Our most recent week of Tapa puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts. We also have a solution video for this week for the Friday Tapa (Skyscrapers) puzzle.

From our video archive, we’re pulling out another shading puzzle variation, a Cross the Streams (LITS) puzzle by Bryce Herdt from 2017.

Later today we’ll post our Best of 2019 Shading puzzles. And this upcoming week we will feature Slitherlink and then the last Best of category with Loop/Path puzzles.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Prisoner

Author/Opus: This is the 285th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Additionally, shade two separate Tapa walls that do not overlap or cross each other. All digits in a clue cell refer to the shading of just one Tapa wall within the puzzle and provide no information on the shading of the other wall around that clue.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 11:45, Expert = 23:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: The Silence of the Tapa

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor Freddie Hand.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, numbers outside the grid show the number of separate wall segments visible in that direction. A segment of length N in a given direction is taken as a building of height N. Buildings of height N block the view of all buildings behind them of equal or lesser height.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 10:30, Expert = 21:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Illusion of Choice

Author/Opus: This is the 169th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, similar to Nurikabe, each clue cell is part of an island of horizontally and vertically connected white cells. Islands are allowed to touch diagonally. Islands may contain at most one clue cell, and the area of the island must be one of the numbers in the clue (as an example, if a clue is 15, then the island containing that clue must be either 1 cell or 5 cells large).

See also this example:

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Narrow Alleyways

Author/Opus: This is the 45th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 2:45, Expert = 5:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Doubles

Author/Opus: This is the 5th puzzle from guest contributor JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Single Four

Author/Opus: This is the 322nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:40, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.

Here are our best Number Placement puzzles of 2019, selected from the 35 web posts in this category based on your FAVE votes:

We had a “pair” of Kakuro puzzles that were both on the higher end of the list for 2019 (admittedly the “pair” was more of an editorial connection given similar grid shapes but different solving paths; both were great puzzles and posted on back-to-back days). The second of the pair was this Nonconsecutive Kakuro from Grant Fikes that was a Sunday bonus for our subscribers. (Note: we are beginning to organize all of our web bonus puzzles into a new book so that those who missed these puzzles from 2014-2019 can see what they missed.)

In terms of variety Number Placement styles, this Smashed Sums by Michael Tang with a Binary theme got top marks. It is a great example of our “Grandmaster Puzzles” style: a compelling visual theme that also leads to a satisfying logical solve.

We really enjoy TomTom puzzles and two TomToms from our contributing puzzlemasters stood out this year. Both highlighted reusing a small number of clue values to create an interesting solving path. Ashish Kumar brought us this “Three Thirty” TomTom where if you can solve the puzzle that fast you’d be breaking our grandmaster time.

Murat Can Tonta brought us this “Jackpot” TomTom with all sevens to sort out, and a lot of top votes to make it our second favorite in this category.

Overall, our best Number Placement puzzle of 2019 was this Kakuro also from Murat Can Tonta, with a similar pattern to the first puzzle on this list and a challenging but fun solving path.

All of these best Number Placement puzzles are collected in this PDF file.

Our most recent week of TomTom puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts. We also have two solution videos for this week for the Thursday and Saturday TomTom puzzles.

Later today we’ll also be sharing our Best of 2019 Number Placement puzzles.

Next week will feature one of our favorite shading genres, Tapa, as well as some variations. And alongside that week of puzzles we wanted to put the spotlight on a book we (silently) released a couple months ago while updating our e-store. Tapa and Variations 2 is the second Tapa book (and sixth overall book) in the Classic Puzzles and Variations series by Serkan Yürekli. It contains a total of 61 puzzles, 21 classic Tapa including one giant, and 40 variations split across 9 different genres.

Below is a sample Tapa from the book with a hidden logical theme, and we hope you check out the full collection.

PDF

Solution

PDF

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

Theme: Mirror Image

Author/Opus: This is the 7th puzzle from our guest contributor Freddie Hand.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-6.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:30, Master = 10:00, Expert = 20:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Follow this link for classic Tapa and this link for Tapa variations.

Note: Follow this link for classic TomTom and this link for TomTom variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest TomTom to get started on. More TomTom puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.