PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Minimalism

Author/Opus: This is the 19th puzzle from guest contributor Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Locate a snake (a 1 cell-wide path) in the grid whose head and tail are given. The snake can touch itself diagonally, but cannot touch itself orthogonally or revisit any square. Besides the snake, the remaining cells must form exactly nine white areas, one of each size from 1 to 9. Numbers in the grid must be part of white areas of the indicated size.
(Also see here: https://yureklis.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/snake-egg/)

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

Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 4:15, Expert = 8:30

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use Tab key to alternate between line drawing and shading)

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 60th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Variation of Nurikabe. Shade some empty cells black so that the grid is divided into white areas, each containing at most one number. A white area with a number must have the same area in cells as that number. White areas may only touch diagonally. All shaded cells must be connected with each other, but no 2×2 group of cells can be entirely shaded. Also, all shaded cells must be divisible into snakes with the heads and tails given in the grid. Snakes cannot cross each other.

Also, see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. This example has the key “7,32,31”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 10:00, Expert = 20:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other variations of Nurikabe and this link for more classic Nurikabe. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabes to get started on.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use Tab key to alternate between line drawing and shading)

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 59th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Variation of Nurikabe. Shade some empty cells black so that the grid is divided into white areas, each containing at most one number. A white area with a number must have the same area in cells as that number. White areas may only touch diagonally. All shaded cells must be connected with each other, but no 2×2 group of cells can be entirely shaded. Also, all shaded cells must be divisible into snakes with the heads and tails given in the grid. Snakes cannot cross each other.

Also, see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. This example has the key “7,32,31”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 4:45, Expert = 9:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other variations of Nurikabe and this link for more classic Nurikabe. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabes to get started on.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use Tab key to alternate between line drawing and shading)

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 58th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Variation of Nurikabe. Shade some empty cells black so that the grid is divided into white areas, each containing at most one number. A white area with a number must have the same area in cells as that number. White areas may only touch diagonally. All shaded cells must be connected with each other, but no 2×2 group of cells can be entirely shaded. Also, all shaded cells must be divisible into snakes with the heads and tails given in the grid. Snakes cannot cross each other.

Also, see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. This example has the key “7,32,31”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other variations of Nurikabe and this link for more classic Nurikabe. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabes to get started on.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Locate a snake of unknown length in the grid, whose head, tail, and exact center are given. The snake does not touch itself, even diagonally. Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of snake cells in that row/column.
See also this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the snake segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. This example has the key “211,31”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00

Solution: PDF

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Grid Symmetry and Logic (Originally on 2014 Hungarian Puzzle Championship)

Author/Opus: This is the 3rd puzzle from guest contributor Zoltán Horváth.

Rules: Locate a snake in the grid, whose head and tail are given. The snake does not touch itself, not even diagonally, and cannot use any black squares. Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of snake cells in that row/column. See also this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the snake segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. This example has the key “2,13”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Solution: PDF

(View image directly for larger form.)

(PNG with extra lines for solvers who want to flood-fill the path)

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

PDF

Theme: T

Rules: Find a path from one dot to the other by moving horizontally or vertically between adjacent squares. The path cannot touch itself, even diagonally. All highlighted regions must be used, and may be re-entered. If two or more highlighted regions have the same shape and orientation, then how the path passes through those shapes must be identical. Or see here.

Answer String: For each marked row, enter the size of each group of cells used by the path from left to right. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00

Solution: PDF

Editor’s Note: While our Sunday Surprises are meant to be unexpected, today’s surprise should be a double surprise for you. Besides the bonus puzzle, it is my great pleasure to announce that one of the world’s best puzzlemakers and the inventor of Tapa, Serkan Yürekli, is joining us as a regular contributor. (If you haven’t yet, you should check out his Tapa Variation Contests that are starting again this weekend and his Classic Tapa Contest that starts next week.)

I asked Serkan, for his debut week, to provide some of the puzzle styles I know him best for and I hope you will enjoy what is in store. Today brings a “The Persistence of Memory” puzzle that Serkan wrote with GMPuzzles in mind.

(View image directly for larger form.)

(PNG with extra lines for solvers who want to flood-fill the path)

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

PDF

Theme: GMPuzzles

Rules: Find a path from one dot to the other by moving horizontally or vertically between adjacent squares. The path cannot touch itself, even diagonally. All highlighted regions must be used, and may be re-entered. If two or more highlighted regions have the same shape and orientation, then how the path passes through those shapes must be identical. Or see here.

Answer String: For each marked row, enter the size of each group of cells used by the path from left to right. Separate each row with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 10:30, Expert = 21:00

Solution: PDF