This year, we started posting some extra difficult Sunday Stumpers, about once a month. These will be quite tough puzzles, but with a logical path to be found (and solution videos to help). This eighth Sunday Stumper is a Hungarian Tapa from puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

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PDF

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

Theme: Four Corners of Four

Author/Opus: This is the 52nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Variation of Tapa. Shade some empty cells black to create a single connected wall. Cells with numbers cannot be shaded, and the shaded cells cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid. Each row and column must contain eight shaded cells (four for the example). Place a number from 1 to 8 (1-4 for the example) into each shaded cell so that each number appears once in each row and column.

Numbers in a cell indicate the sums of the numbers 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 the black cell groups. Numbers on the shaded cells can repeat in a sum.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 35:00, Master = 1:05:00, Expert = 2:10:00

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: Parquet

Author/Opus: This is the 391st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, the grid is divided into regions by bold lines; exactly five cells must be shaded black in each region.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:45, Master = 11:15, Expert = 22:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: GMP! WOW WOW!

Author/Opus: This is the 212th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules, except that the digits have been encoded with a cipher into letters. Each letter represents a different positive integer, for the solver to determine.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:15, Expert = 6:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: Rising Up

Author/Opus: This is the 377th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, there may not be four consecutive black cells in any row or column.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:15, Master = 11:45, Expert = 23:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: Faraday Cage

Author/Opus: This is the 321st puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Additionally, shade two separate Tapa walls that do not overlap or cross each other. All digits in a clue cell refer to the shading of just one Tapa wall within the puzzle and provide no information on the shading of the other wall around that clue.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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.)

Author/Opus: This is the 193rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, similar to Nurikabe, each Tapa clue cell is part of an island of horizontally and vertically connected white cells and the area of the island must be one of the numbers in the clue (as an example, if a clue is 1 5, then the island containing that clue must be either 1 cell or 5 cells large). Islands are allowed to touch diagonally, and there may be islands without any number clues in the grid.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: Avoid the Edge

Author/Opus: This is the 339th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, an even number of cells must be shaded in each row and in each column.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 8:30, Expert = 17:00

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: TAPA

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Jonas Gleim.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, if two cells are separated by a thick border, this means that exactly one of those cells is shaded and the other is unshaded.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 3:15, Expert = 6:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: Prisoner

Author/Opus: This is the 285th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Additionally, shade two separate Tapa walls that do not overlap or cross each other. All digits in a clue cell refer to the shading of just one Tapa wall within the puzzle and provide no information on the shading of the other wall around that clue.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 11:45, Expert = 23:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.

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: The Silence of the Tapa

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor Freddie Hand.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, numbers outside the grid show the number of separate wall segments visible in that direction. A segment of length N in a given direction is taken as a building of height N. Buildings of height N block the view of all buildings behind them of equal or lesser height.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 10:30, Expert = 21:00

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. 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.