In the last week of 2016 we added two new titles to our e-book store.

Logic Puzzles 101, from Grant Fikes, contains 101 hand-crafted puzzles to teach the art of logic for Masyu, Slitherlink, Yajilin, Nurikabe, and Fillomino puzzles. While we won’t have any new puzzles on the site this week, you can explore this 5-puzzle teaser with the easiest puzzles from each section.

Snake & Variations from Serkan Yürekli continues the successful series of classic puzzles and variations that started with Tapa and Kakuro titles. If you haven’t gotten enough of snakes after our recent Snake Pit week, please explore this new title with dozens of interesting Snake puzzles.

See this PDF for the full week of Snake Pit puzzles from Carl Worth.

If you noticed anything unusual about the puzzles this week, it probably wasn’t an accident. Carl has hidden an additional puzzle within the six Snake Pits. Find and solve that puzzle to determine some counsel he’d like to share with you, perhaps something to use when approaching puzzles like these.

The final answer to the hidden puzzle consists of eight characters (specifically four CAPITAL letters followed by four numbers). Nothing outside of the six Snake Pits has any bearing on the hidden puzzle, including this text.

Quick note that we’re migrating our webpages to use https instead of http and cleaning up other minor things as we enter 2017. The only major issue we’ve identified in going to https is with the solving applet hosted by thegriddle (to clarify: the way you input solutions and add favorites) which will not load unless http connections are allowed. We expect a fix to this issue in 2017 so that all content can be loaded securely.

If you encounter other site issues over the next week, please comment here or send a private message so we can address them as quickly as possible.

Our most recent week of Patron-requested puzzles can be found in this PDF.

For our last week of 2016, we are adding Carl Worth to our roster of contributing puzzlemasters. Carl has made some great guest contributions over the last two years, including to The Art of Puzzles 2, and was an author on the 2016 US Puzzle Championship. It is our pleasure to bring you Carl’s debut week, a rather challenging week featuring a new variation that combines Fillomino and Snake puzzles. Will you be able to solve all the puzzles?

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Star Battle by Carl Worth, access to puzzle solutions, and a PDF walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

In the past week some of our patrons have also received the new e-books Logic Puzzles 101 by Grant Fikes, and Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli. We’ll be adding these books later this week so come back before the new year if you aren’t a grandmaster supporter but want to get these titles.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Nothing Special? (for TheSubro)

Author/Opus: This is the 261st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Connect each pair of identical numbers with a path passing through edge-adjacent cells. No cell may be used on more than one path.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal line segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Loop/Path puzzles.

The last week of WPC practice puzzles can be found in this PDF. If you haven’t checked out our recently expanded e-book store, now is a great time to do so.

The next week is another “Patrons week”, with puzzles requested by our top patrons.

Monday: Numberlink by Thomas Snyder
Tuesday: Yajisan Kazusan by Murat Can Tonta
Wednesday: Tapa (Borders) by Murat Can Tonta
Thursday: Crosslink by Serkan Yürekli
Friday: Kakuro (Irregular) by Grant Fikes
Saturday: Letter Pairs by Serkan Yürekli

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Cave by Prasanna Seshadri, access to puzzle solutions, and a PDF walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. Our top patrons recently received a Giant Variant Samurai Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

Special Note: For the last week of the year, we will be introducing a new contributing puzzlemaster. Who will it be?

We’re back with new puzzles after taking some time to expand our online e-book store which now has three full books and five puzzle packets. We’ll be adding two more titles in the next month.

The next week is made up of “WPC practice” problems Prasanna prepared prior to last month’s championship.

Monday: Nurikabe (Full)
Tuesday: Battleships (Myopia)
Wednesday: Kropki Loop
Thursday: Pentomino (2 in 1)
Friday: Skyscrapers (2 in 1)
Saturday: Fillomino (Kropki)

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Bosnian Snake (Full) by Prasanna Seshadri, 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.

We’ve recently completed an expansion of our eBook store, adding in several titles that up to now were only available to our Grandmaster-level supporters.

Joining our existing titles available in PDF form, The Art of Sudoku and The Art of Puzzles, are these fun collections:

Colossal Cave Collection by Roger Barkan – 100 hand-crafted Cave puzzles with hints to solve all of the puzzles.

Tapa and Variations by Serkan Yürekli – 65 puzzles includes 17 new classic Tapa (including 1 giant), 36 new puzzles spread across 9 variations, and 12 favorites from past puzzle competitions.

Kakuro and Variations by Serkan Yürekli – 77 puzzles includes 13 new classic Kakuro (including 1 giant), 56 new puzzles spread across 7 variations, and 8 favorites from past puzzle competitions.

LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri – 41 LITS puzzles including 2 giant puzzles. Also includes hints to help solve all the puzzles.

Fill o’ Fillomino by Grant Fikes – 40 Fillomino puzzles including 5 giant puzzles.

Tapa-Like Loop Collection by Prasanna Seshadri – 34 Tapa-Like Loop puzzles, including one giant puzzle.

We’ll be highlighting some of these titles more in the coming weeks, as well as releasing two more collections before the start of 2017.

Come back on 12/5 for our next week of web puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Two Gates (Originally for 2016 Arlington Puzzle Festival as playoff puzzle)

Author/Opus: This is the 260th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 9th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 4:15, Expert = 8:30

Solution: PDF

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Waves (Originally for 2016 Arlington Puzzle Festival)

Author/Opus: This is the 259th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

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.