Sudokucup 6 (Part 1)

The sixth Sudokucup will be held in two parts. Part 1 was held on 23rd-24th July, 2011. Players can participate in any one or both the parts.
The author of the puzzles is Jan Novotny.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is UWA61GA!711EXK

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Classic Sudoku
2. Diagonal Sudoku
3. Irregular Sudoku
4. Extra Region Sudoku
5. Antiknight Sudoku
6. Sequences Sudoku
7. Kropki Sudoku
8. All Even All Odd Sudoku
9. Surprise Sudoku
10. Clock-Faces Sudoku
11. More-Less Sudoku
12. Arrow Sudoku
13. Little Killer Sudoku
14. Decimal Killer Sudoku

Results

1. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 300 (01:10)
2. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 300 (01:35)
3. Minfang Lin (China) - 300 (01:46)
4. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 300 (01:49)
5. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 300 (01:52)
5. Bastien Vial-Jaime (France) - 300 (01:52)
7. SJ Kwak (South Korea) - 300 (01:55)
8. Vincent Bertrand (Belgium) - 286
9. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic) - 274
10. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 273

Best Indians

14. Rohan Rao - 260
51. Rakesh Rai - 171
78. Prasanna Seshadri - 121
79. Akash Doulani - 121
80. Neeraj Mehrotra - 121

Complete Results

Logic Masters India - July 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the July Sudoku Test 'Fivefold'. It was held on 16th-17th July, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Serkan Yurekli.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is inthememoryofmyFather
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Classic Sudoku (Solving Techniques)
2. Extra Region Sudoku
3. Outside Sudoku
4. Pandigital Sudoku
5. Distance Sudoku
6. Quadruple Sudoku
7. Crossnumber Sudoku
8. Number 5 Still Alive Sudoku
9. Numeral Sudoku
10. Odd Sum Sudoku
11. Quad Max Sudoku
12. Group Sum Sudoku
13. Musketry Sudoku
14. Killer Sudoku (Solving Techniques)
15. Triangles Sudoku
16. Odd-Even-Big-Small Sudoku
17. Thermometer Sudoku
18. Just One Cell Sudoku
19. Double Diagonal Sudoku

Results

1. Rishi Puri (India) - 1061.8
2. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 1022.0
3. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 990.5
4. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 973.2
5. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 972.4
6. Seungjae Kwak (South Korea) - 851.7
7. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 787.5
8. Don3232 (Taiwan) - 772.5
9. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 762.3
10. Vincent Bertrand (Belgium) - 745.6

Best Indians

1. Rishi Puri - 1061.8
11. Rohan Rao - 741.6
46. Tejal Phatak - 442.2
72. Rakesh Rai - 380.0
77. Himanshu Mittal - 367.0

Before
These sudoku types have been taken from the last five World Sudoku Championships. The set features many of my favourite sudoku types and I would be disappointed if I do not perform well.
Good luck to all participants!

After
Beautiful test. I think every sudoku had its own charm in solving and thats the mark of a good author.
I personally liked Group Sum and Quadruple the best of the set. I'm sure now everyone considers Serkan as a great sudoku author as well!
How about a Serkan Screen Test next?

Logic Masters India - July 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the July Puzzle Test 'Nikoli Selection 2'.
The author of the puzzles is Tom Collyer.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet 1
Download Puzzle Booklet 2 (Marathon Puzzles)
Password is Fi3VenOcee
Forum

The list of puzzles that will appear in the test are:

1. Akari
2. Fillomino
3. Hashiwokakero
4. Heyawake
5. Hitori
6. Kakuro
7. LITS
8. Masyu
9. Numberlink
10. Nurikabe
11. Ripple Effect
12. Shikaku
13. Slitherlink
14. Sudoku
15. Suraromu
16. Yajilin

Results

1. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 492
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 431
3. Nagata Yuta (Japan) - 352
4. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 330
5. Tarotaro (Japan) - 320
6. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 315
7. Volxa (Japan) - 311
8. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 310
9. Psyho (Poland) - 310
10. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 298

Best Indians

43. Rohan Rao - 215
84. Amit Sowani - 150
94. Rajesh Kumar - 140
100. Swaroop Guggilam - 130
115. Harmeet Singh - 105

Complete Results
There were totally 168 participants.

Before
This is the second set of Nikoli Selection on LMI. Tom Collyer had authored Nikoli Selection 1 in October 2010.
You will find lots of practise puzzles on Tom Collyer's Blog 'Detuned Radio'

This test will be very similar to the previous one with the format and puzzles the same. Hopefully, it will be a better than last time :-)
Looking forward to this test and good luck to all participants!

After
Very nice set of puzzles! Enjoyed every one of them.
Slitherlink and Kakuro were well-constructed, I lost a little time in these two puzzles.
Hitori and Sudoku were easy.
Nurikabe is a puzzle that I struggle in very often, but this time, I got it fairly quick. I guess I'm making some progress.
Numberlink is always fun.
Suraromu! The exclamation says it all! This is my choice of the best puzzle of the set. Brilliantly thought and beautifully executed, perfect for a Suraromu puzzle. Being a little experienced, I quickly realised how the top-left corner would be with straight lines and the rest just followed.
This is the first time I solved a Yajilin puzzle in a contest!
Fillomino was tricky while Akari was simple.
Masyu was the puzzle that realised snatched my chances of finishing all the 16 main puzzles. I dont know how I went wrong, but I had to erase thrice.
Ripple Effect is very enjoyable to me, I like the concept a lot.
Hashi and Rectangles were both tricky, and had some nice solving steps.

I'll solve the marathon puzzles on another lazy Sunday evening.
Overall, a good contest, with some really good puzzles.

Congrats to Hideaki Jo, who finished all the 16 main puzzles and the 3 marathon puzzles! With WPC coming soon, players have already started to make a mark!

Solving Star Battle: (Solved Example 1)

Take a look at Puzzle No.189

Each region is represented by an alphabet for convenience. Refer to this while reading through.

Using Region E, R5C7 can be eliminated. Using region F, R6C5, R6C6 and R8C5 can be eliminated. Using region H, R7C2 and R6C3 can be eliminated.

Observe regions G,F and H. If R6C8 is a star, the both stars of region G will be in the 8th row, which results in stars in R7C1 and R7C3 for region H leading to a contradiction in Region F. Hence, R6C8 is NOT a star.

Now the puzzle becomes very easy. Using Region E, R4C7 can be eliminated. One out of R4C6 and R5C6 has to be a star and hence R4C5 and R5C5 is eliminated.

Using Region F, we get a star in R7C6. All adjacent cells is eliminated.

Using Column 7, we get stars in R1C7 and R3C7, followed by stars in R5C6 and R5C8. After eliminating the remaining cells of row 5, you should be able to finish the puzzle.

Other Solving Techniques