Earlier in 2021, Thomas Snyder and Serkan Yürekli from Grandmaster Puzzles constructed a Puzzle Grand Prix round. This week we are taking a look back at those puzzles and will be adding some extra notes on the constructions here.
Our past week of Sudoku puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.
The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:
We’ve recently added Penpa solving modes for all of our Pentominous and Fillomino puzzles dating back to 2013. Throughout the year we’ve gotten 1350 puzzles digitized (completed genres listed here) and had over 200,000 clicks into our Penpa puzzles. We’re hoping to keep growing that number into 2022 (500k+) and expect to have everything digitized in the next few months. There are some other recent Penpa improvements we’ll be rolling out in the next week and telling you more about. We’ll also be spending some time looking back at our Puzzle Grand Prix puzzles from Serkan and me, and then announcing our Best of 2021 web puzzles, reflecting on our 2021 objectives and key results and sharing our 2022 plan.
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 letter entry mode.)
Theme: Cyclops
Author/Opus: This is the 24th puzzle from guest contributor Joseph Howard.
Rules: Divide the grid into tetrahexes (four-cell regions) so that no two tetrahexes of the same shape (including rotations/reflections) share an edge. A cell with a letter in it must be part of the tetrahex shape normally associated with that letter. An inventory of tetrahexes is given below the puzzle but not all shapes must be used.
Difficulty: 2 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:30, Expert = 5:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other Pentominous puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Pentominous to get started on. More Pentominous puzzles can be found in the Plenty o’ Pentominous series by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.
This past week’s set of Pentominous puzzles are collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. If you enjoyed this genre, there are many more Pentominous puzzles in our “Plenty o’ Pentominous” series as well as in the book Intro to GMPuzzles.
The daily solution videos are on the posts and also linked below. I was playing with a few different notation styles (lines, shading, letters, …) through the week on Penpa, and admit this is one of the puzzles where multiple defaults (and even multiple solution checking options) may be best. Please share your comments on how you prefer to solve Pentominous puzzles and if you could make this work in Penpa. We will probably document all of these methods when we formalize the user experience for this style and for Fillomino.
This upcoming week will feature Statue Park puzzles and will also include a large variation as a Sunday Stumper.
Finally, there are still some minor debugging and optimization steps happening with the fave/solve tracker after the most recent update, including trying to lengthen the time the login is stored. Please keep sharing your comments on how this is working and if all of the solving history has come over from the transfer to the site.
We are excited to announce that The Art of Sudoku 2 is now released in our e-store. This collection of 180 hand-crafted sudoku and variations from sixteen authors was many years in the making, but certainly worth the wait. The entire collection is available for $10 in our e-store, and there are three $4 subsections available: A) = 60 Classic Sudoku; B) = 20 Tight Fit / 20 Consecutive Pairs / 20 Even-Odd Sudoku; C) = 20 Thermo-Sudoku / 20 Arrow Sudoku / 20 Other Variations.
We have been continuing to make some updates to the website. First, on the Penpa side, all of the “classic sudoku” in our archives now have an online solving option. This is the second puzzle, after Kurotto, to be fully digitized, and Star Battle is being worked on now. When we are through with digitizing more styles, we will be reintroducing them here including making some How To videos for using Penpa for these genres.
Also, our solve tracker on each puzzle post has been updated to now be hosted on our site. This update should fix the login problems people have reported over the last six+ months; please tell us if you run into any issues with it, including not seeing your past fave/solve history.
This past week’s set of Sudoku puzzles are collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.
The daily solution videos are on the posts and also linked below.
This upcoming week will feature Pentominous puzzles.
Here are our best Region Division puzzles of 2020, in chronological order, selected from the 31 web posts in this category based on FAVE votes, web comments, and tester comments. All of these puzzles are gathered in this PDF file.
The Saturday challenge from our first week of web puzzles was a delightful Fillomino puzzle from guest contributor Elyot Grant.
As we reached the end of June, we posted what was one of the highest rated (and also fairly hard) puzzles of the whole year: a Pentominous by JinHoo Ahn, another guest contributor who surprised us with a lot of great submissions this year.
Puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri shared an Araf puzzle with different clusters of small and big numbers and a very elegant logical solving path.
November included a really great Cave puzzle from William Hu, with a beautiful all odd theme and clever logic to be found on the solving path.
And our last post of 2020 also got a good response from our solvers and closes out this Best of set: this Fillomino (Checkered) variation by Jonas Gleim.
2019/09/13 – Battleships (Minesweeper) (+ puzzle page)
2019/08/31 – Tapa (Easy as) (+ puzzle page)
2019/08/24 – Fillomino (NC) (+ puzzle page)
2019/07/04 – Cave and Kurotto (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2019/06/14 – LITS (+ puzzle page)
2019/05/11 – Yajilin (Strict Transparent) (+ puzzle page)
2019/05/10 – Battleships (Minesweeper) (+ puzzle page)
2019/04/20 – TomTom (No Touch) (+ puzzle page)
2019/03/16 – Statue Park (+ puzzle page)
2019/03/15 – Fillomino (+ puzzle page)
2019/02/16 – SSS (Sundoku Snake Shape) (+ puzzle page)
2019/02/15 – Transporter (+ puzzle page)
2019/01/19 – Fillomino (+ puzzle page)
2018/12/14 – Inner Coral (+ puzzle page)
2018/12/12 – Galaxies and Tetrominoes (+ puzzle page)
2018/11/24 – Nurikabe Loop (+ puzzle page)
2018/11/21 – Nurikabe (+ puzzle page)
2018/10/12 – Consecutive Pairs Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2018/09/08 – Pentopia (+ puzzle page)
2018/08/03 – LITS (+ puzzle page)
2018/07/07 – Kakuro (+ puzzle page)
2018/07/06 – Cave (+ puzzle page)
2018/06/09 – Araf (+ puzzle page)
2018/06/08 – Thermo-Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2018/05/12 – TomTom (+ puzzle page)
2018/03/16 – Double LITS (+ puzzle page)
2018/02/14 – Consecutive Pairs Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2018/01/20 – Statue Park (+ puzzle page)
2017/12/27+29 – Minesweeper (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2017/12/17 – Cross the Tapa (+ puzzle page)
2017/12/02 – Tapa (Different) (+ puzzle page)
2017/10/07 – Snake Pit X (+ puzzle page)
2017/09/13 – Cross the Streams (LITS) (+ puzzle page)
2017/09/02 – Pentominous (Borders) (+ puzzle page)
2017/08/19 – Killer Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2017/08/05 – Double Kakuro (+ puzzle page)
2017/07/22 – Tapa (Hex) (+ puzzle page)
2017/06/28-29 – Spiral Galaxies + 2x (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2017/06/15 – Nurikabe (Yajisan-Kazusan) (+ puzzle page)
2017/06/01 – Pentosnake (+ puzzle page)
2017/05/12 – Castle Wall (Hex) (+ puzzle page)
2017/04/12+15 – Double Yajilin (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2017/03/25 – Starship Battle (+ puzzle page)
2017/03/11 – Tapa (Visionary) (+ puzzle page)
2017/03/04 – Fillomino (Symmetry) (+ puzzle page)
2017/02/10 – Cave (+ puzzle page)
2017/01/27 – Masyu or Balance Loop? (+ puzzle page)
2017/01/13 – Pata (+ puzzle page)
2016/12/10 – Fillomino (Kropki) (+ puzzle page)
2016/11/12 – Statue Park (+ puzzle page)
2016/11/05 – Minesweeper (Even Rows/Columns) (+ puzzle page)
2016/10/23 and 2016/10/21 – Tight Fit Sudoku (Classic and Killer) (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2016/10/08 – Roller Coaster (+ puzzle page)
2016/09/30 – Pentominous (Star Battle) (+ puzzle page)
2016/09/17 – Japanese+Latin Sums (+ puzzle page)
2016/09/10 – Fillomino (Symmetry) (+ puzzle page)
2016/08/27 – Castle Wall (+ puzzle page)
2016/08/17 – Gapped Kakuro (+ puzzle page)
2016/08/06 – Slitherlink (Large-Square) (+ puzzle page)
2016/07/29 – Yajilin (+ puzzle page)
2016/07/22 – Canal View (+ puzzle page)
2016/07/09 – Thermo-Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2016/07/01 – Masyu (Regional) (+ puzzle page)
2016/06/10 – Star Battle (Small Regions) (+ puzzle page)
2016/05/13 – Yajilin (Transparent) (+ puzzle page)
2016/04/28 – Cross the Streams (Windows) (+ puzzle page)
2016/04/16 – Range (+ puzzle page)
2016/04/09 – Killer Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2016/03/17 – Ripple Effect (+ puzzle page)
2016/03/12 – Slitherlink (+ puzzle page)
2016/02/27 – Arrow Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2016/02/18 – Kurotto (Windows) (+ puzzle page)
2016/02/13 – Double Kakuro (+ puzzle page)
2015/04/02 – Snake Egg (+ puzzle page)
2015/03/26 – Fillomino (Symmetry) (+ puzzle page)
2015/03/21 – Skyscrapers (+ puzzle page)
2015/03/14 – 2D Top Heavy Number Place (+ puzzle page)
2015/03/05 – Yajilin (+ puzzle page)
2015/02/13 – Balance Loop (+ puzzle page)
2015/02/07 – Kakuro (Hex) (+ puzzle page)
2015/01/31 – Even/Odd Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2015/01/24 – TomTom (+ puzzle page)
2015/01/16 – Unique Clues Tapa (+ puzzle page)
2015/01/10 – Battleships (+ puzzle page)
2014/12/27 – Pentopia (+ puzzle page)
2014/12/17 – Battleships (+ puzzle page)
2014/12/13 – Cross the Streams (LITS) (+ puzzle page)
2014/12/05 – Cipher Fillomino (+ puzzle page)
2014/11/28 – (Prime) Cave (+ puzzle page)
2014/11/22 – Pentominous (Cipher) (+ puzzle page)
2014/11/15 – Castle Wall (+ puzzle page)
2014/11/08 – LITS (+ puzzle page)
2014/10/31 – Jack-O’-Lantern Thermo Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2014/10/24 – TomTom (+ puzzle page)
2014/10/17 – RoundTrip (+ puzzle page)
2014/10/04 – Pentomino (+ puzzle page)
2014/09/27 – Tapa (+ puzzle page)
2014/09/18 – Pentominous (+ puzzle page)
2014/09/12 – Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2014/09/06 – Tapa-Like Loop (+ puzzle page)
2014/08/28 – Pentominous (+ puzzle page)
2014/08/23 – Killer Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2014/08/15 – Kuromasu (+ puzzle page)
2014/08/08 – Sum Skyscrapers (+ puzzle page)
2014/08/02 – Repeated Neighbors Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2014/07/24 – Nanro (+ puzzle page)
2014/07/12 – Nurikabe (+ puzzle page)
2014/07/04 and 2014/07/06 – Star Battle (+ puzzle page 1 + email only = no puzzle page)
2014/06/24 and 2014/06/27 – Cross the Streams (B&W Partially Inverted and Pentominoes) (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2014/06/19 and 2014/06/21 – Word Nurikabe and Cipher TomTom from IPC (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2014/06/13 – Transparent Tapa (+ puzzle page)
2014/05/31 – Slitherlink (Portal) (+ puzzle page)
2014/05/22 – LITS (+ puzzle page)
2014/05/08-09 – Araf (+ puzzle page 1 / 2)
2014/05/03 – Heavy Dots (+ puzzle page)
2014/04/19 – Ripple Effect (+ puzzle page)
2014/04/12 – Checkered Fillomino (+ puzzle page)
2014/04/05 – Audio Cross the Streams (+ puzzle page)
2014/03/28 – Outside Nurikabe (+ puzzle page)
2014/03/21 – Sudoku (+ puzzle page)
2014/03/07 – Slitherlink (Sheep and Wolves) (+ puzzle page)
2014/02/27 – Cave (+ puzzle page)
2014/02/14 – Fillomino (+ puzzle page)
Here are all of our book collections in publication order, available for purchase at our e-store!
62. 30th World Puzzle Championship Puzzle Files (November, 2023)
61. 16th World Sudoku Championship Puzzle Files (November, 2023)
60. GMPuzzles Subscription for Season 1 – A Fresh Start (July, 2023)
59. Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 6, edited by Serkan Yürekli and Thomas Snyder (December, 2022)
58. Loop Variety Collection 2, by Ashish Kumar, Murat Can Tonta, Prasanna Seshadri, and Serkan Yürekli (December, 2022)
57. Starter Pack 5: Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn (October, 2022)
56. Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 5, edited by Serkan Yürekli and Thomas Snyder (September, 2022)
55. Slitherlink and Variations 2 by Matej Uher (August, 2022)
54. Starter Pack 4: Slitherlink by Takeya Saikachi (August, 2022)
53. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 8: Shape Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (August, 2022)
52. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 7: Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (August, 2022)
51. Starter Pack 3: TomTom by Thomas Snyder (July, 2022)
50. Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 4, edited by Serkan Yürekli (June, 2022)
49. Tapa and Variations 3 by Zoltán Horváth and Serkan Yürekli (May, 2022)
48. Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 3, edited by Serkan Yürekli (April, 2022)
47. Starter Pack 2: Tapa by Serkan Yürekli (April, 2022)
46. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 6: Consecutive Pairs Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (February, 2022)
45. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 5: Tight Fit Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (February, 2022)
44. Starter Pack 1: Fillomino by Grant Fikes (February, 2022)
43. Shading Variety Collection by Prasanna Seshadri (January, 2022)
42. Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 2, edited by Thomas Snyder and Serkan Yürekli (December, 2021)
41. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 4: Outside Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (November, 2021)
40. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 3: Arrow Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (November, 2021)
39. Star Battle 2, by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta (November, 2021)
38. Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly: Volume 1, edited by Thomas Snyder (September, 2021)
37. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 2: Thermo-Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (August, 2021)
36. Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 1: Even/Odd Sudoku, edited by Serkan Yürekli (August, 2021)
35. TomTom, by Ashish Kumar, JinHoo Ahn, Murat Can Tonta, and Serkan Yürekli (July, 2021)
34. Loop Variety Collection, by Ashish Kumar and Murat Can Tonta (April, 2021)
33. The Art of Sudoku 2, edited by Thomas Snyder (March, 2021)
32. Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta (February, 2021)
31. Araf by Serkan Yürekli (January, 2021)
30. Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn (December, 2020)
29. Killer Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli (December, 2020)
28. Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri (November, 2020)
27. Plenty o’ Pentominous 3 by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta (November, 2020)
26. Yajilin Battleships by Serkan Yürekli (November, 2020)
25. Tapa and Variations 2 by Serkan Yürekli (May, 2020)
24. Plenty o’ Pentominous 2 by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta (February, 2020)
23. Yajilin by Murat Can Tonta and Prasanna Seshadri (November, 2019)
22. The Puzzlemasters’ Workshop, edited by Thomas Snyder (June, 2019)
21. Skyscrapers by Ashish Kumar (March, 2019)
20. Nurikabe by Ashish Kumar (November, 2018)
19. Castle Wall by Serkan Yürekli (October, 2018)
18. Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli (August, 2018)
17. Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta (July, 2018)
16. Fill o’ Fillomino 2 by Grant Fikes (June, 2018)
15. A Number o’ Nanro by Prasanna Seshadri (May, 2018)
14. The Art of Puzzles 2: Double Trouble, edited by Thomas Snyder (April, 2018)
13. Plenty o’ Pentominous by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta (March, 2018)
12. Battleships and Variations by Serkan Yürekli (July, 2017)
11. Slitherlink and Variations by Serkan Yürekli (April, 2017)
10. Colossal Cave Collection by Roger Barkan (January, 2017)
9. Logic Puzzles 101 by Grant Fikes (December, 2016)
8. Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli (December, 2016)
7. Kakuro and Variations by Serkan Yürekli (September, 2016)
6. Tapa and Variations by Serkan Yürekli (July, 2016)
5. Tapa-Like Loop Collection by Prasanna Seshadri (March, 2015)
4. Fill o’ Fillomino by Grant Fikes (November, 2014)
3. LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri (July, 2014)
2. The Art of Puzzles, edited by Thomas Snyder (June, 2014)
1. The Art of Sudoku by Thomas Snyder (April, 2012)
Over the last week we’ve added two e-books to our store: Plenty O’ Pentominous 3 by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta, and Yajilin Battleships by Serkan Yürekli. Please check them out if you are interested in some fun puzzle challenges.
Our most recent week of Balance Loop puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.
We have a solving video for four of this past week’s puzzles. First are solving videos for two of the regular Balance Loops, starting with the Forgotten Numbers by Grant Fikes:
and another video for the Even Diagonally puzzle by Prasanna Seshadri:
We also have solving videos for the two harder variations to close the week. This includes the Balance Loop (Skyscrapers) by Murat Can Tonta:
and the Balance Loop (Star Battle) by Serkan Yürekli:
This upcoming week will feature a variety mix of puzzles from across six different genres.
This week we’ll start with some general updates:
First, we’re excited to have some new titles coming to our e-store — the first since our blog relaunch earlier in the year. I’m doing the last touches on two e-books now and will be adding Yajilin Battleships by Serkan Yürekli and Plenty O’ Pentominous 3 by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta to our web store over the next two weekends. Watch for additional posts here when these fun collections are available for purchase.
Second, we have not found any quick fixes to the issues with logging into the solving/fave applet. This seems to be due to updated browser security checks when connecting to external sites. The fix likely requires moving the applet and database to be hosted on our servers and we are working with the external developer to see if this is possible, or if we should find an alternative self-hosted tool.
Our most recent week of Cross the Streams puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.
We have a solving video for two of this past week’s puzzles. First is a solving video for my Cross the Streams (LITS):
We also have a video for the Saturday Cross the Streams (audiobook) from Grant Fikes:
This upcoming week will feature Cave puzzles including one variation.