nr. 995 - WPC2012 Part 5 - Black and White, Paint-by-Frame

Here is one more practise puzzle from the WPC. It was one of the hardest puzzles for 20 points. So this was a useful practise puzzle. Moreover this genre deserved a 2nd practise puzzle, too. :-)

Indeed, the puzzle on the championship was large and hard. But I solved it. And I chose this genre in the playoff against Thomas. According to his report I had some luck, and I won that puzzle. So I like this genre :-)

Rules: Paint some cells black. Numbers on the outside indicate the amount of cells that are framed by the other colour in that row or column. Framed cells do not need to be consecutive.


(Example from Para's Puzzle Site, sorry for the different form.)

nr.996 - Domino Figure

Originally I created this puzzle for the Hungarian Puzzle Championship. But finally I didn't use it. I had no intention of making a hard puzzle which nobody would solve. So I added some basic steps during the creation. Now I changed a little this puzzle, I eliminated some clues and added some new. 

I don't think it is possible to solve without trial & error, but I used this tecnique two times during the testing and botf of them were pretty trivial. Nevertheless this is a hard puzzle, not for me who know really well this grid-form but for many puzzlers.  I think this, because one of the test solvers couldn't solve the original version.

Rules: The grid was built up of the given set of dominoes. Unfortunately the numbers have been erased. Numbers around the figure reveal what numbers are there on the domino halves in the given row or column. Find out the original arrangement.

nr. 997 - WPC2011 Part 13 - Innovative, Magic Snail

This round contained 13 puzzle genre, most of them were completely new, but not all.This one appeared before the WPC2009 on the Oguz Atay Puzzle Contest 2 and 8.

The first file contain 4 puzzles, and all of them has inside and outside clues. As I know Serkan he likes create elegant puzzles, so this was a bit unusual from me. There were 2 more puzzles the other round, but just the last one has no inside clues. Nevertheless I like this genre. So I wanted to create some puzzles, but I didn't want to make 2 same puzzles.

One of the puzzles was normal, just outside clues. But the other two were more innovative.

The first one have just inside clues, and 4 given number were enough. And there were no number in the alst one. However I marked some empty squares. 

Now I created a very similar puzzle to show those who can't see the WPC puzzles.

A third of the participants solved this puzzle on the WPC, and I hope they enjoyed it, and the new solvers will enjoy this puzzle, too :)

I added more clues than necessary, now the puzzle is solvable without any guess.

Rules: Fill the grid with digit from 1 to 4, so that each digit appears exactly once in every row, column and
every 3x3 spiral. Digits should be placed orderly in the spirals, from the entrance to the center. The numbers
outside the grid indicate the frist seen number from that direction.
Some numbers inside the grid or empty squares ("-") are given.

More puzzles from this genre:

OAPC8

Hungarian Logic Puzzles

nr. 998 - WPC2012 Part 11 - Something Newish - Neighbour cards

The Poker puzzle was very frequent in the Hungarian Logic magazine when I started to solve puzzles, I think this is the reason why I like card puzzles.

In the championship there were some card puzzles as there were some on the last Croatian championship, too. 8 years ago those were really nice puzzles. So I thought the Black Jack puzzle would be smooth and nice, unfortunately it wasn't, and it was too big for me to create a practise puzzle. But there were another new card puzzle in the 11th round. 

I have already created some card puzzles, so I had an Idea how I should start, but it was harder than I thought. So I was looking for a pack of cards. Fortunately every competitor, guest and organizer got one in the last year in Eger :)

Here is the puzzle. It is pretty hard, but I think the solving method is similar to the puzzles of the WPC.

Rules: Place 20 cards - T (10), J, Q, K, A in all four suits - in the grid using the information around the grid, which indicate which cards and suits must be neighbouring in the corresponding row/column. A pair of information about cards and suits given on the same side of a row/column doesn't necessarily indicate the same two cards in the grid.

pdf version with solution

nr. 999 - WPC2012 Part 3 - Twisted Puzzles, Discharched Magnets

I didn't solve puzzles for a while. I took part in some LMI monthly test in the last half years, and solved some puzzle picnic daily puzzles, but thats all. Therefore I thouht about to give up this year completely, and I just go to Croatia without any practice and I accept the 30 position.

But I undertook the puzzle coordinator post of Hungarian Puzzle/Sudoku Championship a month ago. And some days later the IB of WPC has been published. I thought these puzzles really suit me. So I started a trainning.The result is known. I finished on 6th position after the normal period. And with some luck on the 4th after the play off.

Unfortunately I haven't got much more time than in the last half year, but I love making and solving puzzles, so I will have time to write new posts. I have to rewrite the introducion, but not today. So there will be some changes on my blog. First of all, I will use serial numbers. But from 999 to 0. :-)

I will publish some of my practise puzzles. But the today puzzles has been ceated just yesterday. I think, everybody knows Thomas' blog: Art of Puzzles. I agree with him. Puzzlemaking is a form of art for me, as well. And I like pushing the envelope. This puzzle is an example of this. 

There were a magnets puzzles on the WPC in which some borders has been eliminated. Bram created a puzzle with a very big empty area. When I caught sight of that I knew I want to reach the border. I want to create a magnets without any given tile.

This puzzle is solvable without any guess, but you have to know the normal magnets puzzles very well. This puzzle isn't suitable for newspapers or competitions. But I think I can publish it here.

Using the unique solution trick is very useful in this puzzle, but I enjoyed much better the testing without that solving method.

Rules:

The grid is divided into 1x2 rectangles. (So every non-magnetic element has 1x2 size, as well.) Some of these rectangles contain magnets. Each magnet is made of a + and - pole. Equal poles can't touch eachother by a side. Digits on the outside indicate how many + and - symbols are located in that row or column. Additionally, part of the grid is left undivided. Figure out the correct layout for this area.

WPC Part3 - Cows, Clone battle

I created this puzzle for the last WPC. I saw this puzzle in MAYnipulation LMI monthly test for the first time. I loved the idea, so I decided to make a puzzle for the WPC. Finally, we had to selected between the better and better puzzles, so we eliminated this puzzle, because the disposable time is limited. :-)

I was wondering how I can create a bit special puzzle. This was my best idea :-)

Rules:

Place three stars in every row, column and outlined region. Cells with stars are allowed to touch. Grids have identical solutions.

pdf version

Results of WSC/WPC Play Off and Puzzles of 24HPC

Unfortunately I have nothing spare time nowadays. So I cannot provide new puzzles for a while.
This is an unexpected change in my life.

I assume not many people check the official site of WSC/WPC regularly.

Some new things are available.
The detailed result of Play Offs.

And all puzzles of the 24 hours championship. I recommend my two sudokus from the test.
The Jumping sudoku is a wild variation. It was clear that we wouldn't use it on the WSC. And I didn't want to use it on the WPC.
The other one is a Triangle Sums sudoku. This type played on the WSC, but that puzzle was easier than this one. Hence I put 3 numbers into the grid. But the puzzle has unique solution without those.

Have for for the puzzles!

http://www.wscwpc.ini.hu/

WPC Part4 - Borderless, Japanese Islands

I'm sorry this late post, I hope I can write the next on Thursday, again.

The Borderless part was an idea of Pál Madarassy, and he created all puzzles of the round. I supported the idea, bacause we already had a round with Star Battle's varitions. And an other which contains just one puzzle type. The Borderless idea was something else. 

I solved exactly two Borderless puzzles earlier. These were the Borderless Tapa from TVC V. In this puzzles the clues were inside the grid, and the soze of hidden grid were given. I liked better this form, and I created some puzzles. However we both agreed that we didn't want to mix the 2 different stlye.

Eventually, Palmer Mebane won this round with 295 points from 430, which isn't so low. So we can be pleasent. But in my opinion, unfortunately too many solvers finished this round with 0 points.

Borderless Japanese Islands

Each given number is part of an island of that size. These islands aren't allowed to touch each other, not even diagonally.

However, you don't have to use the full grid. An 8x8 grid is hidden in the given 10x10 grid. Find the location of 8x8 grid, and solve the puzzle. The clues outside the grid will not be valid.

(The islands can touch the outside clues.)

WPC Part12 - Hungaricum, Dotted Snake

The Dotted Snake is a snake variation invented by me. I have already shown this type on the 14th WPC. I'm not sure, but I think I found out this genre in 2003. The last year was pretty succesful for this type.
Serkan Yürekli used this genre in two tests (Puzzle Jackpot, Snake variation contest).
We could see it in Vladimir Portugalov's Fortsmarts contest.
And in two sets on the 24 hours puzzle championship. Finally I created some puzzles for the WPC.

I love creating Dotted Snake without black squares. The numbers outside the grid provide informations just about the 3rd cells, so the 2/3 part of the snake can move freely, just the body of snake and the black squares fix them.

Rules:

There is a N units long snake hiding in the grid. The body of the snake cannot touch itself, not even diagonally. Every 3rd square (3, 6, 9 etc.) of the snake has a dot on it. Numbers outside the grid reveal how many dots of the snake are in the corresponding row or column. The head, middle and tail squares of the snake are given. The black squares are not part of the snake. 

ooooooo

Some puzzles from me

There were 9 puzzles in the WPC's Play off. None of them was Dotted Snake. However the Dotted Snake was the extra puzzle. That puzzle is here:

Results of Christmas Contest

I finished the checking of given solutions, so I can publish the results.

I got answers from 15 people, what is very good me, because I had to examine the answers manually :-)
10 of them solved all 8 puzzles (in ABC order):


Emma, Euklid, mucha, Nikola, Para, Puzzlemad, PuzzleScot, Sknight, wicktroll, yureklis

5 of them finished the competition with less than 8 puzzles, the number between the brackets show the number of puzzles :

andozso (7), Anti (7), Zorant (7), sf2l (6), debmohanty (4)

I'm really happy that there were some female competitor on the contest, and 3 player from Hungary.

Thank you to everybody for playing and for the useful comments.

Finally I would like to render thanks to Pál Madarassy, who checked these puzzles.

The puzzles still remain available.

WPC Part5 - Evergreens, Fences

First of all

Happy New Year!

I didn't created happy new year puzzles for this blog, but I published a 2012 Sudoku on my sudoku blog.
Happy New Year Sudoku

And now back to the puzzles.
As I have already written the Evergreens round contains well-known genres, but we puzzles are more or less special. Hence, this round provide me good topics for my blog. I will show many ideas of us.

Other thing is I can't write 30-40 posts about my puzzles, but this isn't necessary because I wasn't the only puzzlemaker on the WSC/WPC. So the puzzles will come from an other author on every 3rd week.

Fences

Draw a single continuous loop into the grid, travelling horizontally and vertically through some of the dots given. Numbers denote how many sides of the square containing the number are occupied by the loop.

Puzzle by Pál Madarassy

Actually this puzzle is a Maze, I created a smaller puzzle to show this. I transformed this puzzle a little, you can see the results on the right side.

ooooooo

The zeros means walls, and you have to find the unique loop in this maze puzzle.  The solution:

The WPC puzzle was a bit different, it contains two pieces 1 and a lot of 0s. Pál chose that version because it is more than a simple labyrinth, even so the Fences was (one of) the easiest puzzle in this round, 120 competitors solved it.

My thinking is really abstract hence I can imagine a 1-point loop. In this case this puzzle have many solutions, but the WPC puzzle is unique because of the given 1s. I think that puzzle was better choice.