All of Zoltán’s puzzles from last week can be found in this PDF.

This year we’ve gotten a lot of tremendous submissions from authors around the world. We wanted to feature this group of authors again with another “guest contributors” week. Puzzles will come from regular guests Murat Can Tonta, Tapio Saarinen, Hans van Stippent, and first-time contributors John Bulten, Ashish Kumar, and Wei-Hwa Huang.

The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a Nurikabe by Thomas Snyder.

All of Prasanna’s puzzles from last week can be found in this PDF.

This next week will continue with the competition theme with puzzles from Zoltán Horváth that appeared on the 2014 Hungarian Puzzle Championship. Zoltán is a great puzzle designer and we are glad to have the opportunity to share some of his unique challenges.

The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be an Even/Odd Sudoku by Thomas Snyder.

All puzzles from last week’s Pentomino set can be found in this PDF.

This next week will feature challenges from puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri, specifically a set of competition-level puzzles. Some are from recent national championships but many that are original to our site. As competition puzzles, they all sit around Wednesday-Thursday difficulty and contain some interesting but unusual logic in spots. The specific styles will be region division/shading puzzles: Tapa, Cave, and Kurotto. Enjoy!

The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a Tapa by Prasanna Seshadri.

PDF

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

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 199th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Place the twelve pentominoes into the grid, rotations and reflections allowed. Pentominoes cannot cover the numbered cells, and different pentomino shapes cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner. Numbered cells indicate how many of the surrounding cells (including diagonally adjacent cells) contain parts of the pentominoes.

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

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 6:45, Expert = 13:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other puzzles involving Pentominoes.

PDF

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 letter entry mode.)

Theme: Donut

Author/Opus: This is the 198th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Divide this grid into 12 different pentominoes without any overlapping cells. Pentominoes may be rotated or reflected. A cell with a letter in it must be part of the pentomino shape normally associated with that letter.

Answer String: Enter the letter associated with the pentomino occupying each cell in the marked rows from left to right, separating the groups with a comma. Use CAPITAL LETTERS!

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other puzzles involving Pentominoes.

All puzzles from last week’s variety mix can be found in this PDF.

We’ve had this next week of puzzles pent-up for awhile, but finally a week of Pentominoes puzzles is here. Authors include Thomas Snyder, Grant Fikes, Murat Can Tonta, and Tapio Saarinen. Enjoy!

The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a Fillomino by Grant Fikes.

(View image directly for larger form.)

PDF

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

Theme: Staircases

Author/Opus: This is the 197th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Three stars per row, column, and region.

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a star appears. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators. Enter both digits of any two-digit column number.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 10:15, Expert = 20:30

Solution: PDF

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

PDF

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

Theme: Diamond

Author/Opus: This is the 196th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Answer String: Enter the 4th row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th column from top to bottom.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:00, Master = 8:15, Expert = 16:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 195th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

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

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 3:45, Expert = 7:30

Solution: PDF

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

Last week’s collection of loop puzzles can be found in this PDF.

This next week is another variety week with these styles (highlight to view):

Monday: Yajilin by Grant Fikes
Tuesday: Cave by Grant Fikes
Wednesday: LITS by Thomas Snyder
Thursday: Skyscrapers by Grant Fikes
Friday: Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
Saturday: Star Battle by Thomas Snyder

The bonus puzzle for our high-level supporters will be a TomTom by Grant Fikes.