Rules: Divide the grid into some regions formed of edge-adjacent squares. Each cell is part of one region, and each region should contain exactly two given numbers. Each region must have an area that is strictly between those numbers. (This means, for two number clues A and B with A < B, the area C fulfills A < C < B.)

Answer String: Enter the number of cells in each connected group (between bold lines) in the marked rows. For the example above, this is “34,121111,4111”.

(Brief) History of Araf: This style was first created in Japan and appeared on the 16th Japanese Puzzle Championship Semifinal in 2007. Its original name is 相ダ部屋 (aidaheya). Turkish puzzle designer Serkan Yürekli renamed it “Araf” meaning “Purgatory” in Turkish when he created some of these puzzles including for the 19th World Puzzle Championship in Poland.

History of this example: This Araf example was written by Serkan Yürekli.

Sources for Araf Puzzles: Follow this link for more Araf puzzles on this website. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Araf Puzzles to get started on. More Araf puzzles can be found in the ebook Araf by Serkan Yürekli.

Design rules for contributors: A Grandmaster Araf will have a unique solution that can be reached by logic alone. Generally, a Grandmaster Araf should have symmetry or a theme that is interesting enough to not require symmetry.