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: Antisymmetric Borders (for Veep)

Author/Opus: This is the 38th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, if two cells are separated by a thick border, this means that exactly one of those cells is shaded and the other is unshaded. (Cells missing a border that appear as larger shapes are entirely shaded or entirely unshaded. The count of shaded cells is always based on 1×1 squares, meaning if a “large” cell with missing borders occupies multiple 1×1 squares around a clue it would contribute 2 or more cells if shaded for that clue.)

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

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Tapa variations and this link for classic Tapa. 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 and in Tapa and Variations, both by Serkan Yürekli.

This is a puzzle-hunt style puzzle, prepared for an evening event at the World Puzzle Championship. There are no instructions; finding out what to do is part of the puzzle. Some UK cultural knowledge may be required.

NL Y CN N CT PDF

Author/Opus: This is the 289th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Answer String: Enter the final answer of the puzzle in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

Solution: PDF

This is a puzzle-hunt style puzzle, prepared for an evening event at the World Puzzle Championship. There are no instructions; finding out what to do is part of the puzzle. Some US cultural knowledge may be required.

Border Patrol PDF

Author/Opus: This is the 288th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Answer String: Enter the final answer of the puzzle, a single word, in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

Solution: PDF

PDF

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

Theme: Diagonals (Playoff puzzle for the 2017 Arlington Puzzle Festival)

Author/Opus: This is the 287th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

No answer string (just click “solve”).

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

Solution: PDF

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 classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Big X (Originally for the 2017 Arlington Puzzle Festival)

Author/Opus: This is the 286th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

No answer string (just click “solve”).

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 5:00, Expert = 10:00

Solution: PDF

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 classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: VA is for Sudoku Lovers (Originally for the 2017 Arlington Puzzle Festival)

Author/Opus: This is the 285th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

No answer string (just click “solve”).

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Solution: PDF

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 classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: 12th World Sudoku Championship (Originally for Diwali/WSC Sudoku Talk)

Author/Opus: This is the 283rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

No answer string (just click “solve”).

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 5:00, Expert = 10:00

Solution: PDF

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 classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a number entry mode.)

Theme: Eight 8s

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Shinichi Aoki.

Rules: Divide the grid along the boundary lines so that every cell belongs to a snake. A snake is a one-cell-wide path at least two cells long that does not touch itself, not even diagonally. Circled cells must be at one of the ends of a snake. A snake may contain one circled cell, two circled cells, or no circled cells at all. Numbered cells must be part of a snake with a length of exactly that number of cells. A snake may contain one number, multiple identical numbers, or no numbers at all. Two snakes of the same length cannot touch each other horizontally or vertically. Cells with an X cannot be an end of a snake.

Also see this example:

Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows/columns, enter the length of the snake it belongs to. Enter just the last digit for any two-digit number. This example has the key “33553,44664”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Bridge Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Yuki Kawabe.

Rules: Shade some cells to make sunglasses. The sunglasses consist of a bridge (a given line, in red) and two lenses made out of orthogonally connected black cells that are symmetric with respect to the perpendicular bisector of the bridge. Two lenses may not share an edge, but can intersect at a point. Cells with the bridges are not shaded, except at the bridge ends. The numbers on the right and bottom edges of the grid indicate the number of shaded lens cells in that row or column.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black lens 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 “22,121,12”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 3:45, Expert = 7:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other shading puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 247th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Same as LITS, except that each region must contain two shaded tetrominoes. These two tetrominoes within a region cannot touch each other, and can be the same or different shapes.

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

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 5:15, Expert = 10:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more variations of LITS and this link for classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.