{"id":7827,"date":"2018-02-24T07:50:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T15:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?page_id=7827"},"modified":"2025-07-24T06:09:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:09:49","slug":"tapa-intro","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tapa-intro\/","title":{"rendered":"Intro to Tapa Puzzles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Grandmaster Puzzles, home to some of the best hand-crafted logic puzzles in the world. This page contains a collection of some of our favorite Tapa, a shading puzzle created by puzzlemaster Serkan Y\u00fcrekli, that is one of over thirty genres of puzzle regularly featured here at GMPuzzles.<\/p>\n<p>All of the content on this page is contained in this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/IntroToTapa.pdf\">PDF packet<\/a> which you can download to try out this puzzle style. The PDF contains 5 easy puzzles, 5 of our &#8220;Best Tapa&#8221; as voted on by our solvers at higher difficulties, and a few variations of Tapa. <\/p>\n<p>If you enjoy Tapa puzzles, even more Tapa puzzles can be found in <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/store\/the-art-of-puzzles\"><i>The Art of Puzzles<\/i><\/a> and in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/store\/classic-and-variations-series\"><i>Tapa and Variations<\/i><\/a>, all Tapa in these books by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Rules:<\/b> Blacken some cells to create a single connected wall called the \u201cTapa\u201d. Numbers in a cell indicate the length of consecutive shaded blocks in the neighboring cells. If there is more than one number in a cell, then there must be at least one white (unshaded) cell between the black cell groups. Cells with numbers must remain white. Also, the shaded cells cannot form a 2\u00d72 square anywhere in the grid.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaExPlusSoln.png\"><\/p>\n<p><b>Tips on how to solve:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>1. To get started on many Tapa puzzles, look for big clues without a lot of space. With five cells around it total, but one white cell needed to separate the shaded segments, the 22 on the left side is a good example.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx1.png\"><\/p>\n<p>2. 33 is another big clue to get familiar with. Consider the two circled cells above. Only one will be shaded, and then that group of three cells will be surrounded by empty cells. Shading the circle on the left border will strand the Tapa, so go with the other choice.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx2.png\"><\/p>\n<p>3. Did you notice the \u00d7\u2019s added around the 2 in the last image? Whenever you shade near a singleton clue, you may make other cells unreachable around it. With those cells marked, it is clear that the Tapa has to pass along the top of the 2 clue.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx3.png\"><\/p>\n<p>4. As you make progress, you\u2019ll find clues with only a few options left. Consider the 13 clue that touches the 2 clue. There are two ways this can be shaded now. Three cells are shared between these two choices, and they can all be marked for sure.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx4.png\"><\/p>\n<p>5. Also watch out for places where the Tapa can be stranded. Notice that the circled cell in the previous image is a \u201cchokepoint\u201d. If the Tapa does not go through this cell, it will never be connected. Harder puzzles will hide chokepoints in unexpected spots.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx5.png\"><\/p>\n<p>6. Towards the end of a puzzle, you&#8217;ll be able to identify a lot of cells that must be shaded to keep the whole Tapa connected.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx6.png\"><\/p>\n<p>7. The last rule to learn is that the Tapa never has a 2\u00d72 shaded area. When three cells out of four in a 2\u00d72 box are shaded, the last is white. For example, the lower-left corner is white because of this rule. There are many different ways this rule can come into play.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/TapaEx7.png\"><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Some Easy Tapa:<\/b><br \/>\nA Little of Everything by Thomas Snyder (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/dr-sudoku-prescribes-37-tapa\/\">originally posted on 02\/11\/13<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/blog\/GM-Tapa1-cmuE.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Thomas Snyder\"><\/p>\n<p>Six Empty Rows and Columns by Grant Fikes (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/tapa-grant-fikes-2\/\">originally posted on 08\/19\/14<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/140819-Tapa-EmptyRowsAndColumns.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Grant Fikes\"><\/p>\n<p>Columns by Prasanna Seshadri (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/tapa-prasanna-seshadri-5\/\">originally posted on 03\/16\/15<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/150316-Tapa-Columns.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Prasanna Seshadri\"><\/p>\n<p>Ones and Twos by Grant Fikes (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/tapa-grant-fikes\/\">originally posted on 02\/03\/14<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/140203-Tapa-OnesAndTwos.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Grant Fikes\"><\/p>\n<p>Threes by Palmer Mebane (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/melon-puzzle-25-tapa\/\">originally posted on 12\/16\/13<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/131216-Tapa-Threes.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Palmer Mebane\"><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p>Follow this link for more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/tapa-2+classic+mondaytuesday\/\">easy Tapa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Best Tapa:<\/b><br \/>\n4\u00d74 Clueless Square by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-puzzle-robot-9-tapa\/\">originally posted on 09\/05\/13<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/130905-Tapa-CluelessSquare.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli\"><\/p>\n<p>White Hole by John Bulten (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/tapa-john-bulten\/\">originally posted on 10\/08\/14<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/141008-Tapa-WhiteHole.png\" alt=\"Tapa by John Bulten\"><\/p>\n<p>Group Think by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-puzzle-robot-11-tapa\/\">originally posted on 09\/21\/13<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/130921-Tapa-Groups.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli\" width=500><\/p>\n<p>Four Squares by Murat Can Tonta (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/tapa-murat-can-tonta-3\/\">originally posted on 08\/17\/17<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/170817-Tapa-Squares.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Murat Can Tonta\" width=500><\/p>\n<p>Antisymmetry by Tapio Saarinen (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/tapa-tapio-saarinen\/\">originally posted on 02\/18\/15<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/150218-Tapa-12.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Tapio Saarinen\"><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p>Follow this link for all of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/tapa-2+classic\/\">classic Tapa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<p align=\"center\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Tapa Variations:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Question Marks by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/tapa-serkan-yurekli-2\/\">originally posted on 12\/12\/17<\/a>)<br \/>\nStandard Tapa rules; also each question mark represents a positive integer.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/171212-Tapa-QMarks.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli\" width=500><\/p>\n<p>Tapa (Hex) by Prasanna Seshadri (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/hex-tapa-prasanna-seshadri\/\">originally posted on 02\/03\/15<\/a>)<br \/>\nVariation of Tapa; instead of the normal 2\u00d72 rule, on this hex grid no three cells in the connected Tapa can share a common vertex. All other rules apply.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/150203-TapaHex-PS.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Prasanna Seshadri\"><\/p>\n<p>Tapa (Borders) by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/tapa-borders-serkan-yurekli-2\/\">originally posted on 03\/09\/17<\/a>)<br \/>\nStandard 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.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/170309-TapaBorders-Slants.png\" alt=\"Tapa (Borders) by Serkan Y\u00fcrekli\"><\/p>\n<p>Tapa (Unique Clues) by Tapio Saarinen (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/tapa-unique-clues-tapio-saarinen\/\">originally posted on 01\/16\/15<\/a>)<br \/>\nVariation of Tapa. All clues have been replaced by symbols, and each clue cell must be a unique value (e.g., 113 can appear at most once as a clue value). Each question mark stands for a nonzero number; each asterisk stands for a nonzero number of question marks.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles\/150116-UniqueCluesTapa.png\" alt=\"Tapa by Tapio Saarinen\"><\/p>\n<p>Follow this link for more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/tapa-2+variation-2\/\">Tapa Variations<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Grandmaster Puzzles, home to some of the best hand-crafted logic puzzles in the world. This page contains a collection of some of our favorite Tapa, a shading puzzle created by puzzlemaster Serkan Y\u00fcrekli, that is one of over thirty genres of puzzle regularly featured here at GMPuzzles. All of the content on this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7827","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Intro to Tapa Puzzles - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tapa-intro\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Intro to Tapa Puzzles - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Welcome to Grandmaster Puzzles, home to some of the best hand-crafted logic puzzles in the world. 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