Thursday, July 25, 2013

Puzzle No 84 (Masyu)

Well i felt i should get back to classic types for few days now.

Rules :-
Draw a single closed loop using horizontal and vertical segments. It does not cross or overlap itself, and it may not visit all cells.The loop makes 90o turn at every cell with a black circle, but does not make a turn immediately before or after. The loop goes straight at every cell with a white circle, but makes a 90o turn immediately before or after or both.

Difficulty :- Hard

Puzzle:- 

Unique Solution:- Click here (It's a sincere request only check after you have solved or else you might not be able to enjoy it :) )

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Experience of Indian Puzzle Championship 2013

Firstly Recap about the competition :

About IPC 2013

The Indian Puzzle Championship 2013 will be held online on 7th July, 2013. Participation is free of cost and everyone is invited to participate in the event irrespective of age. There are no prerequisites/requirements for participation.
Top 4 competitors will represent India at the World Puzzle Championship 2013 which will be held in China in October, 2013.

Indian Puzzle Championship - 2013

Dates : 7th July 

Details : http://logicmastersindia.com/2013/IPC/ 

INSTRUCTION BOOKLET : CLICK HERE ( Puzzle Types )
POINTS ALLOCATED TO PUZZLES : CLICK HERE
CHAMPIONSHIP PAGE : CLICK HERE
DISCUSSION THREAD  : CLICK HERE
PRACTICE PUZZLES AND TIPS : CLICK HERE
COMPETITION PUZZLE BOOKLET : CLICK HERE
PASSWORD : - bN2TyC7Eeq
RESULTS
The Indian Puzzle Championship 2013 has a new winner, Prasanna Seshadri, with an impressive total of 977.5 points. This gave Prasanna a 250 point lead over second placed Amit Sowani who secured 720 points. Rajesh Kumar, the veteran solver, returned to the team after a one year absence with an impressive 610. Rohan Rao, the three-year champion, gave a lackluster performance by his high standards, but did enough to be the 4th entrant into Team India with 584 points. 
Unfortunately again i missed it by one position. The selection was of top 4 and i came 5th for 2nd consecutive time.
Top 5:
  1. Prasanna Seshadri (976 points)
  2. Amit Sowani (720 points)
  3. Rajesh Kumar (610 points)
  4. Rohan Rao (584 points)
  5. Swaroop Guggilam (534 points)
Complete Results : Click here
My Experience :
Thanks to all authors for such wonderful puzzles, they were really more tricky rather than hard. 

It took me two days to consume my result. But anyways i was happy thinking there would be some year made for me :). Well regarding puzzle types, 

A1 - I felt this was good for beginners. Except that odd man out created confusion to some of them.

A2- Slitherlink was fine with logic that we either need to eliminate options or solve and match it. But for sudoku i thought borders of regions must have been present because its just mechanical to redraw       it on each grid and nothing logical think about it. Though few of them can imagine the border and           eliminate the options. So at the same time giving borders would reduce mechanical work and if             required points could have been reduced and allotted to some other type.

B1, B2 - They were little tricky and easy but for beginners seeing the huge size grids must have surely   created problem. 

C1, C2 - i personally don't like battleships. c1 was nice and c2 i haven't solved yet.
D1 and D2 - Both star battles were nice and i guess practice puzzles had similar types so most of           people must have attempted this.
E1 Sudoku - i felt it was little difficult for beginners to attempt with fewer clues.

E2 Skyscraper Sudoku - The size was smaller one which made it easy to solve, but at the same time     worth 30 points.

F1 and F2 - Black White Loop and Black White Grey Loop were one of my favorite, so i solved it first and quickly to boost my confidence.

G1 and G2 - I felt it could have been little easier one. As we already had G2 to think of. But i skipped G types during test and was later regretting why i didn't attempted 

H1, H2 - I am good at searching but did a error while solving which costed me to loose points :(.

I1, I2 - It was strange i was not able to solve regular Tapa but solved the Variant easily.

J1, J2 - They were really awesome to solve and quite a new type to me but interesting.

K1, K2 - They were really my favorites. But was not able to solve during tests. They were real real         tricky in terms of logic.

L1, L2 - I was stuck in Snake Eggs, later realized i unnecessarily wasted some time there.

M1 - Well i want highlight upon this one. I was surprised looking at this kind of Slitherlink. I feel the lines could have been much darker. It was so light in my print outs that once used eraser the lines get erased and then i had to take print outs again and again. So if those lines would have been darker then it would have been helpful. But it was tricky and good one to solve.

M2 - It was real worth for its points in terms of quality and difficulty.

My favourites were - crosslink, BWG loop, tapa difference. Kakuro + pento kakuro were also awesome (solved it later

Overall i really enjoyed the puzzles and quality were good. I felt it could have been balanced such that more easy puzzles and few with much difficulty so that for beginner it could have been more enjoyable and also for top solvers to compete in their zone.

VOTE OF THANKS

At the end i would appreciate all the authors , test solvers and LMI for organizing it so efficiently. I also congratulate to all the winners and hope they would perform best at World Puzzle Championship and improve ranking of India from last time. I also thank to all other participants for giving their best and hope they will keep participating in future.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Non Puzzle Post

Well Indian Puzzle Championship 2013 is over. I will tell my experience soon. But quickly i again missed this year to make up in top 4. I came 5th in India. This is 3rd consecutive time i am missing it :(. But moving forward, may be some year is there for me in future. :)

Coming competitions are :
1) Times Sudoku Championship (TSC)

2) Indian Sudoku Championship (ISC)
It will be hosted by LOGIC MASTERS INDIA. It will be held online on 10th August,2013. The winner of this will be declared official Indian Sudoku Champion 2013. 

Do not confuse this with Times Sudoku Championship. The top 4 of Times Sudoku Championship will represent India at World Sudoku Championship to be held in China in October,2013 and the funds will be sponsored by Times.
Whereas the top 4 of Indian Sudoku Championship can also opt for representing India at World Sudoku Championship, in an individual capacity (Self Sponsored), unless they merge with winners of TSC. :)

Keep visiting for further updates. :)

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

PRACTICE PUZZLES, SOLVING TIPS AND LINKS FOR IPC 2013

Update2: Fixed the typo in Pentomino Kakuro. New PDF uploaded. No other change.

Update1: There is an erratum published on the IPC site that says the 2×2 restriction applies to Happy Dots too. Since the practice puzzle in the PDF still gives a nice practice for placing the dots and forming regions, and only uses 2×2 regions minimally, it stays the same in the PDF. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

Right, took a while, but we’re finally there. If you’re still not aware, the Indian Puzzle Championship will be held on 7th July. Here are our (me and Prasanna) best efforts, with the main goal being to try to help the newer participants.
This PDF features -
1. Practice puzzles for B1, B2, C, D, E2, F1, F2, G2, I1, I2, J1, J2, K1, K2, L1, L2, M2.
2. Beginner-level solving tips for all the puzzles in the set.
3. Solutions to all the puzzles in the set.
4.  Links to other practice material, pattern guids, and other technical tips.
Link to PDF - Practice