The second Number Placement playoff puzzle was a Cross Sums, for the Canadian puzzle invention by Jacob E. Funk that is now mostly known as Kakuro. Can you solve Serkan’s easy puzzle?

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

Author/Opus: This is the 414th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Kakuro rules.

Estimated Difficulty: 2 stars

Solution: PDF for all Number Placement playoff puzzles.

Note: Follow this link for classic Kakuro and this link for Kakuro variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kakuro to get started on. More Kakuro puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

The 30th World Puzzle Championship had five “mini-playoffs” to determine the top solvers in five different genres. The puzzles were designed to be on the easier side, able to be solved in marker on an easel, and sometimes themed with “trophy” shapes or important championship numbers like 30 and 23. Today we’ll be releasing the Number Placement puzzles starting with this TomTom puzzle by Thomas Snyder.

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

Author/Opus: This is the 458th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

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

Estimated Difficulty: 2-2.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all Number Placement playoff puzzles.

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 these books in our e-store.

The final puzzle for the World Sudoku Championship playoffs is a tricky classic Sudoku with a trophy theme by Thomas Snyder. It was designed to have a narrow solving path at the sticking point, although speed solvers might choose to “bifurcate” to go faster as happened in the competition.

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

Theme: Trophy

Author/Opus: This is the 457th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

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 Sudoku including variations can be found in these books in our e-store.

The eighth playoff puzzle for the World Sudoku Championship playoffs, reflecting the unusual grids of the “Grid-Breaking” round, is this Isodoku by Thomas Snyder.

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

Author/Opus: This is the 456th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Isodoku rules, using numbers 1-8.

Estimated Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

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

Our World Sudoku Championship playoffs puzzle series continues with this “16”-themed Outside Sudoku by Thomas Snyder.

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or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between Sudoku entry modes and a shading mode to mark off clues.)

Theme: 16th WSC

Author/Opus: This is the 455th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Outside Sudoku rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region. Some numbers are given outside the grid. These numbers must appear in the first three cells in the corresponding direction.

Estimated Difficulty: 2.5-3 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

Note: Follow this link for more Outside Sudoku puzzles. More Outside Sudoku puzzles can be found in Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 4.

The sixth puzzle for the World Sudoku Championship playoffs is another classic Sudoku with a diamond theme by Akash Doulani.

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

Theme: Diamond

Author/Opus: This is the 15th puzzle from guest contributor Akash Doulani.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

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 Sudoku including variations can be found in these books in our e-store.

The third World Sudoku Championship playoff puzzle was this Arrow Sudoku from Zoltán Horváth with a visual “podium” theme. All the playoff puzzles represented different themed sudoku rounds and this one represented arithmetic sudoku.

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

Theme: WSC Podium

Author/Opus: This is the 19th puzzle from guest contributor Zoltán Horváth.

Rules: Standard Arrow Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty: 2.5-3 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

Note: Follow this link for more Arrow Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Arrow Sudoku to get started on. More Arrow Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

The second World Sudoku Championship playoff puzzle was this fun Consecutive Pairs Sudoku by Ashish Kumar with two large boxes to work around.

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

Theme: Boxes

Author/Opus: This is the 116th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Standard Consecutive Pairs Sudoku rules. (If a gray circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must be consecutive. Note not all gray circles are given; adjacent cells without a circle may contain either consecutive numbers or nonconsecutive numbers.)

Estimated Difficulty: 2.5-3 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

Note: Follow this link for Consecutive Pairs Sudoku puzzles on this website. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Consecutive Pairs Sudoku to get started on. More Consecutive Pairs Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

This week we are sharing the 10 puzzles that decided the World Sudoku Championship this year. The first puzzle was a classic Sudoku with a ’23 theme and a split of even/odd digits.

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

Theme: ’23 (Even and Odd)

Author/Opus: This is the 453rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty: 2 stars

Solution: PDF for all playoff puzzles.

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 Sudoku including variations can be found in these books in our e-store.

Update: 2023/07/27 – We have opened up a few more of our subscription puzzles to give people a sense of what they may be missing if they aren’t a subscriber. This “warm-up” Thermo-Sudoku is a great example of some of the new easier puzzles that happen every day (alongside harder content) to get solvers back into our different genres; all warm-up puzzles are fair and interesting, even if on the easier side.

Mastering Thermo-Sudoku requires combining number placement thinking with greater than/less than thinking. How will you do on this puzzle from Serkan Yürekli that splits the numbers and the thermometers apart?

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

Theme: Half and Half

Author/Opus: This is the 393rd puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Thermo-Sudoku rules.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:20, Expert = 2:40

Solution: PDF and solving animation.

Note: Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Thermo-Sudoku to get started on. More Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.