Search This Blog

Logic Masters India - March 2011 Sudoku Test

Logic Masters India announces the March Sudoku Test 'Spring'. It was held on 26th-27th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Sylvain Caudmont, Timothy Doyle, Geoffroy Hermelin, Laurent Pierre, Frederic Stalder and Bastien Vial-Jaime.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is Carla20Bley3
Forum

The list of sudokus that appeared in the test are:

1. Alpha-Frame Sudoku
2. Classic Sudoku (Solving Techniques)
3. Consecutive Sudoku
4. Greater Than Killer Sudoku
5. Sudoku-Kurve
6. Arrow Sudoku
7. Sundoku
8. Extra Region Sudoku
9. Jigsaw Wordoku
10. Mixed Sudoku
11. Killer 0-8 Sudoku
12. Double Sum Sudoku

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 954
2. Michael Ley (Germany) - 946
3. Jason Zuffranieri (USA) - 868
4. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 846
5. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) - 841
6. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 837
7. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 835
8. Jakub Hrazdira (Czech Republic) - 795
9. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 793
10. WaterlooMathie (Canada) - 776

Best Indians

12. Rohan Rao - 697
14. Rishi Puri - 675
18. Rakesh Rai - 575
35. Amit Sowani - 470
40. Ritesh Gupta - 440

Complete Results

Before
A very interesting set of sudokus. I liked Sundoku the best among the dozen and it will be interesting to see how it is put to good use, I'm sure the 'Francophone Authors' will live up to my expectations :-)

I've never performed well when the range of the points distribution is relatively large. Having 10 sudokus in the 0-100 point range and the other two in the 140-160 category is bound to trouble me. Some jinx I guess.

But, I'm looking forward to this test, especially since its a light weekend for me and I hope I can crack the dozen within 2hrs.

Good luck to all participants!


After
What a beautiful set of sudokus! The test was well-timed, but a little difficult for ameteur solvers. Also, no one was able to solve all sudokus correctly, which was surprised me.

Alpha Frame, Classic and Consecutive were nice and easy.
Greater than Killer was wonderfully constructed. I made a dangerous error early on while solving, 1>2>3... Was lucky to catch this goof within a minute.
Sudokukurve is one variant that I loathe. I solved it only because it was the end, and the only other variant remaining was the Killer in which I wasn't getting good progress.
Arrow and Sundoku were again nicely made, both solvable logically.
Extra Region was fantastic to solve. The use of the four-number groups (of the region and corresponding row/column) was all that was needed to crack this puzzle.
Jigsaw is again not one of favourites, especially when there are letters, but I managed to solve it without a scratch.
Mixed Sudoku was lovely. I rate it the best of this set. I just loved the way the solution went from bottom to top.
Killer 0-8 was the only puzzle I didn't solve. Didn't get any headway and it seems to be a tough one as mentioned by others in the forum.
Double Sum. This was a smile-maker and a heart-breaker. I started the test with this sudoku and solved it in about 15 minutes. I was glad with the speedy start only to be disappointed later by an error in the answer. Damn! I missed a chance to be 4th!

Overall, an amazing weekend for puzzles... great job by the authors and looking forward to the next set of sudokus as always!

Tapa Variations Contest 8

Tapa Variations Contest 8 was held on 19th-20th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Gulce Ozkutuk and Serkan Yurekli.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is MAK311andMAK362
Forum

Results

1. Zoltan Horvath (Hungary) - 811
2. Psyho (Poland) - 790
3. Tarotaro (Japan) - 787
4. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 762
5. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 722
6. Matej Uher (Slovakia) - 707
7. Bram de Laat (Netherlands) - 706
8. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 684
9. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 630
10. Michael Ley (Germany) - 613

Best Indians

39. Rohan Rao - 310
73. Rakesh Rai - 90
74. Anurag Sahay - 76
79. Tejal Phatak - 60

Complete Results

Season 2 of the Tapa Variations Contest is over. I was hoping for a top 20 overall finish, but I had a bad TVC8.
Congrats to Florian, Thomas and Psyho!

Logic Masters India - March 2011 Puzzle Test

Logic Masters India announces the March Puzzle Test 'Hybrids'. It was held on 12th-13th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Bram de Laat.

Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is P0rtm4nt34u
Forum

The list of puzzles that appeared in the test are:

1. Slitherlink
2. Seethrough
3. Worms
4. Jigsaw Sudoku
5. Skyscraper Sudoku
6. Outside Sudoku
7. Star Battle
8. Battleship
9. Myopia
10. Penta
11. Dice
12. ABC

Results

1. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 1265
2. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 1072
3. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 1058
4. Zoltan Horvath (Hungary) - 1046
5. Michael Ley (Germany) - 1030
6. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 1018
7. Stefan Gasper (Slovakia) - 879
8. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 855
9. Janka1 (Czech Republic) - 844
10. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 828

Best Indians

20. Rohan Rao - 644
46. Rakesh Rai - 463
59. Neeraj Mehrotra - 374
81. Tejal Phatak - 284
82. Harmeet Singh - 284

Complete Results

Beautiful puzzles! I thoroughly enjoyed the set. I spent a shameful amount of time on Star Battle, but overall, its been a better performance than my last few LMI tests.
Congrats to Hideaki Jo, for topping the test amidst the chaos in Japan. I wish you and the country well and hope to see Japan back to its best.

UKPA Sudoku Contest 2

The 2nd UKPA Sudoku Championship was held on 12th-13th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles is Rishi Puri.

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

Results

1. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 705
2. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 675
3. Branko Ceranic (Serbia) - 620
4. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 620
5. Tiit Vunk (Estonia) - 587
6. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 584
7. Chen Cen (China) - 530
8. Caudmont (France) - 505
9. Verydao (China) - 495
10. Fred Stalder (Switzerland) - 485

Best Indians

23. Neeraj Mehrotra - 365
30. Jaipal Reddy - 330

Complete Results

I missed this contest. I've got my university exams round the corner, so had a tight weekend.
Congrats to Nikola, Thomas and Branko!

Puzzle No.344

This Tapa puzzle is a good sample for using the uniqueness trick. It solves without assuming uniqueness too.

Puzzle: Tapa

PUZZLE NO.344: TAPA


SOLUTION:


Tapa Solving Techniques

Puzzle No.343

Here is a Tapa puzzle using only '2's. Tried symmetry, but failed again. This is easy, just for fun :-)

Puzzle: Tapa

PUZZLE NO.343: TAPA


SOLUTION:


Tapa Solving Techniques

Puzzle No.342

I was trying to create a perfectly symmetrical easy Tapa puzzle but didn't succeed. Anyway, this is the closest I got.

Puzzle: Tapa

Puzzle No.342: TAPA


SOLUTION:


Tapa Solving Techniques

Tapa Variations Contest 7

Tapa Variations Contest 7 was held on 5th-6th March, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Gulce Ozkutuk and Serkan Yurekli.

View Championship Page
Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is Lifeisshort
View Forum

Results

1. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 1069 (74:25)
2. Andrey Bogdanov (Russia) - 1069 (74:43)
3. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 1039 (76:50)
4. Palmer Mebane (USA) - 1035
5. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 1033
6. Psyho (Poland) - 998
7. Philipp Weiß (Germany) - 934
8. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 911
9. Michael Ley (Germany) - 887
10. Janka1 (Czech Republic) - 885

Best Indians

22. Rohan Rao - 627
49. Rakesh Rai - 336
57. Tejal Phatak - 280
59. Harmeet Singh - 277
89. Neeraj Surana - 90

Complete Results

This was the best set out of the three TVCs. I didnt know my own variant Progressive Tapa could be used so effectively :-)
Absolutely fantastic puzzles, and great fun solving them.
Congrats to Ulrich for pipping Andrey by 18 seconds. Congrats to both of them, and Florian for solving all puzzles.
With the tournament still wide open to decide the champion, its going to be an all-out battle for the crown at TVC8!