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.