Serkan Yürekli’s warm-up puzzle should show you how to handle regions with limited options, particularly those that are one-unit wide snakes often with clear tetromino shapes inside.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a mode to mark edges with an X.)

Theme: Profiles

Author/Opus: This is the 450th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:25, Master = 0:45, Expert = 1:30

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for more variations of LITS and this link for 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 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-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.

This symmetric Masyu by Grant Fikes features some areas with sets of three adjacent circles. In Masyu, there cannot be three or more adjacent black circles due to the rules, but the same restriction is not true for white circles.

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)

Author/Opus: This is the 449th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Difficulty: 1 star

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

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-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.

The Season 3 preview week starts with this “warm-up” Masyu puzzle by Grant Fikes with a Singles theme. The warm-up puzzles have blue stars at the top and use the same 1-5 star system as other puzzles on the site. Most warm-up puzzles will be 1 star with a couple 1.5 star examples here and there.

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: Singles

Author/Opus: This is the 448th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:25, Master = 0:35, Expert = 1:10

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-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link.