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!

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!

Solving Tapa: (Elementary Beginnings)

These are some good ways in starting Tapa puzzles.

CORNERS















EDGES















Other Solving Techniques

Puzzle No.340

Puzzle: Tapa
Author: Rohan Rao

PUZZLE NO.340: TAPA


SOLUTION:

Puzzle No.339

Puzzle: Tapa
Author: Rohan Rao

PUZZLE NO.339: TAPA


SOLUTION:

Puzzle No.338

Puzzle: Tapa
Author: Rohan Rao

PUZZLE NO.338: TAPA


SOLUTION:

Tapa Variations Contest 6

Tapa Variations Contest 6 was held on 19th-20th February, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Gulce Ozkutuk and Serkan Yurekli.

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

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 938 (60:38)
2. Philipp Weiß (Germany) - 938 (66:59)
3. Psyho (Poland) - 938 (72:44)
4. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 938 (72:46)
5. William Blatt (USA) - 917
6. Kota Morinishi (Japan) - 908
7. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 893
8. Tarotaro (Japan) - 893
9. Bram de Laat (Netherlands) - 872
10. Zoltan Horvath (Hungary) - 856

Best Indians

30. Rohan Rao - 499
51. Amit Sowani - 338
58. Rajesh Kumar - 308
66. Rakesh Rai - 278
96. Anurag Sahay - 161

Complete Results

I was hoping to improve on my TVC5 performance this time. I think I did fairly same as last time. I'm glad some of my ideas have been used as Tapa variants.
Tapa is getting better and better with every contest! Long live Tapa!

Tapa Variations Contest 5

The 2011 Tapa Variations Contest series has begun. This year Logic Masters India will be hosting the competitions. Tapa Variations Contest 5 was held on 5th-6th February, 2011.
The author of the puzzles are Gulce Ozkutuk and Serkan Yurekli.

View Championship Page

Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet
Password is 2010MasTeRofTAPANikola

Results

1. Thomas Snyder (USA) - 841 (49:01)
2. Andrey Bogdanov (Russia) - 841 (71:27)
3. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 841 (72:32)
4. Philipp Weiß (Germany) - 812
5. Psyho (Poland) - 777
6. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 756
7. Michael Ley (Germany) - 741
8. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 691
9. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 689
10. Steven Barge (UK) - 657

Best Indians

28. Rohan Rao - 435
42. Rakesh Rai - 332
62. Anurag Sahay - 242
75. Harmeet Singh - 181
103. Prasanna Seshadri - 61

Complete Results

Beautiful set of puzzles. I wasn't comfortable with Tapa Chess before the test, but I managed to solve it without much trouble. I made some silly error in Tapa Filler. I happily left Math Tapa till the end, one of my least favourite variations. Word Tapa was amazing. It took me a while to figure out the actual usage of the rules, but after that, they solved very nicely. Tapa Rotator was very simple and so was Tapa with Borders. I have never solved Double Tapa in my life (not even the example in the IB) and I surprised myself to the core by solving the Double Tapa puzzle. It was beautiful! And it felt beautiful! Tapa Connection was solvable with a little guesswork, and I just couldn't get through Tapa Possible. Maybe I missed something.
Overall, a superb Tapa variations set and a great start to this year's contests. Looking forward to some more exciting and fun-filled Tapa puzzles in the next few weeks :-)

Tapa Variations Contest 6 will be held on 19th-20th February, 2011.

Tapa Variations Contest 4

The 3rd Tapa Variations Contest was held on 6th March, 2010 from 15:30 - 16:45 GMT (21:00 - 22:15 IST).

Download Instruction Booklet

Download Puzzle Booklet

Results

1. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 1055.8

2. Andrey Bogdanov (Russia) - 1012.8

3. Przemyslaw Debiak (Poland) - 998.8

4. Saikachi Takeya (Japan) - 970.6

5. Jan Mrozowski (Poland) - 912.1

6. Yuka Sugimura (Japan) - 897.1

7. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 895.8

8. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 870.6

9. Shinichi Aoki (Japan) - 857.8

10. Takuya Sugimoto (Japan) - 800

Indian participants

33. Rohan Rao (India) - 392

37. Amit Sowani (India) - 342

41. Rakesh Rai (India) - 320.1

Complete Results

There were totally 48 participants.

Congrats to everyone!

Tapa Variations Contest 3

The 3rd Tapa Variations Contest was held on 27th February, 2010 from 15:30 - 16:45 GMT (21:00 - 22:15 IST).

Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet

Results

1. Philipp Weiß (Germany) - 962.2
2. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 807

3. Mehmet Murat Sevim (Turkey) - 766

4. Sebastian Matschke (Germany) - 710.4

5. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 696.5

6. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 683.7

7. Andrey Bogdanov (Russia) - 682

8. Przemyslaw Debiak (Poland) - 670

9. Takuya Sugimoto (Japan) - 605

10. Taro Arimatsu (Japan) - 591.4

Indian participants

20. Amit Sowani (India) - 402.2

32. Rohan Rao (India) - 258

39. Rajesh Kumar (India) - 142.4

45. Rakesh Rai (India) - 59

Complete Results

There were totally 46 participants.

Congrats to everyone!

Tapa Variations Contest 2

The 2nd Tapa Variations Contest was held on 13th February, 2010 from 14:30 - 15:45 GMT (20:00 - 21:15 IST).

Download Instruction Booklet

Download Puzzle Booklet

Results

1. Ulrich Voigt (Germany) - 714

2. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 712.6

3. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 709.8

4. Sebastian Matschke (Germany) - 593

5. Philipp Weiß (Germany) - 585

6. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 570.8

7.Tomasz Stanczak (Poland) - 431.2
8. Takeshi Kawasaki (Japan) - 428
9. Przemyslaw Debiak (Poland) - 415
10. Yuka Sugimura (Japan) - 411

Indian participants

13. Rohan Rao (India) - 381
36. Rajesh Kumar (India) - 140.8

Complete Results

There were totally 43 participants.
Congrats to everyone!

Tapa Variations Contest 1

The 1st Tapa Variations Contest was held on 6th February, 2010 from 15:30 - 16:45 GMT (21:00 - 22:15 IST).

Download Instruction Booklet
Download Puzzle Booklet

Results

1. Florian Kirch (Germany) - 710
2. Sebastian Matschke (Germany) - 671.6
3. Nikola Zivanovic (Serbia) - 655
4. Philipp Weiß (Germany) - 590
5. Przemyslaw Debiak (Poland) - 577
6. Jana Tylova (Czech Republic) - 540
7. Hideaki Jo (Japan) - 538
8. Andrey Bogdanov (Russia) - 522
9. Lukasz Bozykowski (Poland) - 507
10. Ruben Gafencu (Romania) - 504

Indian participants

14. Rohan Rao (India) - 302
28. Rajesh Kumar (India) - 168
29. Rakesh Rai (India) - 158

Complete Results

There were totally 51 participants.
Congrats to everyone!

Rules of 'Tapa'

Paint some squares black to create a wall. Number(s) in a square indicate the length of black cell blocks on its neighbouring cells. If there is more than one number in a square, there must be at least one white square between the black cell blocks. Painted cells cannot form a 2x2 square or larger. There are no wall segments on cells containing numbers.

EXAMPLE:

UNIQUE SOLUTION: