tetrominoes are connected but no two tetrominoes sharing an edge are the same shape, including rotations and reflections).

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from top to bottom for the marked columns, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 7:30, Expert = 15:00.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for variations of Cross the Streams and this link for other classic Cross the Streams. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cross the Streams to get started on.

PDF

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

Theme: Easy as 123

Author/Opus: This is the 307th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 5:00, Expert = 10:00.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Cross the Streams. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cross the Streams to get started on.

PDF

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

Theme: Mind Your 3’s and 2’s

Author/Opus: This is the 306th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:45, Expert = 7:30.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Cross the Streams. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cross the Streams to get started on.

PDF

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

Theme: Four

Author/Opus: This is the 262nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Cross the Streams. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cross the Streams to get started on.