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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.
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?
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.
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, including this pair of TomTom puzzles from Grant Fikes.
Grant Fikes has created this clever PairPair of TomTom puzzles, where this is the second part.
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.
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, including this pair of TomTom puzzles from Grant Fikes.
Grant Fikes has created this clever PairPair of TomTom puzzles, where this is the first part.
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.
Update: 2023/07/09 – This fun and interesting puzzle by Ashish Kumar was the favorite “warm-up” track puzzle in our first subscription week on the site and we’re releasing it for everyone to get a tease for the new subscriptions. We also put out a YouTube video focusing on the special puzzle style of Aqre originally designed by Eric Fox.
No, this is not secretly a Sudoku! But Ashish Kumar has somehow managed to make a mostly easy and fully logical Aqre puzzle with this impressive grid shape.
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: 3×3 Boxes
Author/Opus: This is the 104th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.
Rules: Standard Aqre rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one connected group. Regions with numbers must contain the indicated count of shaded cells, and it is allowed to shade over the numbered cells. There may not exist a run of four or more consecutive shaded or unshaded cells horizontally or vertically anywhere in the grid.
Difficulty: 1.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 0:50, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30
Note: Follow this link for more Aqre puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Aqre to get started on. More Aqre puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.
[This puzzle comes from the 2022 US Sudoku Grand Prix round. The majority of the sudoku variants had visual “eight” themes as well as interesting logical paths, and this Tight Fit Sudoku is no exception with one large “eight” given as well as a big eight pattern in the small digits.]
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between Sudoku = big digits and Number candidate = small entries in the corners of cells.)
Theme: Big Eight
Author/Opus: This is the 437th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Tight Fit Sudoku rules. Remember, the smaller number goes above the larger number in all slashed cells. The range of this puzzle is 1-9.
[This puzzle comes from the 2022 US Sudoku Grand Prix round. This puzzle continues the “eight” theming by combining a visual theme (two clear eights in the grid) with an unusual parity-based split of the digits that sets up different kinds of deductions to get odds on the right side of the grid and evens on the left side.]
[This puzzle comes from the 2022 US Sudoku Grand Prix round written entirely by me. This puzzle demonstrates another visual approach to an “eight” theme. While there are no 8s in the grid, all the givens appear in clear two by four block groups which is a pattern that sets up some nice if easy geometric deductions.]
[This puzzle comes from the 2022 Sudoku Grand Prix round written by me, which was the eighth round that ran in early August including 8/8. The round used a theme of “eight” across all the puzzles. This easy classic Sudoku has a strong visual theme with just three given digits, two eights in the corners and a big “eight” made out of other numbers only.]
