A PDF of our most recent week of Tapa and Sudoku puzzles can be found here.
This upcoming week features puzzles from Grant Fikes.
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Tapa Loop by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
A PDF of our most recent Kakuro and Double Kakuro week of puzzles can be found here.
This upcoming week is a kind of Turkish Delight, with puzzles from Murat Can Tonta and Serkan Yürekli, specifically Tapa puzzles and Sudoku variants.
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Tapa (Even Rows & Columns) by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
A PDF of our most recent week of patron-requested puzzles can be found here.
This upcoming week features puzzles in the style of the fourth section of The Art of Puzzles 2, specifically Kakuro and Double Kakuro, which will be added to our e-store later this summer.
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Touchy Kakuro by Grant Fikes, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
This upcoming week features puzzles requested by our top patrons. This time there is a mini-theme, because of common requests, with three Tapa Variations amongst the puzzles.
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Pentominous by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Saturday puzzles. These same patrons recently received a giant Double Kakuro puzzle by Serkan Yürekli. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
The PDF of our recent Spiral Galaxies week can be found here.
I’ve been busy with a lot of things recently (house hunting, a larger role at Verily as I recently became the head of computational biology, getting back in “competition shape” for the upcoming World Puzzle Championship, finishing some new e-books for the site, training for a marathon for the first time in over a decade, …). What this means is that for the rest of the summer we’ll be going to a biweekly schedule with our free web content. Coming on the 17th will be our next “patrons week” with puzzles requested by our top patrons. And then on July 31st will come our next week highlighting a style from The Art of Puzzles 2. Thanks for your patience, and enjoy the great puzzles.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a shading mode.)
Theme: Happy Face
Author/Opus: This is the 280th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Spiral Galaxies rules.
[Copying the rules here as this is the first week: Divide the grid along the indicated lines into connected regions – “galaxies” – with rotational symmetry. Each cell must belong to one galaxy, and each galaxy must have exactly one circle at its center of rotational symmetry.]
Answer String: Enter the number of cells in each connected group (between bold lines) in the marked rows. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma. The example has the answer “2131,331”.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for classic Spiral Galaxies puzzles on this website and this link for variations on Spiral Galaxies puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Spiral Galaxies Puzzles to get started on. More Spiral Galaxies puzzles will soon be found in The Art of Puzzles 2.
A PDF of Jamie Hargrove’s Nurikabe + Yajisan Kazusan week can be found here.
This upcoming week features Spiral Galaxies and Double Spiral Galaxies, which should whet your appetite for the next The Art of Puzzles 2 section coming out in July.
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Spiral Galaxies by John Bulten, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Wednesday + Thursday puzzles. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
A PDF of the recent guest contributors’ week can be found here.
This upcoming week features puzzles from Jamie Hargrove, one of our super grandmaster patrons who has recently gotten into puzzle construction. The week is themed around two puzzle genres, Nurikabe and Yajisan Kazusan, and begins harder than usual.
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Yajisan Kazusan by Prasanna Seshadri, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Thursday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
With the US Puzzle Championship and other summertime activities coming up, our next week of puzzles will be in two weeks with another style from The Art of Puzzles 2 being debuted.
A PDF of the recent “unofficial” week of selected puzzles from Thomas Snyder from the Puzzle Grand Prix (+ one birthday surprise from Grant) can be found here.
This upcoming week features puzzles from six different guest contributors, including some classics and some new variations. The full schedule is:
Monday: Nurikabe by Izak Bulten
Tuesday: LOTS by Bryce Herdt
Wednesday: Araf by Joseph Howard
Thursday: Pentosnake by Nikolai Beluhov
Friday: Snake Pit X by Takeya Saikachi
Saturday: Yajilin by David Olmsted
Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Cave by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Thursday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)
Theme: Clue Symmetry & Logic (prepared for the 2017 Puzzle Grand Prix)
Author/Opus: This is the 279th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Cave rules.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the cave segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:00, Master = 18:00, Expert = 36:00 (*Estimates from competition scoring, not our usual process)
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other classic Caves. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cave Puzzles to get started on. More Cave puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles and in Roger Barkan’s Colossal Cave Collection.