(I still have a massive backlog of things to do since my move because I’m really dedicating most of my time and energy to my new position with Google Life Sciences. So for those looking for more site updates, you’ll still need to wait. For now I can finally write up a report on our Hidden Contest from late March.)

John Bulten’s debut week was quite ambitious and challenging even before considering the equally ambitious and challenging hidden contest that ran through the entire week. Every contributing grandmaster is given complete freedom to design a debut week of puzzles. Despite this freedom, a certain theme has come up each time. This inspired John’s hidden contest. Read on to see what was going on:
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Last week’s nonconsecutive puzzle collection is in this PDF.

Over the next two weeks we will be highlighting Prasanna Seshadri’s contributions to the Indian Puzzle Championship. The specific schedule is this:

Monday – Wednesday: Statue Park
Thursday – Saturday: Kakuro

PDF

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

Theme: Even/Odd Diagonals

Author/Opus: This is the 228th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Consecutive Sudoku rules. Since there are no bars in this grid, this should be considered a Nonconsecutive Sudoku.

Answer String: Enter the 5th row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 9th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 8:00, Expert = 16:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Consecutive Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Consecutive Sudoku to get started on.

Last week’s collection of challenging Sudoku from Prasanna Seshadri is in this PDF.

This next week is a themed set of “nonconsecutive” puzzles that will run on four consecutive days. The specific schedule is this:

Tuesday: Fillomino (non-consecutive) by Grant Fikes
Wednesday: Nanro (non-consecutive) by Grant Fikes
Thursday: Fillomino (non-consecutive) by Grant Fikes
Friday: Nonconsecutive Sudoku by Thomas Snyder

Last week’s collection of Golem Grads from Serkan Yürekli is in this PDF.

This next week is a sudoku set from Prasanna Seshadri. Prasanna has recently co-authored a Sudoku Mix book with Logic Masters India and has also been part of our contributions to “Will Shortz’s Sudoku” magazine. Sometimes the submissions are too hard for the magazine, but I hold onto these for the website. So over this week you’ll see some of Prasanna’s more challenging gems:

Tuesday: Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Thursday: Arrow Sudoku
Saturday: Thermo-Sudoku

Last week’s collection of Consecutive Pairs Sudoku from Tom Collyer is in this PDF.

Serkan Yürekli is providing the puzzles this week, specifically:

Three of his Golem Grad puzzles, a variation on Nurikabe. The puzzles are all roughly Wednesday difficulty.

Last week’s small collection of puzzles from John Bulten is in this PDF.

Tom Collyer provides the three puzzles this week, specifically:

Consecutive Pairs Sudoku puzzles, as also appeared on the recent UK Sudoku Grand Prix round.

Last week’s small collection of puzzles from Grant Fikes is here in this PDF.

John Bulten takes on the authorship role for the puzzles this week, including:

Tuesday: Masyu
Thursday: Nurikabe
Saturday: Star Battle

The last batch of puzzles is collected in this PDF.

For the next few weeks we’ll have small sets from some of our puzzle masters. Up first is a Grant Fikes week:

Tuesday: LITS
Thursday: Pentominous
Saturday: Cross the Streams

We’re going to try to slowly restart posting puzzles here. For awhile, this will mean 3 puzzles a week until other backlogged and delayed tasks are completed for the site including an expansion of our e-book store.

In addition to Serkan’s surprise posted this morning, you can expect to see these puzzles over the next two weeks:
6/30: Slitherlink by Grant Fikes
7/2: Skyscrapers by Prasanna Seshadri
7/4: Fillomino by Grant Fikes
7/7: Star Battle by Grant Fikes
7/9: Cave by John Bulten
7/11: Killer Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli