The 24 main puzzles for the Just One Cell Competition at SudokuCon that have been featured over the last two weeks are here:

Qualifier Test PDF

Qualifier Solutions PDF

After 36 minutes, there was one perfect finisher and several other high scores on that qualifier that moved onto the playoffs where two groups of four matched up to determine a final four and then just one winner. Starting tomorrow we will feature the semifinal puzzles, while today we have some extras kept as back-ups.

While our Just One Cell posts end on June 6th, we have some exciting things coming June 7th, so keep coming back to see what is next for the future of Sudoku on GMPuzzles.

Summary and Schedule:
Starting tomorrow, we are going to return to having daily posts here, focused on Sudoku. This will begin with content prepared for the first-ever SudokuCon in Boston and then expand out in other ways as we explore some different opportunities in this remarkable number placement genre.

Over three weeks we will have ~40 Just One Cell Sudoku puzzles prepared for a competition at SudokuCon that was organized by Clover and Thomas Snyder, with at least two “puzzles” a day:

• May 19-24: 12 classic sudoku JOC grids from the qualification test
• May 26-31: 12 variant sudoku JOC grids from the qualification test
• June 1-6: Playoff puzzles and other extra puzzles (classics and variant JOCs)

On May 25th, we’ll also have a link to a 2.5+ hour video on “How to Solve Sudoku Like a World Champion”. Here is a summary for this curious and entertaining talk:

• Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku, won three world sudoku championships (’07, ’08, ’11) in the early years of the Sudoku craze. In this video you’ll hear stories from many years of competing, including what different sudoku championships entail, how to identify your strengths and weaknesses in solving sudoku, and ultimately train to get faster at solving under pressure. From tales of catching a sudoku cheater to the origins of Snyder’s own solving notation, this talk will take you deep inside the world of speed-solving and how top competitors think.

After that, we have additional ideas to continue to showcase the best that Sudoku has to offer, including more than just puzzles. Sudoku will stay our focus for awhile here on the blog as we continue to work with our partners on other logic puzzles.

A message from Thomas (Dr. Sudoku):
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We hope you enjoyed the recent “preview week” of puzzles for Season 4 of Grandmaster Puzzles.

Click here for a PDF of all the preview week puzzles.
Click here for a PDF of all the solutions.

Starting tomorrow will be the first subscribers-only week of this season, featuring Star Battle puzzles and variations. The easier warm-up puzzles will still be here for everyone to see but the main blog puzzles and the interesting Sunday Specials will be for subscribers only. Overall there will be 12 weeks and about 100 subscriber only puzzles in Season 4. Subscriptions can be purchased in our e-store at this link.

We also have a special deal for people who purchase before the end of September: Get (a maximum of) $4 off any other book/subscription on the GMPuzzles store by adding that item to the same cart when you purchase Season 4. This is a great way to pick up another GMPuzzles book, or to catch up on prior subscriptions where you’ll be able to get access to all puzzles and blog posts right away.

We hope you enjoyed the recent “preview week” of puzzles for Season 3 of Grandmaster Puzzles.

Click here for a PDF of all the preview week puzzles.
Click here for a PDF of all the solutions.

Starting tomorrow will be the first subscribers-only week of this season, featuring Fillomino puzzles and variations. Overall there will be 12 weeks and greater than 150 puzzles in Season 3. Subscriptions can be purchased in our e-store at this link.

We also have a special deal for people who purchase before the end of June 15th: Get (a maximum of) $4 off any other book/subscription on the GMPuzzles store by adding that item to the same cart when you purchase Season 3. This is a great way to pick up another GMPuzzles book, or to catch up on prior subscriptions where you’ll be able to get access to all puzzles and blog posts right away.

We’re kicking off 2024 with the start of Season 2 of our subscription blog releases. This next week will be a free preview of what a subscription week is like. From Monday to Saturday there are 2 daily puzzles, starting with a warm-up puzzle on the easier end and then a regular puzzle (scaling difficulty through the week). We’ll also have something different for you each Sunday, either a larger or harder puzzle, experiments with new genres, and other things. All puzzles have digital solving options and PDF files, as well as solution animations to help you understand steps where you might get stuck.

The schedule for the free preview week is:
Monday: TomTom
Tuesday: LITS
Wednesday: Numberlink
Thursday: Star Battle (Hidden Double)
Friday: Consecutive Pairs Sudoku
Saturday: Araf
Sunday: Rossini Sudoku

Starting next Monday, we will have 12 more weeks of puzzles for our Season 2 subscribers, running from February through to the end of April. Subscriptions to Season 2 will be $12 (only $4 per month) for over 150 puzzles.

Also, Season 1 is still available for $10 for people who missed our first exciting season. New subscribers to Season 1 will immediately be able to get access to the 175+ puzzles, but without the same active discussion that happened when the puzzles first posted.

Our ninth Smashing the Sudoku video including Slitherlink and Deficit/Surplus Sudoku walkthroughs and an update on the Ten-Year Anniversary Contest is now posted:

This coming week will be the last in our look back series on our first 60+1 puzzles and we will then share more details on what is coming up in 2023 for GMPuzzles.

Our eighth Smashing the Sudoku video for “Fleet Week” is now live:

We have two more weeks in this look back series and then we will be putting our attention to a new subscription model for daily puzzles starting in April. While we have a long-term goal of having a full digital platform to deliver puzzles, we will get started by using Discord to support a Penpa + PDF delivery of two puzzles per day. Discord should also allow for a more dynamic conversation ability between our constructors and our audience while we gather feedback on features for the future.

Look to this Sunday update space for more details on our Discord invites and on how to get an early subscription before our April launch.

Our latest “Smashing the Sudoku” video covering the hard Nurikabe and Tight Fit puzzles from last week is now online.

After some extreme weather that caused power outages and then some other challenges, we’re back on track to get through our January tasks including announcing the Best of 2022 puzzles and releasing some bonus Microsoft Puzzle Hunt content. Keep a watch here for those updates and also for the start of discussing our 2023+ plans for the site in the coming weeks.

Our latest book, Loop Variety Collection 2, is now posted in our e-store.

We’re also putting the finishing touches on Grandmaster Puzzles Quarterly Volume 6 now, and our most recent week on puzzles taken from the styles in that GPQ6 book is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The puzzle solution videos are on the posts and linked below.

We’re done with posting puzzles for this year, and will be sharing some updates about what is to come in 2023 soon.

Our most recent week Loop Variety puzzle week is collected together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. Our new book Loop Variety Collection 2, with more Geradeweg, Mukkonn Enn, Yajilin (Regional), Equality, and Line of Sight puzzles, will be released in the few days at our e-store. Until then, you can find the first volume which has more Country Road alongside other puzzles here.

The puzzle solution videos, including our first from a guest contributor Martin Ender for the Friday Country Road, are on the posts and linked below.

We will have a Sunday Stumper posting in five minutes. This coming week, our last of new puzzles for 2022, will feature puzzles (and variations) that will be part of the sixth volume of our Grandmaster Puzzle Quarterly series which will also be released this month.