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: Square Number

Author/Opus: This is the 497th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly one star. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on empty cells not used by the loop.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 7 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: Big and Small

Author/Opus: This is the 496th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Additionally, all possible white circles are given, meaning that no other cells in the loop can represent a “balanced” cell where a white circle could be placed.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:30, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 7 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: Antisymmetry

Author/Opus: This is the 514th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Also, all cells must be visited by the loop.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Week 7 Discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord.

(view directly for a larger image)

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: Diamonds

Author/Opus: This is the 237th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Also, number clues are not fully specified and must strictly follow the inequality values given.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 16:00, Expert = 32:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

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 371st puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Variation of Balance Loop rules. Each circle clue has either an incorrect color or an incorrect number. If the color is incorrect, the real clue should have the opposite color. If the number is incorrect, the real clue should have a number one more or one less than the given number.

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:45, Expert = 9:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

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: BALANCE

Author/Opus: This is the 22nd puzzle from guest contributor Bryce Herdt.

Rules: Variation of Balance Loop rules. (Draw a single, non-intersecting loop that passes through all circled cells. All white circles must have equal segment lengths on both sides of the circle before turning. All black circles must have unequal segment lengths on both sides of the circle before turning.)

Numbers, where given, indicate the length of only one of the two loop segments coming out from the circle. All other rules for the loop are the same as usual.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:50, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

Prasanna is celebrating two milestones this week and we will have two special large puzzles. The first one here recognizes Prasanna’s 200th submission on GMPuzzles, and combines three of the styles where Prasanna has written books for our e-store.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; while solution checking is not enabled, if you are comfortable with the different tool selection options you should be able to fully solve the puzzle in this mode too.)

Theme: Linking 200 cells

Author/Opus: This is the 200th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules:

Grids 1-2: Follow regular LITS rules. Between the two LITS grids, the corresponding white cells can never both be shaded, while the corresponding gray cells must be identical in the three 200-shaped regions.

Use the LITS solutions and your ingenuity to discover the needed constraints for Grids 3-4. For Grid 3, you will find that some gray circles must change color to white or black.

Grid 3: Follow regular Balance Loop rules. Additionally, the loop must cross itself if it passes through a gray circle. The loop must go straight throught the gray circle both times; in one direction the path behaves as if the circle is white with equal loop lengths, and in the other direction the path behaves as if the circle is black with unequal loop lengths. It is not required that the loop pass through all of the gray circles (but it must pass through all white and black circles). (See also the image below.)

Grid 4: Follow regular Yajilin rules.

When taken together, the grids yield a short final answer! Send this (less than five character) string to hiddencontest at gmpuzzles dot com by March 14th, 2021 to be eligible to win an e-book by Prasanna Seshadri. The contest is now closed and results summarized here.

Difficulty: 5 stars?

Solution: PDF

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode, shape (star) placing mode, and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Only 4 You

Author/Opus: This is the 317th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on empty cells not used by the loop.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 13:15, Expert = 26:30

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

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

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: Antisymmetry

Author/Opus: This is the 190th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Also, all cells must be visited by the loop.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 3:15, Expert = 6:30

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

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode, shape (star) placing mode, and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: White Hole

Author/Opus: This is the 306th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Balance Loop rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on empty cells not used by the loop.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 13:00, Master = 18:30, Expert = 37:00

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

Note: Follow this link for other Balance Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Balance Loop Puzzles to get started on. More Balance Loops can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and in Balance Loop by Prasanna Seshadri and Murat Can Tonta.