PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Parquet

Author/Opus: This is the 391st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, the grid is divided into regions by bold lines; exactly five cells must be shaded black in each region.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:45, Master = 11:15, Expert = 22:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

Our past variety week of Statue Park puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature Tapa puzzles, including a special Sunday Stumper in a week.

If you enjoyed this week of Sudoku puzzles, please check out the first books in our recently released Sudoku variation series: Masterpiece Sudoku Mix. The first two mixes feature Even/Odd Sudoku and Thermo-Sudoku, and are available for purchase now on our store. If you purchase both books, you’ll receive a 10% discount at checkout.

Our past variety week of Sudoku puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature Statue Park puzzles.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: 2×3×4

Author/Opus: This is the 390th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 13:30, Expert = 27:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

In case you missed it, please check out our new Sudoku variation series: Masterpiece Sudoku Mix. The first two mixes feature Even/Odd Sudoku and Thermo-Sudoku, and are available for purchase now on our store. If you purchase both books, you’ll receive a 10% discount at checkout.

Our past variety week of Castle Wall puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Castle Wall puzzles can be found in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles as well as the larger collection Castle Wall, both by Serkan Yürekli.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature Sudoku puzzles including four variations.

I was quite saddened to learn that Maki Kaji, founder of the puzzle company Nikoli, passed away last week from cancer. A lot of the news about the “Godfather of Sudoku” will focus on one puzzle, as Nikoli’s renaming of Number Place / Nanpure into “Sudoku” became the inspiration for the global craze. My own note of thanks and remembrance will be broader, about the many many different kinds of puzzles that came out of the community of Nikoli authors and publications that Maki helped to create, starting with the first Puzzle Communication Nikoli in the early 1980s.

I would not have gotten as passionate about logic puzzles if I hadn’t run into Nikoli’s hand-crafted puzzles in the mid 2000s. As I wrote to Maki Kaji back in 2011 about my history with Nikoli, after sharing dinner with him and other puzzle friends in San Francisco:
“I got a Nikoli Communication magazine, #112 I think, when I was at the World Puzzle Championship in 2005 in Eger, Hungary. This was my first international trip to solve puzzles, and my first experience seeing many foreign puzzle sources, but I knew very quickly that Nikoli was special.” I ordered hundreds of books and probably solved tens of thousands of Nikoli puzzles in the decade after first finding a Nikoli magazine. If I could have submitted puzzles to Nikoli, I would have. Nikoli’s set of publications and community building efforts, including a focus on simple, elegant, and visually interesting designs, continues to inspire us at GMPuzzles. We hope to someday influence the puzzle community as much as Maki Kaji did and his company still does.

Here is a Wordoku puzzle I wrote today to remember Maki Kaji:

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Rest in Peace, Maki Kaji (1951-2021)

Author/Opus: This is the 389th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Place a letter from A, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, or the symbol ? into each cell so that no character repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

Solution: PDF

In The Art of Sudoku by Thomas Snyder and The Art of Sudoku 2, GMPuzzles has featured masterful collections of classic sudoku and their variations.

We’re kicking off a new series Masterpiece Sudoku Mix where every few months we will release two new collections of ~25 sudoku in a given style. These puzzles will be masterpieces of visual and logical style, written by some of the best puzzle designers in the world. Our first two books feature Even/Odd Sudoku and Thermo-Sudoku, and are available for purchase now on our store. If you purchase both books, you’ll receive a 10% discount at checkout.

Our past variety week of Cipher puzzles is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

We’ll be back later today with a Sunday Stumper to close out the Cipher week. We’ll also be posting our next e-books, two Masterpiece Sudoku Mixes focused on Even/Odd Sudoku and Thermo-Sudoku, in the next day.

This next week will feature Castle Wall puzzles.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Poker Face

Author/Opus: This is the 75th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Standard Arrow Sudoku rules. Also, some of the digits in the circles are encrypted with letters. Each letter represents a different positive integer, for the solver to determine.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:00, Master = 17:30, Expert = 35:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for more Arrow Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Arrow Sudoku to get started on. More Arrow Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2 and Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 3.

Our past week of SUM-mer puzzles (Smashed Sums and Japanese Sums) is collected in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature a set of Cipher variations across six different styles.